Santa Barbara Maritime Museum Teacher Field Report
Patricia Schoenfeld @Hoover Elementary: . . . . Fri, Aug 31, 5:47PM PST (-0800 GMT)
Thursday, July 19, Maritime Museum, ……… The Maritime Museum was another fascinating place to visit. From start to finish there was a wealth of information and our guide was very nice. It was actually her first tour and she did a great job in providing information. The museum provides an opportunity to learn about California Maritime History. button The museum had displays that featured boats and ships, diving equipment through the years, and maritime disasters. ……….. The museum was also very kid-friendly in that it had an area set up for kids to explore and participate as well. The Museum is also continually looking to update and add to displays to make more available to the public.
The Maritime Museum was founded in July of 1999. Its mission statement is as follows: Its purpose is to preserve and present to the public the maritime heritage of California’s Central Coast, while providing ongoing education to the masses to study and record human interaction with the marine environment. Brook Sawyer stated that we could join today!!! With a sizeable donation, we can have our name place on one of the museum’s exhibit. In the exhibit of Winfield Scott, we learned that it shipwrecked off the Coast of Anacapa Island in 1853. The latitude where it was found stranded was N 34° 00.8 minutes, W -119° .23. The Winfield Scott was famous as the Gold Rush passenger streamer. It carried passengers from Panama to California. Our next viewing was the first diving apparatus designed and put into use by William Sadler in the 1840’s. The diving apparatus not only consisted of the helmet and suit, but additionally a two-man machine that had to be pumped consistently to provide the oxygen for the diver. There were only three, ever in the world, diving suits of the nature and one in America. It was the world’s first surface-supplied military diving unit to remove the wreck of the Royal George, which sunk in 1782. Diving Helmet Pump and Helmet Diving Suit Our team’s favorite display was the Supply Ships exhibit. The particular exhibit reminds us of a story of Spanish and Mexican colonization of Santa Barbara. The La Favorita carried supplies from San Blas, Mexico to Alta California in the 1780’s. It was purchased by Spanish officials in 1778 and traveled four times to Santa Barbara. It was retired in 1791. The hide and tallow ship transported 40,000 cowhides from the late 1820’s to the early 1840’s. Trade opened Alta California to the outside world. Also included in this exhibit was two manipoles, which were two silk strips of cloth worn by priests over their left arm during mass. During the early days, the towels were used for perspiration. The silk was either China red or black from Mexico. The red signified joy and was used during advent. The Mexican black manipole was used during mourning occasions and on Good Friday. Manipoles Cross section of a hide and tallow ship Silk Shawl Due to time restraints, we were unable to view the exhibits in depth and are looking forward to returning at a later date.
Los: . . . . Thu, Aug 16, 1:50PM PST (-0800 GMT)
The most famous shipwwwwreck off of Anancapa happened on Dec.2, 1853. When the “Winnfield Scott”, a steamer, from San Francisco, which was loaded with gold and about 800 passengers, went off course in the fog around midnight. The wreck can sssstill be seen when divers go down in the area of N. 34,008 W. 119.229. The earliest diviiing dress and helmet were developed buy Augustine Siebe around 1840 and then William Stadler developed and open dive helmet in 1840 and was used by the English navy to dive down to saalvaaggge the HMS Royal George. SBMM ‘s Mission is to preserve and present to the public the maaritiiime heritage of Calif.’ Central Coast, while providing an ongoing educaaaational plaaarform to study and record human interaction with the marine environment.