Maritime museum

A maritime museum (sometimes nautical museum) is a museum specializing in the display of objects relating to ships and travel on large bodies of water. A subcategory of maritime museums are naval museums, which focus on navies and the military use of the sea.

The great prize of a maritime museum is a historic ship (or a replica) made accessible as a museum ship, but as these are large and require a considerable budget to maintain, many museums preserve smaller or more fragile ships or partial ships within the museum buildings. Most museums exhibit interesting pieces of ships (such as a figurehead or cannon), ship models, and miscellaneous small items associated with ships and shipping, like cutlery, uniforms, and so forth.

Ship modellers often have a close association with maritime museums; not only does the museum have items that help the modeller achieve better accuracy, but the museum provides a display space for models larger than will comfortably fit in a modeller's home, and of the museum is happy to take a ship model as a donation. Museums will also commission models.

There are thousands of maritime museums in the world. Many belong to the International Congress of Maritime Museums, which coordinates members' efforts to acquire, preserve, and display their material. There is a risk that too many maritime museums might dilute the experience for the public, while a poorly managed museum might put other municipalities off from the idea of hosting such a museum.^[1]

At 80 acres (32 ha) the Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent, UK can lay claim to being the largest maritime museum in the world, incorporating numerous dockyard buildings, including a 1/4 mile long ropewalk, spinning rooms, covered slips, dry docks, smithery, sail loft, rigging house, mould loft, church, as well as three historic warships, it is the best preserved dockyard from the Age of Sail. However, the UK's National Maritime Museum in Greenwich is also a contender, with many items of great historical significance, such as the actual uniform worn by Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. The largest in the United States of America is 19 acres (7.7 ha), Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut; it preserves not only a number of sailing ships, but also many original seaport buildings, including a ship chandlery, sail loft, ropewalk, and so forth.

A recent activity of maritime museums is to build replicas of ships, since there are few survivors that have not already been restored and put on display. Another is operating a museum harbour, most notably in Germany and the Netherlands but elsewhere too, that offers mooring to privately owned historical vessels, which can be watched but not boarded.

Preservation of ships

The preservation of ships in museums ensures that ancient and historic vessels are preserved for posterity in optimum conditions and are available for academic study and for public education and interest.

Remains of ancient and historic ships and boats can be seen in museums around the world. Where a ship is in a good state of preservation it can sometimes act as a museum in its own right. Many museum ships, such as HMS Victory are popular tourist attractions. Some ships are too fragile to be exposed outdoors or are incomplete and must be preserved indoors. The remains of the Mary Rose for example are kept in a purpose designed building so that conservation treatment can be applied.

In some cases, archaeologists have discovered traces of ships and boats where there are no extant physical remains to be preserved, such as Sutton Hoo, where museum displays can show what the vessel would have looked like, although the vessel itself no longer exists.

Notable maritime museums

North America

The Council of American Maritime Museums serves as network for museum professionals in North America.

Battleship USS Iowa Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA
Bermuda Maritime Museum, Sandys Parish, Bermuda
Buffalo and Erie County Naval & Military Park, Buffalo, New York, USA
Calvert Marine Museum, Solomons, Maryland, USA
Camden Shipyard & Maritime Museum, Camden, New Jersey, USA
Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria, Oregon, USA
Coral World Ocean Park, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Detroit, Michigan, USA
Florida Maritime Museum, Cortez, Florida, USA
Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum, Duluth, Minnesota, USA
H. Lee White Marine Museum, Oswego, New York, USA
Hampton Roads Naval Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, Rhode Island, USA
Historic Ships in Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, New York City, USA
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Basin Harbor, Vermont, USA
Long Island Maritime Museum, Long Island, New York, USA
Los Angeles Maritime Museum, Los Angeles, California, USA
Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, Maine, USA
Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, USA – National Maritime Museum
Maritime Heritage Centre, Campbell River, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Museum, Belize City, Belize

Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA
Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Museum of San Diego, San Diego, California, USA
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Maritime Museum, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, California, USA
Museo Naval México, Veracruz, Mexico
Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut, USA
National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida, USA
National Museum of the United States Navy, Washington, D.C., USA
Nauticus, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
Naval Undersea Museum, Keyport, Washington, USA
Naval War College Museum, Newport, Rhode Island, USA
New Bedford Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts, USA
PT Boat Museum, Fall River, Massachusetts, USA
Salem Maritime National Historic Site, Salem, Massachusetts, USA
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Santa Barbara, California, USA
Site historique maritime de la Pointe-au-Père, Rimouski, Quebec, Canada
South Street Seaport, New York City, USA
Tahoe Maritime Museum, Homewood, California, USA
Tuckerton Seaport, Tuckerton, New Jersey, USA
United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland, USA
U.S. Navy Submarine Force Library and Museum, Groton, Connecticut, USA
USS Constitution Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Vancouver Maritime Museum, Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, USA
National Museum of the Great Lakes, Toledo, Ohio, USA
Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, Whitefish Point Light, Michigan, USA
Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, Savannah, Georgia, USA

South America

Mar del Plata Museum of the Sea, Mar del Plata, Argentina
Museo Nao Victoria, Punta Arenas, Chile
Museu Nacional do Mar, São Francisco do Sul, Brazil
Museu Náutico, Rio Grande, Brazil
Museu Naval, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Museum of the Sea, Bogotá, Colombia
Museum of the Sea, La Barra, Uruguay
Naval Museum of Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay^[4]
Naval Museum of Peru, Callao, Peru

References

^ St. Jacques, Robert (October 1, 2000). "Naval Warship Museums Problems And Potentials". Naval Weapons of the World. Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2012.
^ "Musei di Genova - Galata Museo del Mare". www.museidigenova.it. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved May 22, 2022.
^ "Passage West Maritime Museum". Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2019.
^ "MUSEO NAVAL DE MONTEVIDEO . R.O. DEL URUGUAY". histarmar.com.ar. Archived from the original on February 29, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2012.

Aymar, B. (1967). A pictorial treasury of the marine museums of the world; A guide to the maritime collections, restorations, replicas, and marine museums in twenty-three countries. New York: Crown.
Burton, A. (2003). The Daily Telegraph Guide to Britain's Maritime Past. London: Aurum Press.
Evans, M. H., & West, J. (1998). Maritime museums: A guide to the collections and museum ships in Britain and Ireland. London: Chatham Pub.
Heiney, P. (2005). Maritime Britain. London: Adlard Coles Nautical.
Neill, P., & Krohn, B. E. (1991). Great maritime museums of the world. New York: Balsam Press in association with H.N. Abrams.
Smith, R. H. (2006). Smith's guide to maritime museums of North America. Del Mar, CA: C Books.
Stammers, M. (1978). Discovering maritime museums and historic ships. Discovering series, no. 228. Aylesbury [England]: Shire Publications
Stanford, J. M. (1990). Sea history's guide to American and Canadian maritime museums. Croton-on-Hudson: Sea History Press.
Sullivan, D. (1978). Old ships, boats & maritime museums. London: Coracle Books.

External links

[1] St. Jacques, Robert (October 1, 2000). "Naval Warship Museums Problems And Potentials". Naval Weapons of the World. Archived from the original on October 24, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2012.

[2] "Musei di Genova - Galata Museo del Mare". www.museidigenova.it. Archived from the original on July 22, 2011. Retrieved May 22, 2022.

[3] "Passage West Maritime Museum". Archived from the original on June 8, 2019. Retrieved June 8, 2019.

[4] "MUSEO NAVAL DE MONTEVIDEO . R.O. DEL URUGUAY". histarmar.com.ar. Archived from the original on February 29, 2016. Retrieved February 23, 2012.

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Preservation of ships

Notable maritime museums

Africa

Asia

Oceania

Europe

North America

South America

See also

References

External links