Exploring The San Diego Maritime Museum

Today I am moving cities again, the past six days in San Francisco has been great. But it is time to move on to San Diego, my last stop before boarding the 28 Day Panama Canal Cruise. The start this morning was early to be ready and on the airport shuttle at 8.15 am. While my flight is not until 11.45 am the shuttle took a considerable time to get to the airport.

Flying San Francisco to San Diego

My flight today from San Francisco to San Diego is with Virgin America. The flight will be a short one at just 1.5 hours. I also had booked the ticket in first class for a rather good price.

The choice to book first class today was purely based on securing an excellent price. But it does give you some very nice extra benefits. Besides the nice big comfy seats at the front of the plane, there was another benefit as well. That was being able to take the priority lane through security, which I think saved a good half an hour today. Plus it was a good way to get an all inclusive ticket instead of having to add luggage and such.

San Diego

Even though I only arrived in San Diego this afternoon, it is a rather nice place. At least the area of Downtown that I am staying in seems to. The biggest downfall is that there is a plenty of noise from two placs. First is the airport quite close to Downtown, with the sound of aircraft taking off and landing. The second is the train line that runs directly behind the hotel. But not to worry I am sure that I can survive this for a couple of days considering some people live with it all the time.

My arrival was rather early this afternoon, and that gave me a good chunk of time to get familiar with the area. The hotel is quite close to the waterfront and not far away is the Maritime Museum which seemed like a good place to fill in some time.

San Diego Maritime Museum

The San Diego Maritime Museum has four ships and two submarines on display that you can walk through. There are three rigged ships, The Star Of India, Californian, and HMS Surprise. The fourth ship is the Berkeley, a very well maintained ferry from San Francisco. The two submarines are the USS Dolphin and the Foxtrot B-39 Soviet attack submarine.

I am very happy that I made the decision to visit the Maritime Museum, it was a very good experience. There are probably many people who have had the chance to see ships and submarines and such. But for me, this is probably only the second Maritime Museum like this that I have visited. Seeing some of the history and the way things might have been in the past is a great experience.

The submarines were the most intriguing; I just cannot even begin to imagine working within one. The USS Dolphin seemed to be easy enough to get around. However, the Soviet submarine was a very tight fit to get around. There would be some getting used to living and working in such close quarters.

Maritime Museum Photos

The Star of India, the world’s oldest active sailing ship, begun her life on the Isle of Man in 1863.

Inside the officers and first class dining on the Star of India.

The HMS Surprise is a replica of the 18th century British Frigate.

Inside the gun deck of the HMS Surprise.

The front of the Soviet Attack Submarine at the San Diego Maritime Museum.

The USS Dolphin is a decommissioned US Navy diesel-electric submarine.

Interior of USS Dolphin, the Galley to be more precise.

A part of the interior of the Berkeley Ferry from San Francisco. It is a beautiful old steam ferry.

I finished the afternoon at the San Diego Maritime Museum and saw the sun setting as I was leaving the USS Dolphin. With this photo being on the Gangway between the USS Dolphin and Berkeley Ferry Boat. I hope that you have enjoyed this post, I would have loved to be able to share some more photos. But the position of the sun in the late afternoon here did not work in my favour today.