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Discover over 500 Years of Maritime History…
The Maritime Museum is vested in the former Hotel Venezuela. After this
building was completely obliterated by fire, it was spectacularly restored
and the Museum was inaugurated on December 8, 1998.
Here the age of old maritime history of Curaçao and modern twentieth
century design harmoniously embrace.
Visitors will be taken on a discovery tour of more than 500 years of
maritime history of the island of Curaçao by the chronologically
placed displays. These displays consist of authentic nautical charts,
ships models and navigation equipment combined with modern day audio
visual techniques.
The original inhabitants of the island, the Caiquetíos ventured through
the Caribbean Sea in their ingeniously built canoes from the South American Mainland.
In 1499 Curaçao appeared for the first time on the Western European maps
after Amerigo Vespucci landed on the island on a Spanish funded expedition
led by Christopher Columbus.
After the Spanish conquest, one is taken into the 17th century to the
Dutch trading company West India Company, which in 1634 took over and
settled on Curaçao.
A maquette gives a view of the development of Willemstad as a trading city
near 1700.
In the form of a ghostly apparition, the infamous privateer Jan Erasmus
Reining tells stories on his feat of arms illustrated by ships models used
in those times.
All sorts of interesting details of the Curaçao Maritime history are
revered, for example, the origin of contraband trade and explosion of
the marine ship "de Alphen" in 1776.
One topic that cannot be severed from Curaçao history is of course the
slave trade.
Curaçao was an international slave depot from which the slaves were
shipped to the Americas and the Caribbean.
After many sea battles between the Dutch, Spanish, English and of
course the privateers and pirates tranquility was restored on Curaçao by
1816.
The exhibitions continue on the second floor of the Museum with the
history of the 19th &
20th century.
Here visitors get a view of the shipyards of Curaçao and how sailing ships
were replaced by steam navigation.
The development of the harbour and its various activities are also illustrated
here.
Cruise tourism flourished in 1901 with the arrival of the Princess
Victoria Luise, followed by the booming paquet shipping business.
The Dutch navy has always played an important role in the islands and
ships models and uniforms are displayed in a separate area.Seamen tell their vivid tales through a colour screen.
The third floor is especially arranged for temporary exhibits with a
different theme every time.
Special arrangements are available for visitors of the Museum to take
a guided harbour tour; a tour with the Museum’s "water-bus" through one of
the oldest and most beautiful harbours in the Caribbean.
In the past this harbour was visited quite regularly by pirates, smugglers
and tradesmen. This tour leaves from the Museum, along the well known
Pontoon bridge, the Handelskade, through the Annabay towards Schottegat.
The tour continues via Fort Nassau, which was once a well known Dutch
defense and observation post, and is now the control tower for all nautical traffic
near the container port with a capacity of 80,000 containers a year. The
largest dry dock of the Caribbean can also be seen on the tour, which has a capacity
of 10,000 megatons.
It is a spectacular site when visitors pass by the bunkering oil tankers
at the refinery, which used to serve as the biggest bunkering stations for
American war vessels during World War II.
Back in the Annabay visitors can see the colossal seapalaces docked at the
cruise terminal.
The tour ends at the Museum, where a guided tour inside ties everything
together, putting it all into a historical perspective.
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