Speaker: James White, Director, Texas Seaport Museum.

James White has been the Director of the Texas Seaport Museum and the beautiful iron barque ELISSA since October 2010.

He has 30 years of experience in the historic sailing ship community, including leading the restoration, rigging and maintenance of dozens of historic vessels and replicas around the U.S. and in the United Kingdom.  He has sailed almost 30,000 miles on square-rigged vessels and holds a 100-ton Master's license from the U.S. Coast Guard.

Before becoming director at Texas Seaport Museum he was asked to perform a rig survey for insurance and crew on Elissa's 2009 sea trials following the stresses of Hurricane Ike.  In 1995, he supervised the rigging restoration of the Moshulu (a massive 1906 four-masted bark in New Jersey).  He served as Master rigger during the restoration of the three-masted bark Glenlee in Scotland in 1998.

His principal occupation since 2000 has been Historic Ships Rigging Foreman with the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park , a unit of the National Park Service, where he was responsible for the rigging of a whole fleet of historic ships, including the 1883 full-rigger Balclutha.

He has lectured on the traditional rigging of square-rigged ships at the University of St. Andrews , the oldest university in Scotland and many yacht clubs and service organizations.  He consulted with the Bishop Museum in Honolulu on the rigging of the four-masted full-rigged ship Falls of Clyde , among other projects.

James is a graduate of California State University at Long Beach, where he played varsity football.