Read Stockwin's Maritime Miscellany Online
Authors: Julian Stockwin
The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic
1675 Lower Water Street
Halifax
Nova Scotia
Telephone: (902) 424-7490
Open: daily in the summer months, closed for major public holidays and on Mondays in winter
This is the oldest and largest maritime museum in Canada. After a number of temporary locations the museum was established on the site of the historic William Robertson & Son Ship Chandlery and A.M. Smith and Co. Properties on the Halifax waterfront. Among this museum’s permanent exhibitions is the Days of Sail Gallery with ship models, images, charts and a sailmaker’s loft. A Royal Navy dockyard was founded in Halifax in 1758, and the museum’s Navy Gallery bears witness to its presence with such items as artefacts from the famous encounter nearby between
Shannon
and
Chesapeake
. Among the museum’s more modern items is its large collection of
Titanic
memorabilia.
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/mma/index.html
Musée de la Marine
Palais de Chaillot
17, place du Trocadéro
75116 Paris
Telephone: 33 (0)1 53 65 69 45
Open: daily except Tuesday and national holidays
The museum traces its origins back to 1748 when Louis Henri du Monceau, general inspector of France’s navy, asked King Louis XV whether he would be prepared to donate his personal ship and shipyard-machinery models for a collection to be exhibited in the Louvre. Now housed in the Palais de Chaillot, a stone’s throw from the Eiffel Tower, the museum’s highlights include its ship model collection and Napoleon’s state barge, as well as paintings of naval battles, uniforms and navigational instruments. Annexes at Brest, Port-Louis, Rochefort and Toulon also celebrate France’s truly rich seafaring heritage with specialist collections.
http://www.musee-marine.fr/index.php?lg=en&nav=1&flash=1
The National Maritime Museum
Kattenburgerplein 1
Amsterdam
The National Maritime Museum has a superb collection telling the story of the maritime heritage of the Netherlands. However, the museum is currently closed for a major renovation of the 300-year-old building which houses the exhibits. The
Amsterdam
, a replica of an eighteenth-century Dutch Indiaman that was moored outside the museum, is still open to the public but has been moved until the refurbishment of the museum is complete.
Amsterdam –
temporary site:
Science center NEMO
Oosterdok 2
1011 VX Amsterdam
Open: Tuesday to Sunday, plus Monday during school holidays and peak season. Closed on public holidays
http://www.scheepvaartmuseum.nl/english
The Hong Kong Maritime Museum
G/F Murray House
Stanley Plaza
Telephone: +852 2813 2322
Open: daily except Mondays and Chinese New Year
One of Asia’s newest institutional celebrations of the history and culture of the sea, the Hong Kong Maritime Museum was opened in 2005. The focus of the museum is how China, Asia and the West have interacted in the development of boats, ships, maritime exploration and trade, and naval warfare. The exhibits are displayed in two main areas – the Ancient Gallery and the Modern Gallery, with ship models, paintings, ceramics, trade goods and ship manifests. A model of a 2,000-year-old boat made of pottery from the Han Dynasty is one of the many priceless treasures on display.
Museo Storico Navale
Castello, 2148
30100
Venice
Telephone: 0415200276
Open: Monday to Saturday
At the height of Venice’s naval power in the fifteenth century, the Arsenale, the focus of the republic’s military operations, occupied one-fifth of the area of the city and employed over 16,000 workers who turned out vessel after vessel, both for commercial and military use, in massive assembly lines. The Museo Storico Navale, situated close to the Arsenale, is a vast museum devoted to the maritime achievements of the Venetian republic and story of the Italian navy. The highlight of the model ships exhibition is a lavish model of the
Bucintoro
, the golden ceremonial barge of the ruler of Venice, the doge. The museum’s art treasures include a sixteenth-century frieze that depicts Venice’s famous victory against the Ottoman empire at the Battle of Lepanto in 1572.
http://www2.regione.veneto.it/cultura/musei/inglese/pag462e.htm
The Maritime Museum of Malta
Vittoriosa
Grand Harbour
Telephone: +356 2295 4000, 2295 4300
Open: daily except major public holidays
Housed in the former British Naval Bakery, the museum was built over the site of the slipway where the Knights of St John, who ruled Malta for nearly three centuries, launched their galleys. The bakery remained part of the naval establishment up until the closure of the British base in 1979. The museum celebrates the island’s rich maritime history and the broader Mediterranean maritime context. A prized exhibit is a model of the French ship of the line
Bucentaure
, made by captive French sailors during the Napoleonic wars. Maltese sea crafts are well represented, as are uniforms, weapons and artefacts from the Royal Navy’s days in Malta.
http://www.visitmalta.com/the-maritime-museum
Museu de Marinha
Praça do Império
1400-206
Lisbon
Telephone: +351 – 21 – 362 00 10
Open: daily except Monday. Closed on national holidays
The treasures of the museum are displayed in themed rooms. In the entrance hall is a planisphere that celebrates the boldness and daring of the Portuguese explorers of the fifteenth century. The museum has a very fine collection of astrolabes. One poignant artefact in the museum is a figure of the archangel Raphael, which Paulo da Gama carried in his ship
Sao Rafael
in the famous voyage of 1497. When his ship was
wrecked
he managed to save the archangel, but he died shortly afterwards. After that his brother Vasco da Gama kept the figure always by his side.
http://www.museumarinha.pt/museu/ENG/Homepage/index.aspx
Maritime Museum of Barcelona
Av. de les Drassanes s/n
08001 Barcelona
Telephone: 933 429 920
Open: daily except major public holidays
Fittingly sited opposite a statue of Christopher Columbus, the Maritime Museum of Barcelona is located in the royal arsenals that date from the fourteenth century and are the most complete medieval dockyards in the world. The museum celebrates not just Spain’s extensive seafaring heritage but that of the Mediterranean as a whole. Of note is ‘The Great Adventure of the Sea’, an interactive exhibition that is a homage to Catalonia’s maritime history. There is also a unique collection of votive paintings by sailors, and a wide range of models, figureheads and maritime paintings.
Vasa
Museum
Galärvarvsvägen 14
Stockholm
Telephone: +46-8-519 558 10
Open: daily, closed over Christmas
Vasa
, the only remaining intact seventeenth-century ship in the world, was rediscovered on the seabed of Stockholm harbour in 1956 in a remarkable state of preservation. Excavation work went on until 1967 and she was put on public view in a specially constructed building in 1990. Visitors to the Vasa Museum are almost overwhelmed by their first sight of the ship, over 50 m long, illuminated in the soft light of the vast purpose-built ship’s hall. The lower rig has been rebuilt complete with masts, stays and shrouds, just as the ship would have looked when set for winter in harbour. A superb 1:10 scale model recreates the glorious colours of her original livery and ornamentation.
http://www.vasamuseet.se/InEnglish/about.aspx
National Maritime Museum of Great Britain
Romney Road
Greenwich
London SE10 9NF
Telephone: +44 (0)20 8312 6565
Opening hours: daily, closed over Christmas
Three sites – the Maritime Galleries (covering the sixteenth to the early twentieth centuries), the Royal Observatory and the Queen’s House (showcasing a priceless art collection) – together constitute one museum dedicated to the sea, ships, time and the stars and their relationship with people. Among the most moving exhibits is the actual coat worn by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, the bullet hole from the musket-ball which killed him clearly visible on the left shoulder. The National Maritime Museum is arguably the world’s greatest maritime collection of paintings, prints, models, relics, manuscripts, instruments, weapons and charts.
Chatham Historic Dockyard
Chatham
Kent ME4 4TZ
Telephone: +44 (0)1634 823807
Open: daily. Restricted hours or closed in November, December and January
The complex is set in 32 hectares. Down the centuries the great names of maritime history, Francis Drake, John Hawkins, Horatio Nelson and many others, have all sailed from here. This was the birthplace of many of the navy’s most celebrated ships, including HMS
Victory
. One fascinating exhibition is ‘Wooden Walls’ which follows William Crockwell, an apprentice shipwright, on his first day at work on the 74-gun ship of the line HMS
Valiant
. He is introduced to many of the different trades involved in building the ship. The Ropery, with its 400-m long Double Ropehouse, is the only working traditional rope-walk from the age of sail to survive anywhere in the world. Chatham closed as a working dockyard in 1984 and was redeveloped as a historic dockyard celebrating four centuries of naval history. It is the most complete dockyard of the age of sail in existence.
Buckler’s Hard
Beaulieu
Brockenhurst
Hampshire SO42 7XB
Telephone: 01590 616203
Open: daily except Christmas Day
A hard is a place where boats and ships are landed, the muddy bottom being covered with gravel or shingle. Buckler’s Hard developed as a thriving shipbuilding village where warships for Nelson’s navy were built, three of which took part in the Battle of Trafalgar. Nelson’s favourite HMS
Agamemnon
was built at Buckler’s Hard and launched in 1781. As well as fascinating information on how wooden ships were built and many superb ship models the museum has a fine collection of Nelson memorabilia including his baby clothes made for him by citizens of his birthplace, Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk.
http://www.bucklershard.co.uk/ipus/bucklershard/index
Portsmouth
Historic Dockyard
HM Naval Base
Portsmouth
Hampshire PO1 3LJ
Telephone: 023 9286 1512
Opening hours: daily, closed over Christmas
Unique in its combination of historic site, naval museum and famous ships (
Mary Rose
, HMS
Victory
and HMS
Warrior
), the dockyard draws huge crowds of visitors each year. Its origins go back to the twelfth century when Richard I ordered the construction of a dockyard in Portsmouth. The Royal Naval Museum has a very fine Sailing Navy Gallery, housed in a restored eighteenth-century storehouse. To go on board
Victory
and peep into Nelson’s cabin, then to go and see the spot where he died on the orlop is to experience a moving connection with history.
http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/
Cutty Sark
King William Walk
Greenwich
London SE10 9HT
Telephone: 020 8858 2698
Now in permanent berth in dry dock, this famed vessel has attracted over 15 million visitors. With her shapely hull, steeply raked bow and wondrous spread of sail, the clipper was arguably the most beautiful ship ever built.
Cutty Sark
travelled across the world sailing under both the Red Ensign and the Portuguese flag, visiting every major port through the course of her working life. She is the world’s sole surviving extreme clipper and the only tea clipper still in existence. There are some facilities at the site for viewing the conservation work through a special observation dome.
HMS
Trincomalee
Hartlepool’s Maritime Experience
Jackson Dock
Maritime Avenue
Hartlepool TS24 0XZ
Telephone: 01429 860077
Open: daily, closed over Christmas
Located within the Hartlepool Maritime Experience complex, this venerable historic ship is the oldest British fighting ship still afloat. She was built in Bombay in 1817 as a frigate, a fifth-rate ship of 46 guns. Later she was reduced to a sixth-rate and served all over the world from the Pacific to the Arctic Circle. In 1898 she was
renamed
Foudroyant
and served as a training ship. Now she is fully restored with her original name.
http://www.hms-trincomalee.co.uk/
Docklands Museum
West India Quay
Canary Wharf
London E14 4AL
Telephone: 020 7001 9844
Open: daily, closed over Christmas
Housed in a Georgian warehouse that once stored imports of exotic spices, rum and cotton from all over the world, this museum explores the 2,000-year-old history of London’s river and port – and the people who lived and worked there. During the eighteenth century there was a great increase in international trade, and by 1800 the number of ships entering the port had increased 400 per cent. One of the focuses of the museum’s permanent exhibitions is the development of London’s port and docks to cater to this rapid expansion.
http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/English/
Golden Hinde