Port 06 San Diego, California – Take 2

We glided into San Diego early in the morning on Jan 8th. But there wasn’t a pretty sunrise this time – overcast and gray…

As a reminder, this port of call is a replacement for San Francisco – fine for the folks who just boarded in Los Angeles, but a repeat for the rest of us. But this is an opportunity to  tour the Maritime Museum and the USS Midway.

Once again, we pass by Coronado’s North Island and the Naval Air Station’s runway. Hey, Lizzy! Thinking of you! The sky isn’t as blue as our previous visit here a week ago.

On our first day back we decided to tour the Maritime Museum that is just north of the cruise ship docks. I showed you a view of the Star of India in the first San Diego post. Now we’ll go on board! But my real interest is the HMS Surprise – this is the modified British Frigate replica HMS Rose that was used in the movie with Russell Crowe “Master and Commander” based on the Aubrey and Maturin novel series by Patrick O’Brian.  Here is the map of the museum. I’ll show you a few of the photos from here. You may be happy to know there is a 25% discount for veterans and senior citizens!

Before I go into these photos I should explain my affinity for sailing ships like Star of India and HMS Surpise. I vaguely remember the first model I worked on as a 4-year-old was a small model of a tall mast that my dad was building, and while he was at work I found the spools of thread for rigging and “rigged” the ship. Of course, I didn’t know what I was doing. It was more of a cocoon than rigging. But that opened the door to more ship models. By age 10 I had built, and properly rigged I might add!, models of Hartford, Thermopylae, Flying Cloud, and the USS Constitution. I lived near Amarillo, Texas, at the time, nowhere close to any ocean and never thought I would see a real ship. I continued to build ship models into my college years (and my last USS Constitution still sits in our office at home). As I began to travel for work, and later for pleasure, I looked for opportunities to see tall mast ships whenever we were near ports. And for my 40th birthday, Joy gave me a birthday gift to sail as crew on the HMS Endeavour, a replica of Captain Cook’s ship sponsored by the Australian National Maritime Museum. This was such an excellent ship the National Geographic sponsored it to circumnavigate the world, basically opening as a museum in a port, then taking on a new crew to sail to the next port. I signed on in Boston, Massachusetts, and sailed to New Bedford, Rhode Island, the week Hurricane Bonnie was ravaging the Carolinas and threatening to head north to Massachusetts. As crew I got to climb up ratlines, crawl out on spars, take in and let out sails, handle the lines to control the sails, man the helm, stand mizzen and forecastle watch, string and sleep in hammocks, clean the ship, work in the galley, and live on a 7-shift rotation (that’s five 4-hour shifts and two 2-hour “dog watch” shifts).  It was an incredible experience and increased my love of the sailing ships!

The centerpiece of the Maritime Museum is the main “building” housed on the ferryboat Berkeley, the first steamboat to use a propeller rather than the classic sidewheels. It houses a souvenir shop, a wealth of ship models and information, and is the central access to several of the ships in the collection.

The first boat outside was the Swift Boat, and next to it was the submarine USS Dolphin, which currently holds the deep-dive record it set in 1968. These two boats were small and had several people on board, so we passed these up and headed for the open decks.

The Medea was a cute steam yacht with nice accommodations and a colorful past! She was a British personal yacht, then a French gunboat in World War I. She came back to the Brits and was used by the members of Parliament for outings. In World War II she bounced around from the Scottish Navy for the of Norwegians, then back to the British Navy. After World War II she went back to civilian service.

Joy snapped a shot of me standing on the stern of Medea. Needless to say, it was a cool day for San Diego weather.

As we approached the San Salvador she was being unmoored for a bay tour. The tourists were the deck hands. The crew made a big deal of casting off the four lines tying it to the dock.  Lots of yelling and “aye, sir”! Hmmm, kinda like when I sailed as crew on the HMS Endeavour… It was fun watching the San Salvador sail off – too bad it was motor only – the sails would have looked beautiful!

Now comes my favorite! HMS Surprise! I have and read the entire 21-book collection by Patrick O‘Brian describing the travels and battles of Captain Jack Aubrey and Dr Stephen Maturin. Two of the early books were mashed together to create the script for “Master and Commander.” The HMS Surprise was Aubrey’s first command in this series.

The stunning figurehead guards the HMS Endeavour from the seas. While women were deemed unlucky to have on a ship, figureheads were typically female to help calm the waters.

Surprise’s figurehead is beautiful! The gun deck wouldn’t have really worked. The guns were on a platform about two feet above the deck. After recoiling they would probably fall off the platform.

This view of the deck is my favorite shot, but there is a problem! The pin rail missing from in front of the mizzen mast (see the notch in front of the black post) is stowed to the left on deck against the siderail.

Next door is the Star of India! She began life as the Eutera, an “immigrant” transport ship taking people from the UK to New Zealand and Australia. She would return with cargo. After a series of 21 round-trip transits of Africa’s Cape of Good Hope she went into strictly cargo trade, first hauling lumber, then she was sold to a salmon shipping company and became the Star of India.

The Star of India needs a lot of work! The deck was in poor shape up forward, but was partially reworked aft as you will see in the next photo. The Anchor Windlass was forged by American Ship Windlass Co in 1877, so it must be a refit since the ship was built in 1863.

Star of India‘s foredeckJoy gets her moment here. Oh, and the group of people in the background behind Joy – we thought it was a farmer’s market opening for the weekend, but learned it was a Trump rally.

The Insignia was visible through the rigging

And this photo on display inside the Star of India reminded me of what I used to do on HMS Endeavour! Adrenelin rush!

On day 2 I headed south to tour the USS Midway. On the way I discovered the Broadway Pier had removed their Joy decorations.  It looked pretty sterile! No Joy here!

I toured the USS Midway by myself. Joy was not up to the walking and ladders. I was very pleased to learn they have a veteran’s discount!

Here is a nice summary of all of the aircraft flown from the USS Midway‘s decks. I’m sorry this image is not legible. But you get the picture that the aicraft significantly changed over the years from World War II to the Gulf War and Operation Desert Storm.

The ship is HUGE! It actually held the record of being the largest ship in its time. The entrance is on the hangar deck, and there are multiple entry points to tours of parts of the ship – the forecastle, the crew areas, the medical areas, etc. The hallways are complex with multiple turns, so the map shown below is invaluable, but not common.

An aircraft elevator is used as an outdoor dining deck by the carrier’s cafeteria. Elevators are used to move aircraft between the upper flight deck and the lower hangar area for servicing and storage. It was interesting to find the elevators are moved with pulleys and large steel cables.

And from the elevator platform, this is the view. Pretty sweet, eh?

Of all of the dining areas, or “mess” halls, on the ship, this is my favorite. This is the Dirty Shirt Mess – this is the only one open 24/7 so flight crews coming in from late sorties, and others working long shifts, can get a bite to eat when all of the other mess halls have closed.

The propulsion control is crazy! I’m not even showing you the steam lines that this panel controls. In case you didn’t know, everything on the ship operates with steam!  And this room is officially below the water line – the line is marked on the wall in the lower image.

The ship has everything it needs to stay at sea, including an operation room (actually two), and four dental chairs! There is also a pharmacy (not shown)!

 

There are numerous control rooms for all of the operations on the ship. This is my favorite – the room where the strikes against Osama bin Laden and the Iraquis was actually planned. The lower image is the last flight sortie planning board preserved from Operation Desert Storm.

Up on the flight deck, there are a lot of aircraft to see, including helicopters!

The star of the forward deck is the catapult flight deck director. This statue celebrates this critical role. They ensure everything is safe before they commit to the launch.

The superstructure that houses the bridge and flight deck control centers is called the “Island” because from a distance it can be seen even when the rest of the ship can’t. It is an island floating on the ocean.  The halls are narrow and the ladders are steep with little headroom.

These two seats overlook the flight deck. A person assigned here is in for a two-year stint. The first year is in the Mini-Me seat, learning the job, and the second year is in the Boss seat, controlling the movement of aircraft on the flight deck.

The walkway to the Bridge is known as the “Vulture’s Walk” because people hang out here to watch aircraft land, and possibly see a crash on deck. Yeah, grimly morbid.

But you have to admit the view is pretty good for watching aircraft landing!

The Captain spends 85% of his time in this seat when there is combat action. Originally this space was outdoors – open air! The helm controls were inside the blue walls in the first image below and as shown in the second image below. When the ship had its first arctic deployment it was determined this was a bad design and the open air bridge was enclosed.

OK, you’ve had enough interior shots of the USS Midway. I left the ship and went to check out the park to the south, with the huge statue of the kissing couple. I found this wonderful setting of service people watching Bob Hope perform! Apparently, someone just had to put a tuque (or toque or touque) on Bob Hope’s statue.

I celebrate the USS Midway with this shot from the “Unconditional Surrender” statue’s site. There were two seagulls perched on top of the statue. This angle merged them into one visible seagull and minimized their distraction.

And we say farewell to San Diego for the second time, departing just before 10 PM local, heading for Hawaii!

Five days of sea ahead of us. Next port of call – Honolulu!

Aloha!