National Maritime Museum: Nelson's Coat and a Ship in a Bottle
Why is it significant?
Before you go inside, find the giant ship in a bottle by the museum's newer entrance: a model of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, its sails cut from brightly patterned printed cotton of the kind sold in West African markets. It is the work of the artist Yinka Shonibare.
Key Facts
| Place | National Maritime Museum: Nelson's Coat and a Ship in a Bottle |
|---|---|
| Address | Romney Road, London SE10 9NF, United Kingdom |
| Geo Coordinates | 51.48100, -0.00600 |
| Part of Walk | Under the Thames to Longitude Zero: Maritime Greenwich, London |
| Generated | Generated |
Before you go inside, find the giant ship in a bottle by the museum's newer entrance: a model of Nelson's flagship, HMS Victory, its sails cut from brightly patterned printed cotton of the kind sold in West African markets. It is the work of the artist Yinka Shonibare. It first stood on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, and in 2012, after a public fundraising appeal, it sailed home to Greenwich.
Those patterned sails are the point. The fabric looks African, yet its story runs through Dutch and British factories and colonial trade routes, and so a single sculpture asks who really profited from the empire that Nelson's navy protected. The museum behind it has been asking such questions more and more openly in recent years.
The National Maritime Museum opened in 1937, inaugurated by King George the Sixth, in buildings that had been a school for the sons of seamen. Much of its founding collection was paid for by Sir James Caird, a Scottish shipowner from Dundee, and today it holds one of the largest maritime collections in the world: charts, globes, uniforms, figureheads, paintings, and the papers of explorers.
The most moving object may be a coat. In a glass case lies the full-dress uniform coat Nelson wore on the deck of the Victory on 21 October 1805, with a small hole in the left shoulder where a French marksman's musket ball struck him. The story goes that he refused to cover the glittering stars of his orders, which made him easy to spot. He died below decks a few hours later, as the battle was being won.
The museum also owns Canaletto's view of Greenwich from the far bank, painted from close to the garden where your walk began. Then leave by the park side and take the steep path up the hill, towards the red ball on a mast on top of the old observatory.