Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific is an extensive exhibition that recently opened at the Maritime Museum of San Diego.
Spread over two levels of the museum’s steam ferry Berkeley, the exhibit celebrates 500 years of Black Mariner legacies in whaling, fishing, surfing, swimming, sailing, exploration, and defense shaping the U.S. Pacific.
Historical photographs and nautical artifacts transport visitors from the earliest African maritime traditions right up to the present day. The exhibition has been created with the help of UC San Diego curator Dr. Caroline Collins, so every aspect of Black history in connection with the Pacific Ocean is thoroughly covered.
You will learn about history that is too often overlooked.
Did you know that Juan Garrido, an Afro-Spanish conquistador, was the first documented Black person in what is now the United States? Or that by the mid-19th century, men of color made up to 30 percent of whalers? Or that African American blacksmith and abolitionist Lewis Temple invented an improved harpooning instrument called the Temple toggle iron? Or that thousands of African American women worked in the Pacific shipyards during World War II? Or that in 1942, Captain Hugh Mulzac became the first African American merchant marine naval officer to command an integrated crew during the war?
You’ll learn all this and much more when you visit Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific.
In addition, with your general admission ticket, you get to explore all of the historic ships of the Maritime Museum of San Diego, including world-famous Star of India!
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