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| Established | 1912 |
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| Location | Kingston upon Hull |
| Coordinates | 53°44′38″N0°20′19″W / 53.7439°N 0.3386°W |
| Type | History |
| Website | Hull Maritime Museum |
The Hull Maritime Museum is a museum in Kingston upon Hull, England, that explores the seafaring heritage of the city and its environs. The museum's stated mission is "To preserve and make available the maritime history of Hull and east Yorkshire through artefacts and documents". [1]
The museum, originally known as the Museum of Fisheries and Shipping, opened in 1912 in Pickering Park. [2] It moved to its current location, the Dock Offices building, in 1974. [3] The Dock Offices building is so-named as it is the former headquarters of the Hull Dock Company, which operated all docks in Hull until 1893. [3] Built in 1872, it is a Grade II* listed building [4] [5] and a striking example of Victorian architecture. [3] The building stands in Queen Victoria Square, opposite the Queen's Gardens, in Hull's city centre. Hull City Council currently operates and maintains the museum. [3]
In January 2020, the museum temporarily closed for preparation for a £11 million programme of conservation and modernisation to begin, with Purcell, Beckett Rankine, Haley Sharpe Design, Tricolour, Simpson and Dunston Ship Repairs on the project team. [6] Renovation work commenced in January 2022, following the removal of around 50,000 items from the museum into storage throughout 2020 and 2021. [7] [8] The museum is scheduled to re-open in 2025 as the centrepiece of Hull's "Maritime City Project", featuring an additional exhibition floor and a spiral staircase providing access to one of the building's domes, as well as a new glass roof in the building's atrium, following the relocation of storage, research and conservation centre in the adjacent Dock Office Chambers. [9] [10] [7] [11] In November 2024, Hull City Council announced that the reopening would be pushed back to spring 2026. [12]
The period of time covered by the exhibits extends back to the Bronze Age and through the Middle Ages, but the museum primarily concerns itself with Hull's maritime history from the 19th century onward. [2] The museum's exhibits are arranged along the following primary themes: [2] [13]
The museum dedicates an entire gallery to Hull's whaling industry, which peaked in the early 19th century. Dozens of vessels ventured into the Arctic waters (particularly those around Greenland) during this period. The gallery contains personal effects, shipboard items, models, and artwork (including the largest collection of scrimshaw in Europe), [2] and Inuit artifacts, including a kayak.
The city's fishing industry rose to prominence in the mid-19th century, and one gallery of the museum documents the history of the industry as it expanded from the North Sea into more northerly waters. This gallery makes use of models of the industry's various ocean-going vessels, from simple cobles to large trawlers. [2]
Hull's tradition of ocean-going commerce dates from the Middle Ages and has historically targeted the nations of Scandinavia and the Baltic Sea. The Court Room in the Hull Docks building, once for use by the Hull Dock Company's shareholders and now the venue for temporary exhibitions, also pays hommage to Hull's commercial past and present. The room houses a frieze containing the coats of arms of the cities with which Hull has historically had trade relations. [3]
As part of its online Hull Museums Collection, Hull City Council launched the Hull and the sea website in 2008. The website allows users to virtually browse the maritime museum's collection, from works of scrimshaw to descriptions and images of the seagoing vessels from the city's past. [14]
During Hull's year as UK City of Culture the Maritime Museum played a prominent role in the opening three-month season entitled Made in Hull . At the opening event during the first week the building was one of three in Victoria Square which had multimedia projections displayed on them, attracting over 300,000 visitors. [15] Throughout the three-month season the Museum hosted a multimedia installation called Bowhead depicting a bowhead whale. [16] [17]
Kingston upon Hull, usually shortened to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority area in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, 25 miles (40 km) inland from the North Sea and 37 miles (60 km) south-east of York, the historic county town. With a population of 268,852 (2022), it is the fourth-largest city in the Yorkshire and the Humber region after Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford. Hull has more than 800 years of seafaring history and is known as Yorkshire's maritime city.
A lightvessel, or lightship, is a ship that acts as a lighthouse. They are used in waters that are too deep or otherwise unsuitable for lighthouse construction. Although some records exist of fire beacons being placed on ships in Roman times, the first modern lightvessel was located off the Nore sandbank at the mouth of the River Thames in London, England, and placed there by its inventor Robert Hamblin in 1734. Lightships have since become largely obsolete; being largely replaced by lighthouses as construction techniques advanced, and by large automated navigation buoys.
The Deep is a public aquarium situated at Sammy's Point, at the confluence of the River Hull and the Humber Estuary in Hull, England. It opened in March 2002.
The Arctic Corsair(H320) is a deep-sea trawler, built in 1960, that was converted to a museum ship in 1999. She is temporarily berthed at Alexandra Dock in Kingston upon Hull, England, pending completion of a new permanent location in the city's Museums Quarter. Exhibits and guides aboard the boat tell the story of Hull's deep-sea fishing industry.
The Spurn Lightship is a lightvessel, previously anchored in Hull Marina in the British city of Kingston upon Hull, England. It was relocated to a shipyard in October 2021 for restoration, prior to becoming a display together with the Arctic Corsair.
Hull Marina is a marina for pleasure boats situated in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. It was opened in 1983 on the site of the former Railway Dock and Humber Dock and is managed by British Waterways Marinas Limited (BWML).
The Hull triple trawler tragedy was the sinking of three trawlers from the British fishing port of Kingston upon Hull during January and February 1968. A total of 58 crew members died, with just one survivor. The three sinkings brought widespread national publicity to the conditions in which fishermen worked, and triggered an official inquiry which led to major changes to employment and working practices within the British fishing industry.
The Streetlife Museum of Transport is a transport museum located in Kingston upon Hull, England. The roots of the collection date back to the early 20th century, however the purpose-built museum the collection is housed in was opened in 1989 by the then Hull East MP, John Prescott. Core areas of the collection include Veteran cars, horse-drawn carriages and objects relating to local public transport.
The Viola is a steam trawler built in 1906 in Hull. She is the oldest surviving steam trawler in the world. During her long career, she was known as HMTViola, Kapduen, and Dias. She is currently beached at Grytviken in South Georgia, though there are currently plans afoot to return her to Hull.
Aberdeen Harbour, rebranded as the Port of Aberdeen in 2022, is a sea port located in the city of Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland. The port was first established in 1136 and has been continually redeveloped over the centuries to provide a base for significant fishing and ship building industries. Since the 1970s it has provided support to the offshore oil and gas industry operating in the North Sea and it is the main commercial port in the north east of Scotland.
Pickering Park is a park in the western suburbs of Kingston upon Hull, on the north side of Hessle Road, near Anlaby, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
Made in Hull was the opening season of Hull UK City of Culture 2017 and began with an opening event which ran from 1–7 January 2017. The opening event was devised by creative director Sean McAllister and writer Rupert Creed. It consisted of installations in eight locations across the city of Hull and marked the beginning of the city's period as UK City of Culture, a four-yearly event. By the end of the opening event on 7 January, over 300,000 people were reported to have visited the event and positive reactions were reported in national and local media.
Lillian Bilocca was a British fisheries worker and campaigner for improved safety in the fishing fleet as leader of the "headscarf revolutionaries" – a group of fishermen's family members. Spurred into action by the Hull triple trawler tragedy of 1968 which claimed 58 lives, she led a direct action campaign to prevent undermanned trawlers from putting to sea and gathered 10,000 signatures for a petition to Harold Wilson's government to strengthen safety legislation. She threatened to picket Wilson's house if he did not take action. Government ministers later implemented all of the measures outlined in the charter.
Christine Dorothy Jensen, MBE (1939–2001) was a British safety campaigner. She helped to lead a campaign that led to improvements in the safety of fishing trawlers following the 1968 Hull triple trawler tragedy, in which her brother was killed. Jensen later served on the committee of the British Fishermen's Association and founded a fishing heritage organisation. She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2000.
Yvonne Blenkinsop was a British woman known for her campaign to improve safety in the offshore fishing industry following the 1968 Hull triple trawler tragedy. She became only the third woman in 130 years to be awarded the freedom of the city of Hull in 2018.
The Hull and East Riding Museum of Archaeology is located in the Museums Quarter of the Old Town in Kingston upon Hull, England. It dates back to 1925 as the Museum of Commerce and Industry in a former Customs House but acquired its present name in 1989 with a major refurbishment and new entrance, with the transport section moving to a separate museum. It displays items from prehistoric to medieval in the area, many of them in life-size tableaux or reconstructions of rooms and buildings.
The Arctic Viking(H452) was a British trawler ship that sailed from the Port of Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Whilst the vessel was originally a commercial fishery ship, she also served as an anti-submarine vessel during the Second World War where she was sunk by enemy action. She was later involved in the Cod Wars, being actually targeted by a vessel from the Icelandic Navy. Besides her wartime service, she had two other accidents; one a collision in 1956 and another where she sank with the loss of five of her crew, 16 miles (26 km) off Flamborough Head in October 1961.
The Yorkshire coast fishery has long been part of the Yorkshire economy for centuries. The 114-mile (183 km) Yorkshire Coast, from the River Tees to the Humber estuary, has many ports both small and large where the fishing trade thrives. The historic ports at Hull and Whitby are important locations for the landing and processing of fish and shellfish. Scarborough and Bridlington are also sites of commercial fishing.
Ship and boat building in Whitby was a staple part of the industry of Whitby, North Yorkshire, England between the 17th and 19th centuries. In 1792 and 1793, Whitby was the second largest ship-building port in England and Wales. Building continued throughout the 20th century but on a smaller scale both in terms of output and overall size of the vessels being built.
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