Het Scheepvaartmuseum & the Ship Amsterdam
Why is it significant?
Stand where you can see both of them at once: the vast square storehouse around its inner courtyard, and beside it on the water, a tall three-masted ship, its hull painted in bright colours, its stern carved and gilded, its rigging a maze of ropes against the sky.
Key Facts
| Place | Het Scheepvaartmuseum & the Ship Amsterdam |
|---|---|
| Address | Kattenburgerplein 1, 1018 KK Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Geo Coordinates | 52.37200, 4.91500 |
| Part of Walk | Spice, Ships and Shadows: Amsterdam's Golden Age Harbour and the Dutch East India Company |
| Generated | Generated |
Stand where you can see both of them at once: the vast square storehouse around its inner courtyard, and beside it on the water, a tall three-masted ship, its hull painted in bright colours, its stern carved and gilded, its rigging a maze of ropes against the sky.
The building is 's Lands Zeemagazijn, the Admiralty's sea storehouse, built in 1656 to designs by the city architect Daniël Stalpaert. Everything the fleet needed was kept here: sails, ropes, anchors, flags, cannonballs, provisions for months at sea. It stands on thousands of wooden piles driven into the mud, and it served the navy for more than three centuries before the National Maritime Museum moved in, in 1973. Look up inside the courtyard and you will see a modern glass roof, its lines inspired by the compass lines on old sea charts.
The ship is a replica of the Amsterdam, a VOC East Indiaman built here in the city in 1748, and rebuilt by hand from 1985 onwards, plank by plank. Climb aboard in your imagination: more than three hundred people crammed between the decks, sailors, soldiers and a few passengers, with salted meat, ship's biscuit, beer and water for a voyage of eight months or more.
The real Amsterdam never reached Asia. In January 1749, on her maiden voyage, she was caught in storms in the English Channel, disease spread on board, and the ship ran aground on the beach near Hastings in England. Her wreck still lies there in the sand, and at the lowest tides parts of the hull appear above the water. She was carrying chests of silver to buy spices and textiles in Asia.
That is the whole VOC economy in one ship: silver out, spices, pepper, tea and porcelain back, and a huge human cost in between. Now cross the bridge behind the museum onto Wittenburg, and look for a church with a little tower standing over the canal.