Maritime Museum of San Diego

Maritime Museum of San Diego
Maritime Museum of San Diego is located in San Diego
Maritime Museum of San Diego
Location within San Diego
Established1948
LocationSan Diego, California, United States
Coordinates32°43′14″N 117°10′24″W / 32.720639°N 117.173417°W / 32.720639; -117.173417
TypeMaritime museum
Key holdingsStar of India
Berkeley
Californian
Medea
Visitors220,000[1]
PresidentRaymond Ashley
Public transit accessCounty Center/Little Italy
Nearest car parkStreet
Websitewww.sdmaritime.org

The Maritime Museum of San Diego is a maritime museum in San Diego, California. Established in 1948, it preserves one of the largest collections of historic sea vessels in the United States. Located on San Diego Bay, the centerpiece of the museum's collection is Star of India, an 1863 iron barque. The museum maintains the MacMullen Library and Research Archives aboard the 1898 ferryboat Berkeley. It publishes the quarterly peer-reviewed journal Mains'l Haul: A Journal of Pacific Maritime History.

Vessels in the museum's collection

Current collection

Former collection

  • B-39, Soviet Foxtrot class submarine; as of October 2021 the sub is being removed from the collection and sold for scrap.[5] She was finally towed to a scrap yard in Ensenada in February 2022.[6]

San Salvador replica

Starting in 2011 the Maritime Museum of San Diego built a full-sized, fully functional, historically accurate replica of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo’s flagship, San Salvador. The replica was constructed in full public view in the bayside Spanish Landing Park in San Diego, giving people the opportunity to watch a living recreation of the first modern industrial activity in the Americas. She was launched in 2015 and is stationed at the San Diego Bay Embarcadero as part of the Museum's fleet of historic and replica ships. She opened for public tours in September 2016 in conjunction with the Maritime Museum's annual Festival of Sail. Later that month she is expected to start making coastal tours up the California coast.[7]

  • The ferryboat Berkeley, housing the San Diego Maritime Museum and USS Dolphin
    The ferryboat Berkeley, housing the San Diego Maritime Museum and USS Dolphin
  • Overall view of the museum's ships.
    Overall view of the museum's ships.
  • Star of India.
    Star of India.
  • HMS Surprise.
    HMS Surprise.
  • B-39.
    B-39.
  • Another picture of B-39
    Another picture of B-39

Midway Museum

Not affiliated with the Maritime Museum, but located a short distance away, is the independently operated USS Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. Although at first it was feared the Midway would compete with the Maritime Museum for visitors, in fact visitation of the Maritime Museum has increased since the Midway museum opened.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Factsheet". Maritime Museum of San Diego. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
  2. ^ "Step aboard the world's oldest active sailing ship". Maritime Museum of San Diego. Retrieved September 15, 2012.
  3. ^ "America". Retrieved September 27, 2013.
  4. ^ Museum to build replica of Cabrillo's ship Page 1 of 2 | UTSanDiego.com
  5. ^ Wilkens, John (October 2, 2021). "After 15 years as a San Diego tourist draw, rusty Soviet sub is headed to the scrap yard". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved October 2, 2021.
  6. ^ Dyer, Andrew (February 6, 2022). "Cold War-era Soviet sub towed from San Diego, bound for Mexico scrapyard". San Diego Union Tribune. Retrieved May 30, 2022.
  7. ^ Hirsh, Lou (August 30, 2016). "Maritime Museum Debuting Tours of San Salvador Replica". San Diego Business Journal. Retrieved August 31, 2016.
  8. ^ Sauer, Mark Aircraft carrier Midway finds itself awash in visitors February 13, 2005 San Diego Union Tribune – Accessed March 23, 2006
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Maritime Museum of San Diego.