Volunteer at the San Diego Maritime Museum
There are many ways to volunteer at the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Contact the volunteer coordinator's office at (619) 234-9153 x 135, jloman@sdmaritime.org, or click on any of the links to the right to find out more.
We appreciate the support, contributions, and enthusiastic participation of our many volunteers at the Maritime Museum.
Museum Docent Training
Maritime Museum of San Diego Docents are a special breed of people. They are our volunteer teachers. These knowledgeable and talented individuals are experts on our ships and exhibits, interpreting the museum's collections for our visitors. They also lead organized tours for groups ranging from grade school to scout groups to conventioneers.
The Maritime Museum of San Diego accepts individuals who wish to volunteer as docents at any time. Training can be accomplished by Docent Training Classes, Docent Mentorship Program or a combination of the two. Museum Membership is required to be accepted in the Docent Training Program.
Once a year formal training is arranged, beginning in early January and running for 13 consecutive weeks. Training sessions are on Tuesdays. They begin at 9:30am with a short meet and greet social. Classes run from 10am till noon and cover a comprehensive variety of topics.
For further information, contact the Volunteer Coordinator's office at (619) 234-9153 x 135
Interested in becoming a docent? CLICK HERE to see the 2013 training course schedule.
Docent Tour Guides: CLICK HERE for current tour assignments.
Docents are also involved as Crew/Narrators on the 1914 Pilot Boat. CLICK HERE to see current schedule.
Sail and Maintenance Crew
The Star of India, HMS Surprise and the Californian are sailed and maintained by a dedicated group of volunteers that work and train year round.
For more information call Jim Davis at (619) 234-9153 x 127 or jdavis@sdmaritime.org
- Californian Adventure Sail Curator Guide
- Californian and Medea : Cruise Schedule
- Californian : Pin Rail Chart
- Californian Sail & Spar Plan
- Californian : History
- HMS Surprise : Sail Plan
- HMS Surprise : History
- PILOT: Captain and Crew
- Star of India : Pin Rail Chart
- Star of India : Sail training and Seamanship manual.
The San Diego Ship Modelers’ Guild
The San Diego Association of Ship Modelers Guild is a group of artisans sharing a common interest in ship modeling, maritime history, and lore of the sea. The Guild provides a forum for the exchange of ideas, information, skills, and techniques on all matters related to crafting of nautical models. Visitors are welcome, and the guild is always looking to recruit both skilled modelers and those new to the craft. Meeting nights are the second Wednesday of each month, at 7:00 P.M. on the upper deck of the ferryboat Berkeley.
The San Diego Ship Modelers’ Guild
c/o The San Diego Maritime Museum
1492 North Harbor Drive
San Diego, CA 92101
For further information email the Guild Master: j.garvin1@cox.net
Maritime Museum Dancers
Experience social life of the Napoleonic era with the Maritime Museum Dancers aboard the HMS Surprise.
Since their debut performance on Labor Day 2005, the Maritime Museum Dancers have been delighting museum guests with dance, wardrobe, music and song of the 1805 period.
Interested in joining the dance troupe?
Contact: Ms. Elizabeth Albe
Troupe Director
(949) 295-3236
Rehearsal: To be announced
Performances: The Maritime Dancers will be performing on the Surprise Sunday July 24 at noon, 1:15 and 2:15 pm.
Library and Archives
There are always plenty of opportunities to help with cataloging, preserving, and protecting thousands of books, periodicals and historic artifacts in our museum library and collections department.
Help is also needed in the curatorial department developing and installing permanent and temporary exhibits.
For more information about volunteering in the library or collections department, please contact Jeff Loman at the Volunteer Coordinator's office at (619) 234-9153 x 135 or jloman@sdmaritime.org
Public Events
The Maritime Museum of San Diego frequently has opportunity for volunteers to help at many of our public events. These events include Family Days, Exhibit Openings, Sea and Air Parades, Ship Festivals, Members Nights, as well as countless other events.
Volunteers should be friendly, helpful, able to work with the public....and most importantly able to have fun. Positions will vary from event to event but often include concessions, ticket sales, security, crowd control, ushers and others.
If you are interested in participating, please contact the Volunteer Coordinator's office at (619) 234-9153 x 135.