An amazing ship model by artist Joe Frangiosa, Jr. One of many fantastic examples in an extensive, special exhibition at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
The Maritime Museum of San Diego currently has an exhibit that’s a lot of fun. It concerns collecting model ships and model ship building! Anyone interested in the hobby or nautical history in general should check it out!
I took a few photos to provide just a taste of what you’ll see. Bring your kids! They’ll love it!
Detailed model of a 74 gun two-decker British Ship of the Line, circa 1800. By artist Joe Frangiosa, Jr.Half a dozen ship models in different scales of the San Salvador, historic galleon of explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, who discovered San Diego Bay for Spain in 1542.Tiny models of classic cruise ships, including the famous Titanic.A Native American ancient ship model. This pecked stone boat effigy was found in 2012 on San Clemente Island. It’s at least 1000 years old.Just a few of the many ships in bottles on display now at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.Tiny model ships recreate the Battle of Trafalgar between the British Royal Navy and the Spanish fleet in 1805. Outnumbered, British Admiral Nelson sailed two columns directly into the opposing line of ships.The Cutter Bear, by famous ship modeler Dr. William Brown, a local artist. His amazing work appears in prestigious museums around the world, including Mystic Seaport and the Smithsonian Institution.A Model-Maker and His Art. The collected works of Dr. William Brown. Any serious model ship maker, collector or hobbyist must have this fine publication.
As a member of the Maritime Museum I recently received the latest publication of Mains’l Haul, titled A Model-Maker and His Art. It features the collected works of one of the world’s most famous model ship builders: Dr. William Brown. It’s really amazing! Any serious model ship hobbyist must have a copy of this fine publication in their library. The many photos are extremely detailed–much better than my few, which were taken in dim light through glass!
Hopefully you’ll soon be able to buy A Model-Maker and His Art online here. Or look for it at the museum’s gift shop!
Dr. William Brown produced models of ordinary working boats and ships, as well as historically important vessels. This is L.A. Fire Boat No. 2 which was launched in 1925.Close look at Orizaba, a merchant vessel instrumental in San Diego’s early history. Dr. William Brown has produced dozens of models specifically for the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of fun photos for you to share and enjoy!
This is the first weekend visitors to the Star of India can walk on the beautiful new poop deck!
We all are a part of history. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that.
The people at the Maritime Museum of San Diego are contributing to history by restoring the main deck of the world-famous Star of India. The poop deck is finished! Visitors can now enjoy the beautiful new wood deck and varnished helm and imagine putting to sea steering the romantic wheel. On a historic tall ship that is now 153 years old!
The beautiful new wood deck underfoot is meant to last another 50 or so years. The bench along the saloon’s skylight will be sanded and varnished next.The 1863 Star of India is a world treasure. Its amazing, varied history includes circumnavigating the globe 21 times. It’s the oldest active sailing ship in the world!A visitor rang the ship’s cheerful bell while his friends talked near the binnacle and helm.The helm’s new varnish is still drying! In my dreams I command this amazing tall ship while standing at the wheel!A super nice Maritime Museum docent showed me how the steering mechanism works. The two opposing screw-like worms were made with amazing precision over 150 years ago!The port side of the main deck has been caulked! Now just to sand and apply several layers of sealing protection.The people at the Maritime Museum of San Diego are working hard to keep an important part of world history alive.The finished main deck on the starboard side. Soon the entire ship’s deck will be shiny like new!Folks enjoy a sunny San Diego day on the newly restored poop deck of the historic tall ship Star of India.
…
This blog now features thousands of photos around San Diego! Are you curious? There’s lots of cool stuff to check out!
Here’s the Cool San Diego Sights main page, where you can read the most current blog posts. If you’re using a small mobile device, click those three parallel lines up at the top–that opens up my website’s sidebar, where you’ll see the most popular posts, a search box, and more!
To enjoy future posts, you can also “like” Cool San Diego Sights on Facebook or follow me on Twitter.
A broken chain at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
These photos taken at the Maritime Museum of San Diego tell a story. It’s that never-ending tale of human struggle against the elements.
Rope and chain. Ancient inventions.A tale of human struggle against the elements.Waiting for an outstretched hand, a critical moment.An anchor above calm water.Instruments of control in a stormy world. Rope, chain and anchor.Life clings to chains. Rust devours chains.A strained connection.Necessary chains. Rusty chains large and small.Human endeavor.Ropes cast aside, perhaps hurriedly.Ordered ropes, to harness gusts above.New strength.Bent steel, neat coils, in a tangle of untouchable dark shadows.Worm, Parcel and Serve! A never-ending story of human ambition, battling water, sun, salt and wind.Tarring at the museum.New bonds, prepared.A strange sculpture, or a potent symbol.A wrestle.
This is a story of struggle with many pages. The unconquerable antagonist in every chapter is Time.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Tall ship America, owned by Next Level Sailing, turns about in San Diego Bay as it comes in to dock at the Maritime Museum.
Earlier this month, on December 11, America came home to San Diego, after a long and very eventful journey representing The America’s Cup. Its epic America’s Cup Tour included many stops, from the Gulf of Mexico up the East Coast and then south again to the Caribbean. During the tour it hosted throngs of visitors and was welcomed by some of our nation’s finest yacht clubs.
But there was also one very dangerous adventure! In October the ship had to take shelter from Hurricane Matthew by heading up the St. Johns River in downtown Jacksonville, where it docked in a less windy spot behind the large Hyatt building. America survived with little damage!
The beautiful ship is a replica of the schooner America that beat 15 top British racing yachts in a 53 nautical mile regatta around the Isle of Wight in 1851. The Royal Yacht Squadron’s 100 Guinea Cup, won easily by the New York Yacht Club, became a challenge trophy known as the America’s Cup. Today it is the oldest international sporting trophy in existence. (San Diego’s own legendary yachtsman Dennis Conner won the America’s Cup four times.)
The replica America that makes San Diego its home is owned by Next Level Sailing, and it is glorious to behold when under sail. Now that the America’s Cup Tour is safely over, it is once again available for charters and whale watching adventures out on the blue Pacific.
This afternoon I happened to catch America out on San Diego Bay, heading in to the Maritime Museum, where it docks. I got a few photos before I hurried back home to take shelter from tonight’s storm! Not a hurricane, thank goodness!
America passes the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s Soviet Foxtrot B-39 submarine. It’s a cloudy New Year’s Eve afternoon, with a storm on the way.America carefully approaches the dock behind the steam ferry Berkeley.Time to tie her up to the dock.A member of America’s crew leaps through the air to secure the beautiful ship, a replica of the victorious racing schooner that ushered in the America’s Cup.Welcome home, America!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Tall ship Californian fires a cannon toward the Maritime Museum of San Diego during the 2016 Festival of Sail!
I took a fair number of photos at the 2016 Festival of Sail today. The celebration of tall ships, which takes place at the Maritime Museum of San Diego during Labor Day weekend, is just as wonderful as ever. I suppose I’m biased. I’ve always loved tales of the sea and stories of rugged souls who have embarked on journeys of discovery.
The Festival of Sail this year includes 19 ships. Many have arrived for this event from locations up and down the West Coast.
I blogged about the annual Festival of Sail the last couple of years, so this time I won’t provide heaps of information. Just a sense of what it’s like to wander among the beautiful and amazing ships, and to watch them out sailing on San Diego Bay. Remember–this awesome event continues through Labor Day!
The 2016 Festival of Sail includes dueling tall ships out on San Diego Bay. Here we see Californian and Bill of Rights maneuvering to fire some broadsides.Out on the Big Bay and along the Embarcadero, many beautiful sailing ships are part of this year’s annual Festival of Sail in San Diego.Mister Mac, that notorious pirate, has descended on San Diego with two rascally accomplices to wreak havoc.The tall ship Spirit of Dana Point is a replica of a 1770s privateer used during the American Revolution. It is based at the Ocean Institute up the coast in Dana Point, California.Figurehead of the Spirit of Dana Point is a Native American female.The graceful brigantines Exy Johnson and Irving Johnson have returned for this year’s Festival of Sail. They are based at the Los Angeles Maritime Institute.Volunteer crewmember aboard the Exy Johnson tells a visitor about the complex workings of an amazing tall ship with many sails.Visitors to the 2016 Festival of Sail in San Diego learned about maritime history and experienced a little of what life might have been like sailing across the broad ocean on a tall ship long ago.These Royal Marines belong to the HMS Surprise, docked just behind them. They’re enjoying a bit of grog. Don’t tell the captain!Visitor standing on the newly rebuilt poop deck of the Star of India rings the historic ship’s bell. The wheel has been removed for refurbishment. The nearby binnacle and wooden benches will also be made like new!The Tiama and Cloudia were docked side by side not far from the Maritime Museum of San Diego during the 2016 Festival of Sail.The Cloudia is an old wooden Norwegian top-sail ketch recently restored in San Diego. I believe it is available for local sailing trips.There is so much to look at and explore! What’s down below the deck?Docked behind the Maritime Museum’s steam ferry Berkeley, the galleon replica San Salvador made its public debut during the 2016 Festival of Sail.Visitors line up to have a chance to go aboard San Salvador for the very first time.Looking up at masts, a crow’s nest, and a flag of the Spanish Empire while waiting to board the San Salvador. This ship is an approximate replica of what Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed in when he discovered San Diego Bay in 1542.A park ranger from Cabrillo National Monument, across the bay on Point Loma, talks to visitors about the history of the actual San Salvador and the difficulties of sailing long ago.Once aboard the replica San Salvador, we were permitted to explore the main deck and enclosed areas at either end. It’s hard to believe, but during the journey of exploration in 1542, over 100 men occupied a similarly tiny deck!Ropes and a bombard tucked away inside the forward part of the galleon San Salvador.Exhibits on the San Salvador replica galleon include a crude narrow dining table and armor used by Spanish conquistadors.Out at the end of the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s dock, three cannons are prepared to be fired!Boom!Californian sails in toward its docking place near the San Salvador. More cannon battles out on San Diego Bay will take place all Labor Day weekend!
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
You can easily explore Cool San Diego Sights by using the search box on my blog’s sidebar. Or click a tag! There are thousands upon thousands of fun photos for you to enjoy!
ICSA Women’s Semifinals on San Diego Bay. Competing sailboats approach downtown’s Cruise Ship Terminal.
Check out these cool photos!
I was walking along the Embarcadero early this evening when I saw dozens of tiny sailboats out racing on silvery San Diego Bay. I noticed the sails featured the letters SDYC, which stands for San Diego Yacht Club.
When I got home, an internet search revealed that I had been observing the first day of ICSA Women’s Semifinals action. San Diego is the location of the 2016 College Sailing / Sperry Women’s Nationals. The 36 sailboats that I watched represent top universities from all around the United States, which are competing through Friday right here on our beautiful bay! Winner takes home the coveted Inter-Collegiate Sailing Association’s Gerald C. Miller Trophy!
Small sailboats float on rippled silver, beneath dramatic clouds.Shining sails dance in the wind, as paired sailors from 36 colleges around the country compete in the Women’s Nationals.A zoomed photo of the sailboats dancing across San Diego Bay.The San Diego Yacht Club sailboats approach the Embarcadero, having just passed the finish line.These sailors were among the leaders. The top 18 semifinalist teams will move on to the finals.A very cool sight during a random walk along the water before sunset!The leading sailboats approach San Diego’s Cruise Ship Terminal. Gleaming skyscrapers rise in the background.The leaders from this race appeared to line up in finishing order. Fascinated, I watched from the Broadway Pier.And then a few minutes later they were off again! A gull watches sails dip and tack in the sea breeze, like fluttering white wings.A team that competed in College Sailing’s ICSA Women’s Semifinals starts back across San Diego Bay before night falls.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
San Diego’s famous Star of India–the oldest active sailing ship in the world–is having its decks replaced. First up is the poop deck. Work has just begun.
Today I boarded the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s world-famous Star of India. The lady in the ticket booth informed me that the deck replacement began about a week or so ago!
You might remember I blogged about the Star of India’s deck replacement effort here. Click the link to check out that post, and you can see how the poop deck appeared before work began.
A nice docent allowed me to walk up the steps almost to the poop deck so I could get a good photograph. As you can see, the first section of the deck has been removed. I also noted that the saloon underneath has been carefully converted into a work area.
Do you love history or San Diego? Please click here to help with this very important project!
The historic ship’s elegant saloon has become a work area during the deck replacement.Gazing up through a big hole in the ceiling! The new, stronger deck will be built using sophisticated techniques and modern materials, but it will visually appear like the original.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Volunteers at the Maritime Museum of San Diego haul a rope on the deck of Star of India to help raise a protective tarp above the historic ship.
Sunday is volunteer work day at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Anyone walking along the Embarcadero or visiting the museum can watch history being preserved by energetic volunteers. You can see them pulling ropes, painting masts, scraping, polishing, sweeping and just generally doing all those things necessary to maintain historic old ships.
The Maritime Museum of San Diego could always use new volunteers! No experience required! You mostly work out on the sparkling water, in the sunshine, with senses full of invigorating smells, sights and sounds. And know what? You become a part of history!
Large plastic canopies are being installed on the Star of India to protect her from rain during the upcoming deck restoration.The Star of India’s re-decking project is being supported in part by a National Maritime Heritage grant administered by the National Park Service, Department of the Interior.Another volunteer works near the bow of the historic tall ship. Downtown San Diego’s skyline provides a gleaming backdrop.These guys are working above the forward house near the foremast.A mast of the HMS Surprise has been scraped and coated with primer. Now some paint will preserve this amazing tall ship used in the movie Master and Commander.Another yard to be installed on the San Salvador by crane awaits on the Embarcadero. This heavy yard with sails furled will be supported by the replica Spanish galleon’s foremast.Volunteering for the Maritime Museum of San Diego can be very satisfying. Are you free on Sundays?
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can enjoy more Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Magic before your eyes. A wind-stretched red sail on sparkling San Diego Bay.
Dancing sails and colorful banners reflected upon water are magic. Tilting, shining, billowing, flowing, taut, wind-driven, powerful, gentle, mysterious, magical.
Color painted on canvas is art. But dancing color upon water has strange profound depth. It’s the merging of wind and water; of light and substance. Swelling, vibrating. It has a heartbeat.
I heard no sound as a large sailboat approached.It’s USA 11, the Stars and Stripes. This America’s Cup racing yacht competed in 1992. She can be chartered for sailing adventures.The sail stretches a hundred feet into the blue sky. Dancing in sunshine, turning on the water.Magic white sails on a blue bay. The city of San Diego is near, but far away.Even small sails need care. They will work powerful magic, take you where you will.Lone dark form upon gray water. A strange apparition.Reflections of flags at stern of USS Midway dance upon still water.Colorful banners moved by a wild wind. Like strange, silent dreams in the liquid blue.Unending dreams.Adjusting a magic sail as one boat moves forward in space.
…
I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk! You can enjoy more Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or Twitter!
Illuminating the Sea: The Marine Paintings of James E. Buttersworth, 1817-1894. This very special exhibit can be seen at the Maritime Museum of San Diego!
Do you love breathtaking works of fine art? Are you fascinated by 19th century history? Do you like to feast your eyes on beautiful tall ships, sailing yachts and ocean scenery? There’s a special exhibit in San Diego that you positively must see!
I was surprised to discover that the Maritime Museum of San Diego, located downtown on the Embarcadero, is featuring a fantastic exhibit of marine art masterpieces by the famous painter James Edward Buttersworth. Buttersworth is considered to be one of the most important painters of the nineteenth century. His portraits of tall ships, racing yachts, steamships and other vessels from that era are beautiful works of genius, resplendent with light, energy and grace. About 600 of his classic paintings exist today, and the Maritime Museum has 24 amazing examples on display!
The exhibition is titled “Illuminating the Sea: The Marine Paintings of James E. Buttersworth, 1817-1894.” The collected paintings, on loan from Mystic Seaport until May 31, 2016, are so dynamic, detailed and glowing with beauty, they’ll make a permanent impression in your mind. His images of sky and sea are realistic and alive. Colors are rich and subtle; stormy waters seem to spray off a painted canvas; white sails shine. Several paintings depict yachts racing together, engaged in historic competitions that include the America’s Cup, an event that became important in San Diego’s more recent past.
Another interesting aspect of the exhibition is the inclusion of a modern Buttersworth forgery by Ken Perenyi. Visitors to the museum can become a detective, and do their best to uncover the cleverly made fake!
Go enjoy this exhibit of rare, fantastic paintings, then prepare to spend a good hour or two exploring the many historic ships owned by the Maritime Museum of San Diego. You’ll find yourself within a magical world. A world that gently floats upon shining water, alive with history, adventure, beauty and wonder!
Among the classic maritime paintings of world-famous artist James E. Butterworth is a forgery. Visitors to the museum are challenged to spot it!Truly stunning works of art on display inside the steam ferryboat Berkeley, hub of the Maritime Museum of San Diego.Illuminating the Sea, James E. Butterworth, oil on canvas. Magic, schooner of New York Yacht Club, winner of the America’s Cup in 1870. Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.In addition to this world-class art, the Maritime Museum of San Diego contains a vast collection of nautical objects. It is a must-see destination for those interested in our city’s rich history.
Here are a couple bonus photographs! I took them this morning during a short walk before heading to work!
Museum volunteers gather around a ship’s yard. It would soon be lifted by crane onto the nearly-completed Spanish galleon replica San Salvador.Tall ships San Salvador and Californian docked behind the Berkeley. Just a few of the fascinating ships you can visit at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
Cool San Diego Sights! 