The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: December twenty-ninth, exploring the Mariner's Museum in Newport News.

In 1930, Archer Huntington, a Virginia rail and ship-building heir, set out to, "preserve the culture of the sea." He sent his agents to all corners of the earth searching for relics of mankind's ocean-going history, the whole story, unlimited by geography or era. Huntington's timing was superb. Everyday objects from the age of sail and days of steam were still abundant and inexpensive.

Since then, the museum Huntington founded has acquired a priceless collection of maritime memorabilia. It includes hundreds of intricately-crafted ship models and thousands of works of maritime art. Its 35,000 artifacts range from cannon-ball crushed hull plates off the iron clad "Monitor" and great, gilded ship figureheads to the silk scarf used to lower an infant from the deck of the sinking Titanic. The museum's archives include a million items and half a million historic photographs. The entire collection is superbly displayed in a rambling complex of buildings set on a huge park near Hampton Roads, Virginia, the great naval anchorage at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.

The Mariner Museum is only one local attraction for those who harken to the call of the sea. How about taking a day cruise of the magnificent harbor on a three-masted schooner? Or joing a bus tour through the world's largest naval base at Norfolk, where the grey profiles of dozens of warships bow to the piers? Then there's Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum, a place any ship lover could spend a serious amount of time. For more information, visit us on-line at www.travelersjournal.com.

FMI For more information, contact the Mariner's Museum, 800-581-7245 or www.mariner.org
For Hampton Roads Harbor Cruises on the American Rover 757-627-SAIL.
For Norfolk Naval Yard tours 757-444-7955.
Portsmouth Naval Ship Yard Museum 757-393-8591.
For Norfolk Visitor and Convention Bureau, 800-368-3097, or www.vgnet.com

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