And a few actually did. To check Bardi’s hardtack theory, I headed over to the San Francisco Maritime Museum, right on the water at Aquatic Park. It looks like a cruise ship that ran aground, threw in ...

Afterward, stroll to Aquatic Park, where swimmers brave the frigid San Francisco Bay and the park’s bathhouse, now the Maritime Museum (free). Take in its striking Streamline Moderne Art Deco ...

They plucked and measured and experimented, fitting the brightly colored plastic pieces together, growing them into seafaring crafts to be used for all kinds of fun and work — real and imaginary.

Raymond Ashley speaks about the new “Art of Navigation” exhibit at the Maritime Museum of San Diego that draws on some of the finest examples of period instruments, charts and voyage accounts ...