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 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 and most museums exhibit interesting pieces of ships (such as a figurehead or cannon), ship models, and miscellaneous small items 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 course 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 (ICMM), which coordinates members' efforts to acquire, preserve, and display their material.

At 40 acres (162,000 m²), Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut can lay claim to the title of largest museum; it preserves not only a number of sailing ships, but also a large number of original seaport buildings, including a ship chandlery, sail loft, ropewalk, and so forth. 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.

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.

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

See also: List of Transport Museums

Asia and Oceania

Australian National Maritime Museum, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Museum of Maritime Science, Tokyo, Japan
National Maritime Museum Auckland, New Zealand
Western Australian Maritime Museum, Fremantle, Western Australia,Australia
National Maritime Museum, Galle, Sri Lanka
Hong Kong Maritime Museum, Stanley, Hong Kong
Macau Maritime Museum, Macau

Europe

Eyemouth Maritime Centre, Eyemouth, Scotland, UK
Hull Maritime Museum, Kingston upon Hull, UK
Museum of Hartlepool, Hartlepool, England, UK
Museum Ria de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
Museum of the World Ocean, Kaliningrad, Russia
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, UK
Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, Holland
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth, England,,(UK)
Vasa Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
Maritime Museum, Stockholm, Sweden
Cité de la mer, Cherbourg-Octeville, France
Maritime museum Southampton
Museu de Marinha, Lisbon, Portugal
Turkish Naval Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Maritime Museum in Szczecin, Poland

North America

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

Baltimore Maritime Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, US
Maritime Museum, Sandys Parish, Bermuda
Columbia River Maritime Museum, Astoria, Oregon, US
Coral World, St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands
Dossin Great Lakes Museum, Detroit, Michigan, US
Great Lakes Floating Maritime Museum, Duluth, Minnesota, US
H. Lee White Marine Museum, Oswego, New York, US
Hampton Roads Naval Museum, Norfolk, Virginia, US
Herreshoff Marine Museum, Bristol, Rhode Island, US
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum, Basin Harbor, Vermont, US
Long Island Maritime Museum, Long Island, New York, US
Los Angeles Maritime Museum, Los Angeles, California, US
Mariners' Museum, Newport News, Virginia, US
Maritime & Seafood Industry Museum, Biloxi, MS, US
Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Maritime Museum of San Diego, San Diego, California, US
Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Maritime Museum, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, California, US
Mystic Seaport, Mystic, Connecticut, US
National Museum of Naval Aviation, Pensacola, Florida, US
Nauticus, Norfolk, Virginia, US
Naval Undersea Museum, Keyport, Washington, US
Naval War College Museum, Newport, Rhode Island, US
PT Boat Museum, Fall River, Massachusetts, US
Santa Barbara Maritime Museum, Port Hueneme, California US
South Street Seaport, New York, New York, US
Tahoe Maritime Museum, Homewood, California, US
United States Naval Academy Museum, Annapolis, Maryland, US
U.S. Navy Museum, Washington, D.C., US
U.S. Navy Submarine Force Museum and Library, New London, Connecticut, US
USS Constitution Museum, Boston, Massachusetts, US
Vancouver Maritime Museum, Vancouver British Columbia, Canada
Wisconsin Maritime Museum, Manitowoc, Wisconsin, US

Central America

Maritime Museum (Belize)

References

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.
Evans, M. H., & West, J. (1998). Maritime museums: A guide to the collections and museum ships in Britain and Ireland. London: Chatham Pub.
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.

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