Ray Ashley, CEO, Maritime Museum of San Diego

Building the galleon San Salvador: an American Origin Story

After more than a century of imagining the galleon of Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo as the iconic repository of San Diego’s origin story, the people of San Diego were recently able to see the nearly complete full-scale reproduction of this legendary ship operate on the waters of San Diego Bay. Dr. Ashley’s talk will discuss the strange world of 1542, Cabrillo’s voyage, recent findings about Cabrillo’s own birthplace, review the process by which a ship for which no original plans existed was conceived, how she was built over the course of five years, and what is in store for her in the future.

Dr. Ray Ashley is President/CEO of the San Diego Maritime Museum. Growing up locally, he became director of the San Diego Maritime Museum in 1995. He holds a BA in Anthropology from UCSD, an MA in Maritime History and Museum Studies from East Carolina University, and a PhD in History from Duke University, specializing in the history of science, technology and medicine. He has taught courses in history and archeology at UCSD and USD, has published papers in American Neptune and a number of other professional journals, and writes a quarterly column for the Maritime Museum’s peer reviewed journal Mains’l Haul.