Tall Ships…

As I was touring the USS Midway, I couldn’t help but notice that there were some tall ships not far from the Midway. Like 2 miles away, up the coast and docked along the San Diego harbor. I could see the sails hanging from the masts from the height I was at. I’d been checking things online for several days and somehow missed seeing anything about the tall ships. But this great view the upper decks of the Midway afforded, I decided that I’d make time for a tour of the Maritime Museum San Diego.

After I finished touring the Midway, picked up my car and drove the two miles north up to the Maritime Museum and grabbed one of their brochures, scoped out the parking situation, and made a plan to visit the next morning, planning on arriving early enough to score one of the dockside metered parking spaces. Also planned to park in a centrally located spot so I could periodically come and fill the meter without much hassle. The meters all take either coins or cards. Very handy. And the parking was within a few steps of the entrance to the museum and the museum itself is made up of several restored or reproduction ships from the 1500’s to the Viet Nam war. So you walk the docks as they say visiting one ship at a time.

After gathering some info, went home and rested. All that walking aboard the Midway can take it out of you. Got online and read what I could about the Maritime Museum venue. Their web site isn’t much of an inducement to go visit them though. But it is an adventure of touring ‘Sail to ship to sub’ as they put it. The Yelp reviews I read about it had more content about the museum then their own web site does…which seems to be focused on renting the museum sections out for parties and weddings.

The next morning when I left the county RV park, there were these horses. They came in while I wasn’t watching or I would have come visit them the afternoon previous. It rained a bit last night and the one on the left shrunk. This park has lots of activities for horse people and many horse trails to travel. Have several RV or tent rental spaces with these horse corrals. Kinda cool.

After about 20 freeway travel minutes later, had no trouble finding a parking space right in front of the museum. Then waited the 10 minutes or so until the museum opened. You can see 3 of the attractions in this picture that I’ll eventually tour. The sub, the Berkeley, and the 3 masted ship, the HMS Surprise, next to it. Cost was minimal. I don’t recall how much or where I paid, either inside the Berkeley, or at the kiosk in front of the next ship over. Maybe $8? Not much anyway. You get your hand stamped and that allows you on all water craft. I think the Star of India was an extra charge maybe? Or not. Can’t remember. You should go and let me know. Yeah. This beauty was/is right next to the paddle wheel I’m touring at the moment. I’ll get to that ship soon enough.Check out the cruise ship due south of us. It’s between the Maritime Museum and the USS Midway. I worried that there might be hundreds of tourists from that ship here at the museum but I arrived early enough to avoid most silly tourist. It did get a bit crowded after 11 AM though.

Though the pictures might make the weather look a bit dismal, it wasn’t that bad. No wind so the museum crews had unfurled the sails (or had left them that way overnight…I didn’t find out for sure). If the wind gets over 5-7 MPH they stow them, so I got lucky the winds were light. There isn’t much in the way of crowds today on a Thursday in April as kids are in school mostly.

The Star of India is a beauty and I’ll tour her 1st because shortly after buying my ticket, I saw a school bus arrive and disgorged many school kids. I wanted to beat them into the Star and they took so long to get organized, I was in and out before more than 10 of them made it inside the Star. The museum has two subs, this is the US sub. On the other side is the Russian sub that almost launched nuclear tipped torpedoes at US coastal towns during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Stuffed doggie or coyote.  And here’s a map of all the ships I’ll be visiting today.  I was on dock an took this shot of the Berkeley. HMS Surprise is just gorgeous. But after touring her, I’m glad I never had to serve on her.  Serving on the Star might have been a bit more fun. Both would have been tough duty though.

After wandering around the Star to get a feel for the ship, boarded her before all those school kids had a chance to get organized.

Just imagine being a paid passenger in rough seas hundreds of miles from shore and solid ground. Tossed by wind troubled seas, gazing into the far wall of clouds the ship is heading straight for. Not knowing if the solidity of the ship and the expertize of the crew and captain will get you to the other side. Being fully aware of the thousands of other 3 masted ships that never made it to port. Imagine that. Strolling the deck in fair weather would have been quite enjoyable.  Open now for us visitors, when at sea, this would have been covered by sea hatches. Your luggage would have come into the ship here as your cabin or berth would have likely been below decks. Up on the bow looking back towards the main deck. The powered capstan would have helped sailors do their jobs of reeling in the lines much easier…and quicker as you set sail. Here’s where cookie would prepare your meals.  Here’s one of the gear rooms. Note the racks (beds) for the engineering crewmen. This would be the below decks steerage and navigation area used only during really heavy seas or emergencies. The brass device holds the compass. The deck would have been filled with goods being shipped somewhere. Lashed down to prevent movement. There would have been 2 aisles to pass them going fore and aft. These are the ship models the volunteer modelers have been building for decades for us to enjoy for years to come. Paying passenger quarters. Now with many museum displays, but when this was a working ship, you’d have seen many bunk beds for gentlemen on this deck. There’s even a water closet for the passengers. It was just some privacy and a fancy bucket that needed to be dumped regularly.  Here’s some of the bunk beds the passengers used. The crews quarters weren’t this nice. Very cool. Check out what the tallest masts looked like near the end of the sailing era. How would you like to have to climb to the top of this one in pitching seas to lash a sail up? Here’s where the crew hung out…not much more than holes in the walls…literally.Stowage near the bow of the ship. Two decks down from the main deck. Clear back at the fantail (rear) of the ship. The really nice salons would be right above here. As would the captains cabin. Looking over at the HMS Surprise from the Star of India’s fantail. Where I’m at is probably an empty line locker or something. There’s seldom empty spaces on a ship so this area of the Star would have been filled back in the day. Go up a deck and enter the salon where the fancy people hung out. Captain, ship doctor, hifalutin’ passengers, etc.. Here’s where they took their meals. On cushioned seats no less.  One of the cabins. I believe this was the ship surgeon’s quarters.Some beautiful woodwork on this ship. Stern castle deck I believe. Or part of the poop deck. This part just screams ‘Victorian Era’ doesn’t it? Natural light into the salons during the day, glowing lights from the interior at night would have made this a favorite place to hang out for passengers. Which explains the molded seating. If weather was good, there would likely have been cushions here. Note the ships steering wheel in the background. Passengers quarters in the salon area. Not all that fancy, but better than down below deck. And that was the visit to the Star of India, a most interesting ship along the dock in San Diego at the Maritime Museum. Here at this floating museum there’s so many pictures to post and so many other ships to visit I’m going to split up the postings. So stay tuned in a couple days when we visit another old ship.

Thanks for reading!