Description: Children of all ages will enjoy this museum and a trip to adventure only limited by your imagination. After paying your admission fee you are free to wander along the harbor front visiting each of the ships at your leisure. Depending on your interest you can study in detail the ships before you or merely step onboard and find a shady spot under a sail to relax and imagine yourself taken back to the 19th century. Each of the ships have their own personality and story and depending on your own tastes, each one will speak to you in their own unique way. Through the use of old photographs, personal accounts and other methods, each of these ships will relate a different adventure to the visitor. You will be able to walk the passageways, lean on the rails, view the captain's cabins, step into the crews' quarters, and walk literally in the footsteps of those sailors who lived and worked on these ships in an era found now only in books.
The Star of India, which dates from the mid 19th century, has been the main attraction here for many years and is the world's oldest active ship. Also on display are the Berkeley, a former steam ferry from San Francisco; the Californian, which was built in 1984 as a replica of the 1847 cutter C.W.Lawrence; the steam yacht Medea, built in 1904; and a retired San Diego bay pilot boat, the Pilot. From time to time there are other ships which may have temporary berthing at the Maritime Museum. The day we were there, the HMS Surprise from the movie Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was on display, as was the World War II era victory ship the Lane Victory.
Close