Santa Barbara Maritime Museum

The Santa Barbara Maritime Museum occupies a low, weathered building tucked into the Santa Barbara Harbor, identified by the towering, rusted steel propeller sitting out front. It exists to preserve the history of the Santa Barbara Channel, a stretch of water so treacherous that sailors once called it the graveyard of the Pacific. In nineteen oh two, the steamship Cuba ran aground nearby in thick fog. Locals spent days salvaging crates of wine and silverware from the surf before the ship broke apart.