May 25: The New Guy

For this internship, I am working for the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum.
This museum has been in Newport Beach for 25 years with a dedication to nautical history and heritage. The organization has changed names and locations in the past couple years. It is now called ExplorOcean/ Newport Harbor Nautical Museum and the new location is in the Balboa Funzone, which has always struck me as being the center hub for the harbor.

The mission for the museum is to be dedicated to sharing the adventure, history, and natural wonders of the sea through fun and entertaining exhibits.

I have been to this museum several times before I applied to this internship so I thought I would be ready for anything that could come my way. As it turns out, I didn't really know too much about this museum especially since the ExplorOcean program was started after my last visit.

I arrive at the museum nice and early at 9am to get started (9am is early especially on summer vacation). I met with the boss to discuss what my job is going to be while I am interning for the summer. On Fridays, I will be doing research regarding the model ships in the Steele Model Pavillion. I am supposed to pick several ships and create scripts for potential re-enactments. On Saturdays, I will be working on the galleries that the museum has to open to the public.

The scripts would contain what a sailor's story might be (where did he come from, what are the skills he has), his position on the ship, what ship did he serve under, did he participate in a historical event (probably because that's why I'll pick a certain ship), and what would the overall experience be like.
The project seems pretty straightforward and like a lot of fun but there was one problem (there has to be one, right?). One of the scripts must pertain to a female character, if anyone who knows a thing about maritime history it's that women did not go aboard ships. Luckily, the ships in the gallery have a certain variety from ship type to time period so it's possible. I'm shown to computer where I can begin this research and I get started right away.

I decided to read all the descriptions of the model ships so I can pick which ships have the potential for scripts. After reading through all the descriptions, I had a good idea for the ships I wanted to pick but I wanted to know a bit more about these models so I asked the person working the gallery to give a tour while there was some time. The tour really helped since I put the description to the actual ship and I felt more confident about completing the scripts. After the tour, I spent the rest of the day doing research on one of the whaling vessels.

Outside of the research, I met most of the staff members and told them that I was the new intern. the staff was friendly and made the first day not so bad. It got to a point to where I introduced myself as the new guy when I met someone new. It was pretty sold first day and I really look forward to the rest of the summer with the museum.