The National Maritime Museum (Het Scheepvaartmuseum) in Amsterdam has a large collection of shipping-related items and a replica of a Golden Age sailboat.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam has the world’s second largest collection of historic maritime objects. The museum displays cover many aspects of The Netherlands’ glorious naval history using paintings, shipping equipment and instruments, models, the Golden Age and the VOC, and special sections for children of all ages. A major attraction is the replica of the 18th century tall boat – Amsterdam – which visitors can explore in all nooks and crannies. The Maritime Museum is beautifully located inside a 17th century arsenal in Amsterdam harbor a short walk from Centraal Station.
The Maritime Museum is located inside a former navy arsenal, which was completed in 1656 in only nine months. Unfortunately, the latest refit, which took considerably longer to complete, hid most of the old building – to a large extend out of necessity to improve the climate control needed to preserve historic items.
Visitors enter the museum building from the south and from the covered courtyard buy tickets, visit the café, or enter the various exhibition areas.
The West Wing is mostly aimed at children with special interactive exhibitions on whaling and sea faring in general as well as a play area for toddlers. Also in this wing is an exhibition on the Golden Age that focuses on the lives of various individuals, including a slave girl and an unwilling sailor, rather than the larger influence that the Golden Age had on Dutch history.
The North Wing (Noord) has mostly interactive displays including a bird’s-eye view of the port of Amsterdam and a virtual voyage at sea, as well as the temporary exhibitions of the museum.
The new display in Het Scheepvaartmuseum has also been criticized for being style over substance. In the old museum, visitors could get lost in the maize of rooms overfilled with displays. The new museum is modern but also with much less to see. Furthermore, descriptions are often very cryptic and in some rooms the lightening is so low that signage is difficult to read.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum is open daily from 9 am to 5 pm and closed on King’s Day (end April), Christmas and New Years’ Day. The very pleasant restaurant-café opens at 10 am and is accessible without a museum ticket.
Photography is allowed in most of the museum. Free lockers are available in the basement for coats and bags bigger than around 30 cm.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum is at Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam to the east of the main train station. It is a very pleasant 15-minute walk from Centraal Station – provided it is not too windy – along the quays passed new developments, the floating Sea Pearl Chinese restaurant, the NEMO science center built over the entrance of the road tunnel underneath the IJ River, and the Arcam architecture center. From the bridge near the museum, visitors can also see an actual historic windmill, something surprisingly rare in Amsterdam.
The museum can also be reached by bus 22 (Indische Buurt) or bus 48 (Borneo Eiland) from the stop Prins Hendrikplantsoen across from the Victoria Hotel at Centraal Station. Both buses stop at Kadijksplein near the museum.
Het Scheepvaartmuseum is also surprisingly close to the Plantage neighborhood. From the National Maritime Museum it is only around a kilometre walk to the Verzetsmuseum (Resistance Museum), the Artis Zoo, or the Jewish Cultural Quarter with Portuguese Synagogue.