Scheepvaartmuseum

Journey, Jagger and I ventured to the Scheepvaartmuseum the other day. This is the Maritime Museum of the Netherlands. The main building holds all sort of ship models, ship replicas, maritime paintings, navigational instruments, and maps.




Since Journey dreams of being a pirate and sailing the seas to steal gold we thought this would be a great experience for him. (Jeff and Justice were supposed to go to a different museum but ended up going out for Sushi and then coming home to be computer junkies all day).

We spent about an hour in the museum before Journey spotted the ship outside. It is a full size replica of the Dutch East India Company's Amsterdam ship. The original ship sailed in 1749.


Journey and Jagger are sitting on the bottom step of the stairs to the ship.



Journey and Jagger climbing the stairs - they look so small compared to the ship!



The original ship had 230 sailors on board. After the ship set sail 50 men soon died from disease and 40 more became ill. Then the ship came face-to-face with a terrible storm.



The Captain decided to seek shelter in the Bay of Hastings, in Southern England. The crew and 300,000 guilders worth of silver were brought to shore. The ship and the rest of the cargo sank into the mud. The wreckage can still be seen at low tide.



Journey was upset because they wouldn't let him go up into the crow's nest! Yeah, right kid!



The ship's galley.



Jagger enjoyed himself, but kept wanting the boat to start sailing.



The ship captains were hard at work charting a course for their journey (pun intended).



Journey had his sea legs in no time!



The dining area, where everything was glued to the table!



Firing the cannon!



Jagger tried to pick up a cannonball - "It's heeeeaaaavvvy!".



The ship's helm.

There was even a ship captain on board. He was able to answer all of our questions and tell us stories about his sailing adventures.



After our tour of the ship we went into the museum gift shop where Journey and Jagger each bought their own little pirate flag. They both had a great time and of course it was educational too!