Tag: tall ships

Photos aboard Coast Guard tall ship Eagle!

People in San Diego had an incredible opportunity this weekend to step aboard “America’s Tall Ship,” the USCGC Eagle, which has been docked for a few days at the B Street Pier. Visitors were invited to explore the nearly hundred-year-old, 295-foot, three-masted barque, which is used to train future United States Coast Guard officers.

I took the opportunity to come aboard the historic tall ship myself, and I captured photographs of one amazing ship!

A number of interesting banners hang around the Eagle, explaining its history and current role in training future Coast Guard officers. Eagle is the largest tall ship flying the Stars and Stripes and the only active square-rigger in U.S. government service.

I learned a new batch of prospective officers had themselves come aboard a couple days ago. This week they’ll be sailing in the nearby Pacific Ocean. When the Eagle returns to San Diego, this new group of “swabs” will be considered honest-to-goodness cadets!

I must say all of the young people who are training to become officers were extremely friendly, polite and professional. The Coast Guard’s future appears to be in great hands!

Now enjoy my photos…

Welcome Aboard America’s Tall Ship.
USCGC Eagle is both a Coast Guard cutter and a barque.
The Eagle has over six miles of standing and running rigging, 23 sails, and more than 22,000 square feet of sail area that allow her to sail at 17 knots (19.5 mph).
Eagle was originally German, launched in 1936, and was operated by the pre-World War II German navy. In 1946, after the end of World War II, United States Coast Guardsmen sailed the Eagle to the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut.
Originally, the Eagle trained German Navy sailors as Horst Wessel. It sailed to the Canary Islands and West Indies, and later, during World War II, on the Baltic Sea. She carried anti-aircraft guns, and her logs indicate that she fired at Allied and German aircraft.
A permanent Coast Guard crew of approximately 60 personnel maintain and operate the Eagle year round.
The Eagle gives officer candidates and enlisted servicemembers hands-on, teamwork-focused opportunities to lead, train and serve at sea…
The Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut produces leaders of character… Nearly 300 high school graduates enroll annually…
Sail training offers…a unique and useful training experience. This includes learning the fundamentals of seamanship, weather, and nautical tradition…

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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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Voodoo Ranger “pirate ship” arrives for Comic-Con!

The “pirate ship” promoting Voodoo Ranger IPA arrived behind the San Diego Convention Center early this morning, in time for Comic-Con 2025! The amazing ship is now docked across the bayside boardwalk from the King of the Hill offsite, between two other Comic-Con offsites: Brawl Stars and Abbott Elementary.

Why is “pirate ship” written in quotes? Because this beautiful tall ship, San Salvador, is actually a faithful replica of the Spanish galleon Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo sailed in when he discovered San Diego Bay in 1542!

This modern day San Salvador was built by the Maritime Museum of San Diego back in 2015, and is now a seaworthy part of the museum’s ship collection.

Would you like to see photographs of San Salvador being built in Spanish Landing park, near San Diego International Airport? If you would, click here!

Do you live in San Diego? Do you love ships, history and adventure? Join me in becoming a Maritime Museum of San Diego member!

The Voodoo Ranger’s black pirate sails will beckon Comic-Con visitors who are looking for music, live entertainment, drink and a good time. The floating activation will be open to the public Thursday through Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.

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If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

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!

Doing an “Egyptian walk” in San Diego!

One way to perform an “Egyptian walk” in San Diego? Become a volunteer at the Maritime Museum of San Diego and help carry a tall ship’s long mast or yard!

Today the lateen yard was being removed by a small army of volunteers from the museum’s Spanish galleon replica San Salvador. The ship will be heading down to Marine Group Boat Works in Chula Vista to be lifted out of the water for the periodic hull cleaning and inspection. Removing the yard is necessary before this operation.

A line of people, walking in unison, with arms bent or extended as they hold up a heavy spar does appear a bit like Egyptian hieroglyphics. One of the volunteers called what you see in my photographs an Egyptian walk!

(No, that popular song by The Bangles wasn’t playing in the background.)

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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!

Art treasures of Maritime Museum: Celebrating the Sea!

Inchcliffe Castle, San Diego, circa 1940, by artist Anton Otto Fischer.

An important new exhibition has opened at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. It’s titled Celebrating the Sea: Exploring the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s Hidden Collection.

Notable works of original art in the museum’s extensive collection have been placed on view. Included are beautiful paintings of ships, local scenes that include San Diego Bay, and coastal vistas. Many of the pieces are by renowned artists, like Maurice Braun and Arthur Beaumont.

Visitors will also marvel at rare artifacts, such as an antique Chinese lacquer cabinet with ivory chess set, circa 1720.

The fine exhibition reinforces the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s reputation as a world-famous destination for lovers of both art and the sea!

Coaling Station on the San Diego Waterfront, 1930s, by artist Marie DuBarry.

East View of the Coast Guard Station, 1934-1937, by artist Maurice Braun.

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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.

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.

The Art of Navigation at the Maritime Museum.

Those who are fascinated by tall ships, exploration and the evolution of technology don’t want to miss a great new exhibit at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. It’s titled the Art of Navigation.

Visitors to the exhibit learn how navigators have used maps, charts and a variety of tools to find their way across the oceans and through dangerous waters. The extensive displays include some exceptionally rare antiques. Old instruments that can be viewed include an astrolabe, backstaff, nocturnal, traverse board, chip log and reel, hand-held telescope, cross-staff, quadrant, taffrail log, navigation slate and more! These instruments might seem primitive when compared with modern technology, but ship’s captains successfully sailed around the planet with the information they provided.

Personally, I like to read nautical stories set during the Age of Sail. As I read I’ll come across the names of these instruments, and at times puzzle over their application. The descriptive Art of Navigation exhibit brings helps to bring those adventurous old stories to life!

The exhibit also includes beautiful paintings and model ships, and even a display directly related to the Maritime Museum’s famous Star of India!

The Art of Navigation is free with museum admission. As advertised, it does indeed turn intellect, math, nature and science into beauty!

Micronesian stick chart, used by the indigenous island peoples of the Pacific to navigate across great distances of open water.

Henricus Hondius. Polus Antarcticus. Map of Dutch discoveries published in Amsterdam, 1638.

Benjamin King Backstaff (also known as Davis Quadrant), Newport, Rhode Island, 1764. Used by Colonial American navigators.

Replica of 19th century chip log and reel. Used to estimate the speed of a ship through water.

Log of Euterpe, a historic ship later known as Star of India.

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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.

Official tall ship of California begins Sunday sail!

Californian, official tall ship of the State of California, set out today from the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Passengers aboard the schooner, a replica of a Gold Rush era revenue cutter, began another four hour Sunday sailing adventure!

I stood on the museum’s barge out on San Diego Bay as Californian’s volunteer crew prepared the tall ship to get underway. Once well out on the water, the sails would be employed, so necessary actions were performed beforehand.

At noon, when all was ready, lines were cast off and the ship moved away from the dock by using its motor.

I don’t pretend to understand the details of sailing a traditionally rigged tall ship, but I do enjoy watching the action!

If you’d like to go on one of these Tall Ship Adventures, visit the Maritime Museum of San Diego’s website 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.

Full moon above a beautiful morning Star.

Early this morning, as the sun rose slowly above San Diego, beautiful tall ship Star of India began to shine.

Beyond the Star’s bright sails, the full moon quietly retired.

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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.

Pirate ship arrives for San Diego Comic-Con!

This morning the Voodoo Ranger pirate ship arrived for Comic-Con 2024. It crept silently across the bay and pulled up to the dock behind the San Diego Convention Center. Unsuspecting citizens on shore were no doubt startled by the sudden arrival of the fierce marauders!

No, the crew wasn’t really that fierce. Because they were friendly members of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, and their supposed “pirate” ship was actually the seaworthy Spanish galleon replica San Salvador, one of the amazing ships in the collection of the world famous museum. San Salvador used its motor this morning, but it does sail.

Would you like to see photographs of the galleon San Salvador being built years ago in San Diego? Yes? Then click here!

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Thanks for visiting Cool San Diego Sights!

If you’d like to view my coverage of Comic-Con so far, which includes hundreds of cool photographs, click here!

You can help restore beautiful HMS Surprise!

Weather and the elements are damaging to any ship. That’s especially true when the ship is made of wood.

If you’ve been by the Maritime Museum of San Diego lately, you’ve probably seen how one side of their tall ship HMS Surprise is being repaired. The starboard side, which for many years faced south toward the harsh sun, had seriously deteriorated.

Fortunately, the world-famous Maritime Museum of San Diego has the expertise required to undertake complicated projects such as this, as shown by the beautiful deck restoration of HMS Surprise. But funds are also required, which can be a challenge for any nonprofit organization.

Would you like to help?

Perhaps you love the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which starred Russell Crowe and beautiful HMS Surprise. As I did a little research this morning, I noticed that author Michael Eging, who also loves the critically acclaimed movie and the Patrick O’Brian novels it’s based on, has created a GoFundMe fundraiser for the restoration of HMS Surprise. A fair amount of money has already been raised, but there’s more to go.

To learn about this effort, and perhaps make a contribution, click 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.