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Museum ship
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For ships that are not original see Ship replica. For preserved incomplete ships see Ships preserved in museums.
A museum ship, or sometimes memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public, for educational as well as memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, a use found mostly with the small number of museum ships that are still operational, i.e. capable of regular movement.[1][2] There are several hundred museum ships around the world,[citation needed] often associated with maritime museums.
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Despite the long history of sea travel, the ravages of the elements and the expense of maintenance has resulted in the destruction of nearly all the ships that were ever built, often by sinking, usually by being broken up and sold for scrap. Only a few have survived, sometimes because of historical significance, but more often simply due to luck and circumstance.
Since an old ship tied up at dockside, without attention, will still decay and eventually sink, the practice of recent years has been to form some sort of preservation society, solicit donations from governments and the wealthy, organize volunteer labor from the enthusiasts, and open the restored ship to visitors, usually for a fee.
The restoration and continual maintenance of museum ships presents an interesting set of problems for historians who are frequently asked for advice, and the results periodically generate some controversy. For instance, the rigging of sailing ships has almost never survived, and so the rigging plan must be reconstructed from various sources. Studying the ships also allows historians to analyse how life on and operation of the ships took place. [3] Numerous scientific papers have been written on ship restoration and maintenance, and international conferences are held discussing the latest developments.[4]
Another discussion in the preservation community is the distinction between a 'real' museum ship, and a ship replica. As repairs accumulate over time, less and less of the ship is of the original materials, and the lack of old parts (or even 'appropriate' work tools) may lead to the use of modern 'short-cuts' (such as welding a metal plate instead of riveting it, as would be the case during the ships historical period).[5] Visitors without historical background are also often unable to distinguish between a historical museum ship and a more-or-less historically relevant ship replica, which may serve solely as a tourist attraction.[3]
Typically the visitor enters via gangplank, wanders around on the deck, then goes below, usually using the original stairways, giving a sense of how the crew got around. The interior features restored but inactivated equipment, enhanced with mementos including old photographs, explanatory displays, pages from the ship's logs, menus, and the like. Some will add recorded sound effects, audio tours or video displays to add to the experience.
A number of the larger museum ships have begun to offer hosting for weddings, meetings, and other events, sleepovers, and on a few ships still seaworthy, cruises. In this category is the Constitution's annual "turnaround", where the old ship is towed out into the harbor and brought back in facing the other way, so as to weather evenly. A place on the deck is by invitation or lottery only, and highly prized.
The tourism appeal of a city waterfront graced by an interesting old vessel is such that most port cities of the world now have at least one museum ship, even if it has meant building a replica ship at great expense.[citation needed]
The first museum ship could be considered to be Jason's Argo, which after his expedition for the Golden Fleece, was preserved on a beach and shown to visitors for ages afterwards.
- ^ Activities of the Historic Naval Ships Association (the international Historic Naval Ships Association website)
- ^ The World's Third Largest Fleet (the international Historic Naval Ships Association website)
- ^ a b Museum ships built in 1999: Remarks on the reconstruction of historical inland and sea-going vessels (abstract) - Ingo Heidbrink, Ingo; Deutsches Schiffahrtsarchiv (DSA) 22, 1999, Page 43-58
- ^ Conference Proceedings (from the 'Third International Conference on the Technical Aspects of the Preservation of Historic Vessels' (1997) webpage on the San Francisco Maritime Park Association website)
- ^ Conserving Unique and Historic Ships - Kearon, John; Head of Shipkeeping, Industrial and Land Transport Conservation, Merseyside Maritime Museum, paper from the 'Third International Conference on the Technical Aspects of the Preservation of Historic Vessels' (1997) webpage on the San Francisco Maritime Park Association website
- Historic Naval Ship Visitors' Guide (from the international Historic Naval Ships Association website)
| Life Cycle of a Navy Ship |
| Service Life |
| Ship naming and launching | Ship commissioning | Ship decommissioning |
After Decommissioning |
| Reserve fleet | Scrapping | Recycling | Scuttling or Weapons testing | Museum ship |