SHIPS OF THE SEA MARITIME MUSEUM
WILLIAM SCARBROUGH HOUSE AND GARDENS
MUSEUM EVENTS 2022
2022 MUSEUM EVENTS
JANUARY EVENT/S 2022
SOLSTICE SEAFARERS!
COME ASHORE during Solstice Seafarers! FREE ADMISSION for two children when accompanied by one paying adult.
18 DECEMBER 2021 - 2 JANUARY 2022
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (LAST ADMISSION: 4:15 PM)
TUES-SUN
HUMAN CARGO: SAVANNAH AND THE OCEANIC SLAVE TRADE
The intention of “Human Cargo: Savannah and the Oceanic Slave Trade” is to recognize this region’s role in the African diaspora. From 1755 – 1858 hundreds of slave ships arrived in Savannah from the West Indies, the Caribbean, and Africa. Each of these vessels carried tens to hundreds of enslaved people destined to be sold on the auction block. The ordeals they suffered as human cargo included the loss of their freedom, families, homeland, identity, and even their names. We may never be able to recognize them individually, but we can call out the ships that were the instruments of their torture and the brokers who profited from their misery. While their names have been lost, the volume of their collective anguish has not. It is in tribute that we acknowledge their numbers and the path of their suffering through a blanketing of the Museum’s upper and lower atriums with a registry documenting their bitter journeys into Savannah slavery.
Special focus will be given to the innumerable people who did not survive the journey. A tribute to those lost will be presented through a moving installation which will span the entirety of the North Garden’s reflecting pool. Artist and SCAD Professor Chris Nitsche will install a deconstructed slave ship which will be flanked with graphic sails created by Professor Rachel Green and the students of Georgia Southern. Professor Eric Clark and the students of Savannah State University will document the lost through ceramic sculpture within the waters of the pool. This installation will be available for viewing free of charge
14 OCT 2021 - 27 FEB 2022
OPENING RECEPTION: 14 OCT 2021, 6-8 PM, FREE ADMISSION
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (LAST ADMISSION: 4:15 PM)
TUES-SUN
APRIL EVENT/S 2022
SPRING BREAK SAILORS!
GRAB A FRIEND AND JOIN US FOR Spring Break Sailors! FREE ADMISSION for two children when accompanied by one paying adult.
28 MARCH - 3 APRIL 2022
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (LAST ADMISSION: 4:15 PM)
TUES-SUN
JUNE EVENT/S 2022
RISING TO THE SURFACE:
A SUMMONING OF SAVANNAH'S TITANIC
In the spring of 2018, Endurance Exploration Group and Blue Waters Venture International verified that they had indeed found what they had endeavored to discover, the wreck of the steamer Pulaski. Bound for Baltimore from Savannah in 1838, Pulaski was obliterated by a boiler explosion 40 miles off the cost of North Carolina. Of the nearly 200 people aboard, 59 are known to have survived.
Since 1912, the loss of Pulaski has been compared among historians to the world’s most famous maritime disaster, that of the RMS Titanic. Just like her successor, Pulaski was built to be bigger, better, and stronger than her contemporaries. No expense was spared in her construction and her luxuries enticed passage from some of the most prominent citizens in the country. Like Titanic, her destruction could have easily been avoided, and her loss (akin to Titanic’s) left sections of the country in unbearable grief.
However, in contrast with Titanic’s enduring legacy, Pulaski’s narrative became a footnote in isolated biographies, or narrowly recounted in the brief articles of historic journals. The impact of Pulaski’s tragedy on Savannah and Charleston was all but forgotten until her remains were discovered beneath the waves.
In tandem with the discovery of Pulaski's wreck-site, a New York Times best-selling author found herself intrigued with the ship's long-lost story. Through her book, “Surviving Savannah,” Patti Callahan explores the depths of Pulaski’s chronicle with a thoroughness for disclosure not seen since the first newspaper reports in 1838.
“Surviving Savannah” and the discovery of Pulaski’s remains have brought Pulaski’s story back to the surface. A tragedy that while small in comparison to that of Titanic’s, was for Savannah and Charleston one of the greatest maritime disasters these communities have known.
17 JUNE 2022 - 31 DEC 2022
OPENING RECEPTION: 17 JUNE 2022
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM (LAST ADMISSION: 4:15 PM)
TUES-SUN
