I visited the Scheepvaart Museum last late on Sunday. The museum focuses on Dutch Maritime History and is house in an old Amsterdam Admiralty building.
As I wrote this I noticed that, as in the houses in the city, the dormers are placed above the large window/doors. I don't see a projecting beam, and they might never have been there, but the method of bringing stuff up the outside is evident.
The museum's main exhibit was a multi-room collection on the history of the Dutch merchant marine and navy and Dutch maritime history overall. The script was good and was illustrated with ship models, paintings, and other artifacts. The exhibit had tags in Dutch, English, German, and French giving the name of the object and its date. But usually along with this basic information was longer text placing the object in the interpretive context. For example, there was a painting of some early pleasure yachts tied up to piers and the tag basically said, Yachts in Amsterdam, 17xx. Yet the longer text (I puzzled it out) explained that this was a view of the 1st known large facility devoted to pleasure boats. I was able to work out most of the texts that interested me, but I had an advantage in knowing a bit of naval & European history. Funny, going through the museum there were a number of times when boys would excitedly ask a parent something like "Where are the yachts?" I understood that. Maybe the kids were looking for the racing boats (Flying Dutchman class, etc.) because the early jachts are functional but ugly.
Another exhibit, and this time with interpretive text in multiple languages was one on Dutch exploration and colonization (NY, Spitsbergen, Indonesia, Suriname, etc.). It was aimed at children, but it didn't cover over the negative effects on the colonized. This was a reasonably good exhibit. You can find a description of it (in Dutch) on the museum's web site.
Finally, the museum had some outdoor exhibits: boats & ships! The centerpiece was a reproduction of a Dutch Eastindiaman. The VOC ship Amsterdam was attractive but a bit spare too. I was glad that I could go from the quarterdeck out to the head and all the way down to the planks over the bilge.
2 more views of the Amsterdam.
The ship's binnacle surprised me. It's just a piece of furniture! Things were still evolving.
Along the docks in the harbor there were bluff-bowed Dutch sailing boats. I saw men puttering around on them so I'm guessing these are either workboats, live-aboards, or such. In the background, looking like a wrecked ship, is NEMO. This is a hands-on technology museum. I wanted to visit it, but just didn't have the time.
I didn't go looking for a tulip nor for a windmill. I didn't find the former, it being February, but I did see the latter. OK, it was at very long range. But I can say I saw one.
Finally, there's this photo I took looking at the courtyard of the Scheepvaart Museum. Goodbye!
