By Maritime Museum of San Diego
Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific explores the deep and often overlooked relationships between Black communities and the Pacific Ocean. Spanning centuries of maritime movement, labor, exploration, and cultural exchange, the exhibit highlights the lives and contributions of Black mariners whose stories helped shape the Pacific world.
Developed in partnership with UC San Diego curator Dr. Caroline Collins, Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific brings together research, storytelling, and maritime history to explore Black relationships with the Pacific Ocean and the broader maritime world. “By integrating the stories of Black seafarers into the broader narrative of Pacific maritime history, the exhibit creates space for deeper conversations about inclusion, identity, and belonging,” explained Dr. Collins. “Visitors are invited to imagine Black relationships with water and watercraft beyond the limited frameworks that have traditionally defined those histories.”
Visitors are invited to discover the experiences of sailors, whalers, fishers, waterfront workers, explorers, soldiers, surfers, swimmers, and scholars whose connections to the ocean expanded far beyond traditional narratives of maritime history.
Through immersive storytelling, historical interpretation, and contemporary scholarship, the exhibit offers a broader and more inclusive understanding of the Pacific—revealing how identity, labor, migration, resilience, and culture moved across oceans and generations.
From the 16th through the 20th century, Black mariners were part of the movement of people, knowledge, labor, and culture throughout the Pacific. They served aboard merchant ships, whalers, naval vessels, and fishing boats, and contributed to the growth of maritime industries and coastal communities across the region.
Their stories reveal a deeper and more complete picture of the Pacific world—one shaped not only by trade and exploration, but also by resilience, skill, and human connection across oceans and generations.
Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific is included with general admission to the Maritime Museum of San Diego. Visitors may experience the exhibit as part of their self-guided general admission ticket benefits while exploring the Museum’s historic ships and galleries.
Maritime Museum of San Diego is located at 1492 N. Harbor Drive in downtown San Diego between Grape & Ash Street. The Museum is open daily 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with last visitor entry at 4:00 p.m. Visit sdmaritime.org for more information.
Take Me to the Water: Histories of the Black Pacific has been made possible in part through major support from the National Endowment for the Humanities. (www.neh.gov)
