A Peek at our Lives: The Surprise

In more than one sense. When we visited San Diego, Michael was looking through the guide book to see what we would like to do. He came to the Maritime Museum, which turned out to be walking distance from our hotel. They have the ship that was used in the movie Master and Commander to depict the Surprise. We were pleasantly surprised, and went to see it. We have seen the movie, but really, we went because we really like the book series, written by Patrick O’Brian, the starts with Master and Commander.

Michael was like a kid in a candy shop.

Not that I didn’t have fun, too – it was really cool! – but I think we could have done only this in San Diego and Michael would have deemed it a fantastic vacation.

Here’s the ship’s bell, as in “turn the glass and strike the bell,” and “it was 8 bells,” etc. Hannah and Naomi got a lot of naval instruction on this field trip.

Simeon mostly got to ride around in the backpack. We did let him down for certain parts, but a ship is something of a hair-raising place with an 18-month boy running loose on it.

There was a questionnaire for kids to fill out. Hannah avidly searched for the answers to the questions, which covered several of the ships.

Naomi enjoyed visiting the ships, but lost interest in the questionnaire pretty quickly.

Waiting at the capstan to be paid.

Demonstrating how the sailors were paid at the capstan.

It turns out that this ship was a replica of an early-1800s ship. It was actually built in the 1970s. The steering was actually done by a mechanism that is hidden belowdecks.

But you really can’t have that showing in your Master and Commander movie, now, can you? I might be given away, though, by the length of black rope securing the wheel to its stand. It’s there next to my left knee.

Something tells me this wasn’t standard equipment in the early 1800s…

Hannah has the same thought.

It really was quite an impressive ship. And really fun to see in real life.

Belowdecks there were some interesting museum displays about ships in the era this was meant to be from.

Did I mention that Michael really enjoyed this?

We finally relented and let Sim out. Above, he’s trying to view the display Michael’s describing.

Did I mention that it’s somewhat hair-raising to let your 18-month boy loose in a ship? Here he is, trying to crawl out the window in the captain’s cabin. Note the hand holding his jacket.