Tag: sailors

A close look at Liberty Station’s Gate One.

Perhaps you’ve driven through Gate One while arriving at or departing from Liberty Station. It’s the old Navy base entrance at the northeast end of Liberty Station, where Lytton Street and Barnett Avenue meet.

You might have noticed plaques on the two old guard buildings.

Curiosity getting the best of me, the last time I was in the neighborhood I walked around both historical buildings for a closer look.

Gate One was the main entrance to Naval Training Center San Diego, and the grassy area with an anchor behind it is Sellers Plaza. As this webpage explains: Named for the base’s first commander, Sellers Plaza serves as the Naval Training Center’s front door.

You can see Gate One in the center of this postcard:

Image courtesy Libery Station.

Here are photographs I recently took in front of Gate One…

Identical plaques are mounted to the front of both buildings near the arch. The steel arch was added in 1932.

I’m now standing by Building 20. There across the road is Building 21.

The plaques summarize the history of the San Diego Naval Training Station, which opened in 1923 and was finally decommissioned in 1997. Over 1.75 million sailor recruits would receive training here.

Now I’ve walked behind Building 20…

A plaque by the door to Building 20 identifies it as Gatehouse #1, constructed 1923.

Dodging a car or two, I’m now behind Building 21…

The rear of both buildings feature these beautiful tile fountains.

A plaque by the door of Building 21 identifies it as the Pass/Decal Office, constructed 1922.

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Working high in the sky above Statsraad Lehmkuhl!

Norwegian tall ship Statsraad Lehmkuhl is now docked in downtown San Diego at Broadway Pier. It will be visiting our city through Sunday.

This morning, as I walked out on the pier, I noticed crew members high in the sky, preparing a huge banner that would hang like a sail from one of the ship’s yards. I sat down on a bench and watched the action! And took some photos!

Would you dare work so high above the ship’s deck, clinging like a spider to a windswept web? I don’t think I’d have the courage! Or agility!

To the crew member who waved down at me: Hello!

The public will be able to step aboard Statsraad Lehmkuhl this Saturday, November 15, 2025, between noon and 3 pm. It’s free!

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

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Memories on the 250th birthday of the U.S. Navy.

Today is officially the 250th birthday of the United States Navy. On October 13, 2025, the U.S. Navy was established by the Continental Congress.

Needless to say, the Navy has a very large presence in San Diego, with important bases that include Naval Base San Diego, Naval Base Point Loma, Naval Air Station North Island (where naval aviation was born), and Naval Amphibious Base Coronado. Over the years, countless sailors trained at the old Naval Training Center San Diego, and have deployed from San Diego’s harbor on ships in both wartime and peacetime. Until 1997, Top Gun pilots trained at Naval Air Station Miramar.

I’ve published a wide variety of blogs concerning the U.S. Navy in San Diego. Given today’s 250th anniversary, I thought this would be a good time to revisit some of those past blog posts.

Click the following links to bring back some U.S. Navy memories…

Creating a plaque: Navy history in San Diego revealed!

History of recruits at Naval Training Center San Diego.

The Ship’s Bell mosaic at Liberty Station.

Inside the Navy’s landlocked USS Recruit training ship!

Nautical History Gallery & Museum opens!

The Naked Warrior stands in Coronado park.

Chow: Feeding a Navy in San Diego.

Coronado’s surprising role in submarine history.

Top Gun fans vs. reality on USS Midway!

Monument to tallest structures ever built in San Diego.

Bronze plaque marks birthplace of naval aviation.

Memories of the Greatest Generation at Liberty Station.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

The Ship’s Bell mosaic at Liberty Station.

A little-seen mosaic greets people walking toward the door of Cocina 35 in Liberty Station. Tiles form the words: THE SHIP’S BELL. The colorful tiles embedded in the walkway form the image of a sailor ringing a bell. Why is it here?

Liberty Station in Point Loma is the site of the old, decommissioned Naval Training Center San Diego. The buildings of the historic training center have been redeveloped, and now house restaurants, museums, artist studios and more. This mosaic can be found at Liberty Station’s Building 193, which used to be the naval base’s Enlisted Men’s Club.

The Enlisted Men’s Club would be called The Crow’s Nest, then later The Ship’s Bell. The mosaic greeted sailor recruits who wanted to get away from officers for a little relaxation and entertainment. The club was open every night and provided a variety of music and drink to anyone over 18 years of age.

Today, Liberty Station’s Building 193 is home to Cocina 35 and a variety of other restaurants and businesses.

Do you have any memories of The Ship’s Bell? Leave a comment below!

UPDATE!

I noticed this plaque near Building 193 during a later walk…

Building 193 was completed in 1941. The enlisted men’s club was a place to relax away from the officers, although the recruits were watched by the shore patrol to encourage appropriate behavior. Officers had the Chief Petty Nightclub and the Admiral Kit Club for their entertainment.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Feel free to share!

Inside the Navy’s landlocked USS Recruit training ship!

The USS Recruit has been humorously called the USS Neversail. Embedded in concrete at the old Naval Training Center San Diego, the landlocked dummy training ship was an official U.S. Navy vessel commissioned in 1949 (and re-commissioned in 1982) that never set sail!

After Naval Training Center San Diego finally closed in 1997 and Liberty Station was developed on the Navy’s old property, the USS Recruit remained in place, slowly deteriorating. Then about ten years ago, the sheet-metal-over-wood-framing mock destroyer received a new paint job.

Last year the USS Recruit finally opened as a ship museum, allowing visitors to enter a large ground-level room inside the training ship. The walls of the museum are filled with historical photographs and video of past service members recalling their unique experiences aboard ship.

I ventured into the free ship museum a couple weekends ago for my first time. I was told that the one room open to the public used to be filled with telephones. Young sailors could use the phones to call home.

Here are a few photos…

Sailors standing on the deck of the USS Recruit circa 1995.

Old photos show construction of the largely wooden USS Recruit in 1949.

USS Recruit commissioning day, July 27, 1949.

One open door allows visitors to peer into an adjacent room.

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I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!

Ghosts on San Diego’s haunted Star of India?

Have you ever had an eerie experience on the Star of India, San Diego’s world-famous tall ship? The old ship does have a long history of ghostly encounters. Are you curious?

Haunted Star Tales is an experience now available at the Maritime Museum of San Diego, in time for Halloween. Several signs posted around Star of India tell how visitors to the historic tall ship have had possible encounters with ghosts from the ship’s past.

For example, people have reported a mysterious cold chill in the boatswain’s locker, just above the chain locker where a death occurred in the year 1909.

And there are those instances when ship caretakers, night watchmen and others have felt a finger in their back when nobody else is present–possibly by the ghost of one John Campbell, a stowaway boy, who, in 1884, working for his passage, fell 100 feet to the ship’s deck.

Wander the decks and darker areas inside 1863 Star of India, oldest active sailing ship in the world, looking for informative signs that tell of possible hauntings. You will find many human stories and so much fascinating history.

Whether you encounter a ghost–who knows?

Souls lost and mysterious sightings… Come aboard and find out for yourself!

The bo’s’un’s locker, where unexplained cold chills have been felt.

The chain locker, where a death occurred.

Visitors come to the ticket taker or volunteer tour guides and ask… Did someone die here?

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Danger, dedication and USS Midway’s Engineers!

A fire erupts on the USS Midway while at sea! What might happen? Who would respond?

In a major new exhibit aboard the USS Midway Museum, you’ll learn this and more. The service, sacrifice and everyday life of Midway’s engineers is celebrated below decks. Visitors to the aircraft carrier museum tour the hot, loud and crowded spaces where Navy engineers kept the gigantic ship running, while ready to respond to almost any emergency.

You’ll learn about the hard work done by Hull Maintenance Technicians, Enginemen, and Damage Controlmen. You learn that the Boiler Technicians who created steam on the ship had to regularly endure 150 degree temperatures as they oversaw 2 million gallons of boiler fuel and 166,000 gallons of water. And there are the Machinery Repairmen, Machinist’s Mates and others.

You’ll see where the engineers slept, where they worked, and even experience a simulated fire aboard ship that shows the extreme danger their fellow sailors faced.

If you’ve never visited the USS Midway Museum, it is one of San Diego’s must-see attractions. If you haven’t yet experienced this exciting new exhibit, head on down to San Diego Bay and enjoy the newly expanded self-guided tour! (A second new exhibit concerns the USS Midway Marine Detachment!)

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Step aboard an amazing Mexican tall ship!

The amazing tall ship Cuauhtémoc is visiting San Diego and you are invited to step aboard her!

Those who walk along San Diego’s Embarcadero during the next few days will undoubtedly see the three high masts and many furled sails of Mexican Navy training vessel Cuauhtémoc.

ARM Cuauhtémoc, built in Spain in 1982, is extraordinarily beautiful. It’s now docked at the B Street Pier, across from the Cruise Ship Terminal, and the public is welcome to walk down the pier and come aboard. I was told by a friendly officer that the ship will be open to the public from 8 am to 8 pm through next Monday.

If you love tall ships (who doesn’t?) you’ve got to take advantage of this rare opportunity. (It’s been ten years since I last saw her in San Diego.)

The following photographs that I took this evening provide an idea of what you’ll find, but they really don’t do justice to the experience of being on the deck of an immense, truly spectacular tall ship!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Nautical rope, sea bags, and a sailor’s life.

For much of the 20th century, Naval Training Center San Diego was the place where Navy recruits learned what their new life at sea would be like.

Today, NTC Liberty Station occupies those old Navy buildings and barracks. The popular San Diego destination contains museums, artist studios, shops, offices, restaurants . . . and thought-provoking installations of public art.

A Dime to Call Home is sculptural art that I photographed during my last visit. The unusual art, made of cement, soft clothing and nautical rope, is located near some archways along Liberty Station’s North Promenade. It was created by artist Michele Montjoy of Oceanside, California, and installed in 2019.

A nearby sign explains:

Using sculptural forms reminiscent of sea bags and nautical rope, A Dime to Call Home is a conversation about the shifts of identity, location and routine that recruits encounter when they enter the military, as well as the connection they have to their family, home and previous life.

I took several photographs.

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X (formerly known as Twitter)!

Learning the ropes at the Maritime Museum!

Nearly a hundred new hands were “learning the ropes” on San Diego’s historic tall ship Star of India today!

During my visit to the Maritime Museum of San Diego, I asked what all those folks on the deck were up to. I was told they’re learning all about sailing a tall ship. It was the first day of the Sail Training 101 class that is held every year.

There’s a ton to learn–can you imagine? Different masts, yards, sails, all those different ropes and cables, different knots, the jargon–all of it crucial in the sailing of a ship. (I’m a museum member and avid reader of nautical fiction, and I still become confused by much of it!)

Many of these new volunteer crew members, once trained, will be sailing several of the Maritime Museum’s tall ships, including Californian and San Salvador. This coming November the Star of India will sail with those other two ships out onto the Pacific Ocean!

In one upcoming photo, someone down in the Star of India’s hold is raising a heavy bucket full of rocks. That’s practice for hauling on a line–a very common activity on a tall ship!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

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!