Maritime museums
11
Wick Heritage
Museum
Sailing around the north coast of Scotland,
or across the North Sea, Wick is one of the
few safe havens which can be entered more
or less anytime. It has an excellent marina
and a fabulous local museum, just a few
yards away, staffed by helpful, informative
volunteers who will show you into each of
the many rooms in case you get lost when
going round by yourselves. And what a
wonderful collection of stuff – lighthouse
memorabilia, old photos by a local family
of photographers, domestic rooms
furnished in various styles, information
about the local printing industry, medals,
fishing bric-a-brac, model yachts. And to
cap it all, a lovely garden spreads up the
hill in terraces at the back, full of flowers.
■ http://www.wickheritage.org/index.asp8
Chatham Historic
Dockyard
The Historic Dockyard is a poignant
reminder that Britannia once ruled the
waves. Ships were built here by thousands
of workers from the time of Elizabeth 1
until the 1980s, including HMS Victory
and 57 assorted submarines. The
dockyard is now a terrific and varied
museum. It would take a whole day to
do the place justice, but if you don’t have
that sort of time you should at least have
a look at HMS Cavalier, a Second World
War destroyer, and take the tour of the
quarter-mile-long Victorian ropery. On
the way out there is a huge RNLI shed
full of ‘stuff’ including old lifeboats; a
treasure trove indeed.
■ http://www.thedockyard.co.ukAll of us surface boaties must surely
wonder what life was and is like in a
submarine. A good way to find out is
by visiting the Royal Navy Submarine
Museum in Gosport, the highlight of
which is HMS Alliance, a late 1940s
submarine around which you are guided
by a retired submariner (outside school
holidays). It is cramped, complicated, full
of pipes, dials... and torpedoes. The tour
includes an audio recording of depth
charges being dropped all around: how
very scary that must have been.
■ http://www.submarine-museum.co.uk10
Milford Haven
Museum
Whether it was early in the season, or just
very quiet, I don’t know: but I was met
here by a man who proceeded to tell me,
most entertainingly, the story of Milford
Haven, in about 10 minutes. Then he
released me to explore the museum with
far more insight than I would otherwise
have had. Does he do this for everyone
who wanders in off the street? What a
treat it all was. The museum records the
town’s changing fortunes, from whaling
to fishing to oil, and who knows where
next. No wonder Visit Wales awarded it
their ‘Hidden Gem’ accolade in 2015.
■ http://www.milfordhavenmuseum.co.uk12
Belfast Titanic
Experience
In Belfast Lough, it is tempting
to just pull up in either Bangor or
Carrickfergus Marina: but if you sail
on a bit, right into the centre of town,
you will find pontoons very close to
the Titanic Experience, opened in 2012.
Modernistic, sited in the very place
where the Titanic was built, it not only
explores the disaster but also celebrates
the workers who built her. The museum■ So there you are. These and many,
many other museums are out there to
explore if you can drag yourself away
from your boat, or the local pub. Visit
them, discover more about our maritime
past – and be sure to make a donation
on your way out!A display in the Wick museumhttp://www.wikimedia.orguses all the up-to-date tricks of the trade,
including a terrific ride in a steel bucket
up through a reconstruction of the
shipyard as the Titanic was being built.
■ http://www.titanicbelfast.comInside HMS AllianceMilford Haven Museum/Pembrokeshire Photography9
Royal Navy
Submarine
Museum, Gosport
Nilfanion (own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
HMS Cavalier at Chatham