Maritime history
Maritime history concerns the history of boats, ships, shipbuilding and life at sea.
Understand
Map of Maritime history
People have travelled at sea since time immemorial. Some ancient peoples such as the Maori and the Vikings braved oceans, but it was only the Age of Discovery from the 15th century which charted all the world's oceans. In the 19th century, steam power revolutionized seafaring.
For much of history, the most advanced ships have been warships, making maritime history relevant for military tourism. Destinations includes stationary museum ships, museums on land, heritage ferries, lighthouses and other places and vessels relevant to seafaring. Some museum ships are hotels or nightlife venues, as well as attractions in their own right.
Destinations
- 1 Ushuaia Maritime Museum (Museo Maritimo y Presidio de Ushuaia), Ushuaia, Argentina. Eclectic museum in what was once a military fort but now houses the Maritime Museum, an Anarctic Museum, and a Prison Museum. The maritime exhibits are mostly models, maps, and interpretive exhibits telling the tale of whaling ships of the 19th and early 20th century, though they also have a replica lighthouse.
- 2 Australian National Maritime Museum, Pyrmont Bay, Sydney. Two floors of internal exhibits, outlining the maritime role in Australia's history. Houses significant full scale exhibits. Outside there are ships and submarines to explore.
- 3 Queensland Maritime Museum, Brisbane, info@maritimemuseum.com.au. Has a range of exhibitions and vessels. Step aboard the HMAS Diamantina and experience life as a Navy sailor. Be sure to see Ella's Pink Lady, the yacht Queenslander Jessica Watson sailed solo unassisted during her record-breaking journey to become the youngest person to sail solo around the world.
- 4 Maritime Museum of Tasmania, Hobart, info@maritimetas.org. This museum houses the largest collection of maritime artefacts in Tasmania. Displays include information on the early maritime history of Tasmania, the role of lighthouses, the whaling industry, maritime trade, boat building and shipping.
- 5 WA Maritime Museum, Fremantle, Perth. A wonderful collection of vessels, including the winged-keel Australia II, which won the America's Cup. You'll also find a full history of marine activity on the West Australian coast. A tour of HMAS Ovens, a retired Oberon-class submarine, is well worth the time.
- 6 South Australian Maritime Museum, Port Adelaide. Exhibits related to the maritime history of the region, from the first European explorers sailing the waters to immigrants arriving by boat and the Australian Navy of today.
China (Mainland)
- 7 China (Hainan) Museum of the South China Sea (中国(海南)南海博物馆), Tanmen, Hainan Province. Hainan's second largest publicly-owned museum. The first exhibition hall focuses on the historical basis for China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, and includes maps and documents that purportedly demonstrate that China has exercised sovereignty over the region for centuries. Another notable exhibition is a collection of artefacts that were recovered from the Huangguangjiao One, a Chinese merchant vessel that sunk near Huangguang Reef during the Song Dynasty. A replica of the ship can be seen on the outside of the building.
- 8 China Port Museum (中国港口博物馆), Ningbo, Zhejiang Province. A major national-level maritime museum in Ningbo's busy harbour district.
- 9 Maritime Silk Road Museum of Guangdong (广东海上丝绸之路博物馆), Yangjiang, Guangdong Province.
- 10 (中国人民解放军海军博物馆, previously known as the Qingdao Naval Museum), Qingdao, Shandong Province. A major national-level museum with exhibits on the history of the Chinese navy, as well as full-size warships that visitors may tour.
- 11 National Maritime Museum of China (国家海洋博物馆), Tianjin.
- 12 Quanzhou Maritime Museum (Quanzhou Overseas Relations Museum). This Chinese city was a major terminus of the Maritime Silk Road and a base for some of Zheng He's voyages.
- 13 Battle of Fuzhou. Mawei, a suburb of Fuzhou, has been a port with a major shipyard for centuries and remains so today. In 1884 the French sank much of the Chinese Navy here. The remains of Foochow Arsenal can be visited and there is a temple commemorating the Chinese dead.
- 14 Internationales Maritimes Museum (Hamburg, Germany). Covering ten floors with 1,000 large and 36,000 miniature models, plans, paintings, photos, films, numerous nautical devices, historic uniforms, and maritime objects. About two thirds of the collection is on permanent display. A modern ship simulator lets visitors try their hand at navigating a container vessel into port.
- 15 Hong Kong Maritime Museum (香港海事博物館), Central Hong Kong. In addition to original artifacts, cannons, scrolls, ship's models and paintings, the galleries of Hong Kong Maritime Museum have over 25 interactive screens to introduce visitors to the vast range of stories and topics at the heart of Hong Kong's – and the world's – maritime story. You can learn of Poon Lim, the world record holder for solo survival at sea. See how a junk is built. Trace the development of China's trade routes from the Han to the Qing Dynasty. Investigate China Trade paintings. Hunt pirates. Load a container ship.
The nearby Star Ferry to Kowloon operates several older vessels, in 2023 it includes ferries built in the 1950s.
- 17 Hikawa Maru (氷川丸), Yamashita Park. Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku (Yokohama, Japan). This passenger liner made 238 voyages across the Pacific to Seattle and Vancouver between 1930 and 1960, and served as a hospital ship during World War II. The ship is also used for movie and TV location shooting including the 1997 film Moonlight Serenade and the 2005 NHK drama Haru e Natsu.
- 18 Maritiem Museum (Maritime Museum), Leuvehaven 1 (Rotterdam, Netherlands), ☏ +31 10 413 26 80, fax: +31 10 413 73 42. A variety of expositions about the harbour of Rotterdam and maritime history. The museum also has an outdoor part of which the Museumschip De Buffel is the absolute highlight. This 19th-century gunboat is restored in all its glory and a must-see for naval enthusiasts.
- 19 New Zealand Maritime Museum, Central Auckland, New Zealand. Many interesting exhibits chronicle New Zealand's maritime history, including actual yachts from the America's Cup and interactive displays and machines. There is an Auckland harbour cruise on an old-style cargo scow that takes about 1 hour and costs extra. You can also see the "ship in a bottle" exhibit, and meet the volunteers working on the models.
- Elsewhere in New Zealand, the Edwin Fox Maritime Museum in Picton and Wellington Museum are worth a visit.
- 1 TSS Earnslaw, Queenstown. The TSS Earnslaw is a historic 1912 coal powered steamship which offers daily tours. Lake cruises on Lake Wakatipu offer great views of the town, surrounding mountains, etc.
- 20 Pommern, Mariehamn, Åland, Finland. Pommern is a four-masted barque (windjammer) built at J. Reid & Co shipyard in Glasgow in 1903. She soon became one of the Flying P-Liners, the famous sailing ships of the German shipping company F. Laeisz. Later she belonged to Gustaf Erikson of Åland, who used her (and the rest of his windjammers) to carry grain from the Spencer Gulf area in Australia to harbours in England and Ireland until the outbreak of World War II. She was thus one of the last cargo-carrying large sailing ships.
- 21 Åland Maritime Museum (Ålands sjöfartsmuseum), Mariehamn, Åland, Finland. This impressive museum preserves memories of the sailing ships. One of its exhibits being the red-brown captain’s saloon from the famous four-masted barque Herzogin Cecilie, built as cargo-carrying sail training ship for Germany, after World War II bought by Gustaf Erikson, and used for the Australian grain trade.
- 23 Vasa Museum (Vasamuseet), Galärvarvsvägen 14 (Stockholm/Djurgården, Sweden). This museum displays the Vasa, an original warship built for the Thirty Years War which sank in Stockholm Harbour on its maiden voyage in 1628, during the heyday of the Swedish Empire. Salvaged in 1961, the ship is almost wholly preserved, and is the only one of its kind and quality in the world.
- 24 Vrak – Museum of Wrecks (Stockholm/Djurgården, Sweden). Virtual reality and other modern technologies present the shipwrecks of the Baltic Sea, of which many remains on the seafloor.
- 25 Karlskrona Maritime Museum, Stumholmen (Karlskrona, Sweden). A very large maritime museum on the waterfront with spectacular vistas. Most of the exhibits are in Swedish, so be sure to pick up an audio guide. The exhibits consist principally of a very large and impressive collection of wooden ship models, and life-size interiors of ships that can be walked through.
- 26 Maritime Museum (Sjöhistoriska museet), Djurgårdsbrunnsvägen 24 (Stockholm, Sweden). Exhibits Sweden's long history as a seafaring nation. Remnants of the Amphion, an 18th-century Royal yacht, and a broad collection of scale models.
- 27 Maritiman (Gothenburg, Sweden). "The world's biggest floating museum of ships" consists of 19 boats of all sizes. The biggest attraction is the former military destroyer Småland.
- 1 STF Vandrarhem af Chapman, Norrmalm, Stockholm. A youth hostel in a full-rigged ship, known as Af Chapman for short, and an adjacent building. The ship was built in Whitehaven, England in 1888, and sailed until 1934 and then used as an accommodation ship, becoming a hostel in 1949. You can specify whether you want to stay in the ship or on land, and it really is a spectacular place to stay. Dorm beds from 260 kr (non-member surcharge 50 kr).
- 28 National Maritime Museum (Iloilo City). On the ground floor of the old Customs House, which is itself a tourist attraction.
- 29 Museu da Marinha (Navy Museum), Praça do Império (Lisbon/Belém). One of the most important maritime museums in Europe, evoking Portugal's domination of the seas. Its colossal 17,000 items are installed in the west wing of Jerónimos Monastery, and include model ships from the Age of Discovery onward. The oldest exhibit is a wooden figure representing the Archangel Raphael that accompanied Vasco da Gama on his voyage to India.
- 30 Maritime Centre, Cape Town. The museum documents the lives of the early seafarers voyaging around the Cape of Good Hope. Small craft, locally made and various maritime artifacts are also showcased. The huge model ships are the highlight of the museum.
- 31 Maritime Museum (Museu Maritime MMB), Ciutat Vella, Barcelona. Housed in Drassanes, the Gothic shipyard of the city. During the 14th century, the Aragó Crown was the most important power in the Mediterranean Sea, and this was the main place where the ships where built. Nowadays it's the Maritime Museum, worth a visit for the architectonic structure, a still-standing part of the ancient medieval city wall (including a gate), and the reproduction of the royal galley of Don John of Austria, the Spanish flagship at the battle of Lepanto.
- 2 MV Liemba. This ship was built around 1915 for the Imperial German navy, intended to dominate on Lake Tanganyika. She is still (as of 2023) in service as a ferry and has become a tourist attraction. Sails from Kigoma to Mpulungu in Zambia.
- 32 Museum of Underwater Archaeology, Bodrum. Housed in a medieval fort, the museum exhibits several shipwrecks – as much as centuries of underwater deterioration permitted to remain – and objects found aboard them salvaged from the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. The highlight is the late Bronze Age "Uluburun wreck" from the 14th century BC, a rare insight into trade and travel in the ancient Mediterranean, sank while carrying goods from origins as disparate as the Baltic, Africa, and Mesopotamia, and even with some tin mined in Uzbekistan. Another museum nearby displays the town's history of seafaring and living off the sea, with a section dedicated to gulets, the traditional two-masted schooners of the Turkish southwest.
- 33 The National Maritime Museum. Museum devoted to the maritime role in Britain's history. Contains the UK's national collection of maritime artefacts (although do not expect much in the way of whole ships). Nearby is the Cutty Sark, a clipper built in 1869, and the Old Royal Naval College built in 1694.
- 34 Merseyside Maritime Museum, Liverpool. Museum with permanent gallery devoted to the Titanic, Lusitania and Forgotten Empress.
- 35 The Historic Dockyard, Chatham. The most traditional and historic Royal Naval dockyard, established by the 1560s under Elizabeth I, ceased operations in 1984 and is now run as a museum. There are several naval ships and a submarine open to visit, and a working rope factory. At 80 acres (32 hectares), it is possibly the largest maritime museum in the world.
- 36 Scottish Maritime Museum, Irvine. Well-presented museum with displays of ship-building and shipping along the Clyde coast. There's another branch in Dumbarton.
- 37 Aberdeen Maritime Museum, Aberdeen. This museum tells the story of Aberdeen's relationship with the sea, from fishing to trade to North Sea oil. It offers an extraordinary insight into the mechanics and technology of ships and oil rigs, Aberdeen's rich maritime history and the lives of some of the people who have worked offshore in the North Sea for the past 500 years.
- 38 RRS Discovery, Dundee. Discovery, launched in 1901, is an Royal Research Ship (RRS) specifically built for Antarctic exploration, used for Scott's 1902 expedition when it became icebound for two years. The museum has an extensive display of the 1902-04 expedition, and then you go aboard the dry-docked ship, which had a later career as a polar merchant vessel. Nearby is HMS Unicorn, a frigate launched in 1824.
- 39 Brunel's SS Great Britain, Bristol, ☏ +44 117 926-0680, fax: +44 117 925-5788. The world's first iron hulled, screw propeller-driven, steam-powered passenger liner, built by Brunel in 1843 and now preserved in a dry-dock alongside the floating harbour.
- 40 Mayflower II and dockside exhibits, State Pier, Water St, Plymouth (Massachusetts). A historically accurate, full-scale replica of the 17th-century vessel the Pilgrims arrived aboard. The reproduction was made in England using traditional shipbuilding methods in conjunction with Plimoth Plantation. Upon its completion, it set sail on April 20, 1957 from Plymouth, England across the Atlantic to Plymouth, Massachusetts, recreating the original voyage.
- 41 , Sullivan's Island (just outside Charleston (South Carolina)). The star attraction is the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown. A destroyer is berthed alongside and the museum has a submarine that is not open for tours.
- 42 (Quincy (Massachusetts), United States). The USS Salem is a 716-foot-long US Navy Heavy Cruiser Gunship and is the world's only example of that class of ship. The Salem was among the most advanced war ships of her day and served until 1959. She is now permanently moored at the place of her birth, the former Fore River Shipyard. The ship is also home to the US Naval Shipbuilding museum and has on display thousands of items relating to naval history and shipbuilding.
- 43 Maritime Museum of San Diego (San Diego, United States of America). Home to a number of historic sea vessels, including the Star of India, the world's oldest active sailing ship, the Berkeley, an 1898 steam ferryboat, the Californian, a replica sailing ship, the Medea, a 1904 steam yacht, the HMS Surprise, another replica sailing ship, and a B-39 Soviet Attack Submarine. Museum exhibits document the evolution of maritime technology and tell the history of San Diego as a commercial fishery and naval base.
- 44 Historic Ships of Baltimore, Inner Harbor (Baltimore, Maryland). Tour a number of historic ships as well as a retired screw lighthouse. Ships include the U.S.S. Constellation (last U.S. Navy vessel to use sails), the lightship Chesapeake, the submarine Torsk, and the Taney (coast guard cutter that was at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked). Also interesting: the NS Savannah (world's first nuclear merchant ship) and the liberty ship John Brown are docked a couple of miles away; both ships are open for visitors.
Itineraries
These journeys are listed in chronological order.
- Trojan War, supposedly 12th century BC
- Silk Road#Maritime Silk Road, antiquity
- Voyages of Zheng He, 1405 to 1433
- Voyages of Columbus, 1492 to 1502
- Cape Route, since 1498
- Magellan-Elcano circumnavigation, 1519 to 1522
- Voyages of James Cook, 1761 to 1780
- Voyages of George Vancouver, 1791 to 95
- Voyages of Matthew Flinders, 1795 to 1810
- Voyages of John Franklin, 1819 to 1847
- Around the World in Eighty Days, 1872
- Voyages of Roald Amundsen, 1903 to 1923
- RMS Titanic, 1912
- Voyages of Thor Heyerdahl, 1947 to 1979