BILL ANALYSIS Ó
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Date of Hearing: August 2, 2016
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT, SPORTS, TOURISM, AND
INTERNET MEDIA
Kansen Chu, Chair
SCR
153 (Hueso) - As Introduced June 14, 2016
SENATE VOTE: 36-0
SUBJECT: Maritime Museum of San Diego: San Salvador replica.
SUMMARY: This measure would recognize and commend the Maritime
Museum of San Diego for its continuing dedication to preserving,
interpreting, and teaching the rich maritime history of
California while upholding a worldwide reputation for excellence
with regard to the restoration, maintenance, and operation of
historic vessels, particularly the San Salvador replica.
Specifically, this resolution makes the following findings and
declarations:
1. The Spanish galleon San Salvador was explorer Juan
Rodriguez Cabrillo's flagship vessel, and during his 1542
expeditionary voyage, the San Salvador, in the company of
two other ships, landed at what is now the City of San
Diego and established first contact with the indigenous
peoples of the California coast, and Cabrillo and his crew
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became the first Europeans to set foot on the Pacific coast
of the United States.
2. The Maritime Museum of San Diego's mission is to serve
as the community memory of our seafaring experience by
collecting, preserving, and presenting our rich maritime
heritage via a world-class collection of 10 historic
vessels, exhibitions, public events, and educational
programs.
3. In pursuit of this mission, the Maritime Museum of San
Diego sought to build a
full-sized, fully functional, and historically accurate
replica of the San Salvador to create a living link between
California's past and present, that would serve as a
community memory of the region's seafaring experience and
present its rich and diverse maritime heritage and historic
connections to the Pacific world.
4. After years of research and fundraising for the
construction of a functional and historically accurate
replica of the San Salvador, the Maritime Museum of San
Diego hosted an international symposium in 2004, at which
time experts were enlisted to evaluate the design of the
vessel, and in the spring of 2011, construction began in
full view of the public at Spanish Landing Park in the City
of San Diego.
5. The construction of the San Salvador replica is based on
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painstaking research in the fields of early modern Spanish
and Portuguese maritime history and maritime archeology,
and experts have scoured volumes of historical narratives,
examined all the available images of early
sixteenth-century sailing vessels, and surveyed the remains
of contemporary shipwrecks; and to execute this vision, the
Maritime Museum of San Diego engaged a group of skilled
professional boat builders, who were assisted by scores of
regular volunteers.
6. Most of the labor was performed by volunteers who
believed they could learn to build a ship and almost 500
volunteers from around the world devoted their time,
energy, and talents to building the ship.
7. On September 4, 2015, during the Festival of Sail, the
San Salvador replica was commissioned.
8. The San Salvador replica will function as the origin
symbol ship for California and commemorate the voyage of
the original San Salvador which, through its voyage into
the unknown parts of the ocean, provided vital geographic,
climatic, and oceanographic information on the Pacific
Ocean.
9. Beginning in the fall of 2016, as an operational vessel,
the San Salvador replica will be used in Cabrillo discovery
reenactments and outreach voyages to other ports and the
museum will partner with other educational facilities and
museums, and the ship's presence will also enable the
Maritime Museum of San Diego to implement a teacher
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training institute, where teachers can attend California
standards-based seminars on the discovery of the western
coast and the age of exploration.
10. The vessel's maiden voyage will be known as the San
Salvador Pacific Heritage Tour and will travel from San
Diego to other California ports of call in Ventura,
Monterey, San Francisco, Vallejo, Jack London Square, Old
Sacramento, Morro Bay, and the Channel Islands.
11. The mission of the San Salvador replica is to embody our
community origin story by presenting the life and times of
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, the historic voyage of the San
Salvador, our place in the beginnings of the modern world,
and first contact between Europeans and Native American
peoples of the west coast of North America.
FISCAL EFFECT: None.
COMMENTS: Author's statement and support. According to the
author, "After 20 years of planning and 5 years of construction,
the Maritime Museum of San Diego launched a seaworthy replica of
Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo's flagship, the San Salvador. The San
Salvador replica will serve as an educational platform to
educate Californians on the first European exploration of the
California coast. This measure commemorates the Maritime museum
of San Diego for constructing and operating the San Salvador
replica."
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According to the Maritime Museum of San Diego, "As caretakers of
the rich maritime history of the community and region, the
Maritime Museum of San Diego is acutely sensitive to the
historic relationship between the sea and human society. The
Museum has several ships, many exhibits and provides many
educational programs to area children."
This resolution is supported by the American Federation of
State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), who state
"AFSCME supports this resolution because it recognizes and
commends the maritime museum of San Diego for its continuing
dedication to preserving, interpreting, and teaching the rich
maritime history of California while upholding a worldwide
reputation for excellence with regard to the restoration,
maintenance, and operation of historic vessels, particularly the
San Salvador replica that will soon set sail."
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees
(AFSCME)
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The Maritime Museum of San Diego
Opposition
There is no opposition on file.
Analysis Prepared by:Jennesie Habeil/Dana Mitchell /
A.,E.,S.,T., & I.M. / (916) 319-3450