Tamkang University Maritime Museum

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The Tamkang University Maritime Museum is a museum on Sea Navigation located on the Campus of Tamkang University in Danshuei, a suburb of Taipei in Taiwan. The museum is located in a ship-like formed building which formerly served as a training center for future sailors on trading ships.

The museum to which entry is free, exhibits marine engines in the basement, models of famous historical and contemporary vessels and ancient maps on the first and second floor, marine utensils such as ropes, lights and anchors on the first floor, as well as providing an extensive library on the third floor.

The museum has a partnership with the Los Angeles Maritime Museum. Most texts in the museum are written in English as well as Chinese, some also in Japanese language.

Contents

[edit] Ship models

One of the museum's largest asset are its down-scaled realistic ship models, some of which are result of intense research. The model are presented in the following categories.

[edit] 戰艦 Historic combat vessels

  • the San Philip. Spanish battleship, launched 1693; scrapped 1736.
  • the HMS Sovereign of the Seas. Launched 1637; burnt 1695. Famous for her extravagant decoration and with 102 cannons being the most powerfully armed ship in the world at her time.
  • the Great Harry. Launched 1514; destroyed probably 1553. She was the first English two-decker and the largest and most powerful warship in Europe at the time of her launching.
  • a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. First ship launched 1975; all vessels still active. Largest battleship in the world today.
  • the Japanese battleship Yamato. Launched 1940; sunk 1945. Yamato and her sister ship Musashi were the largest, heaviest, and most powerful battleships ever constructed.

Link to Description Page on the Museum's website.

[edit] 帆船 Historic sailing vessels

  • a Qing Dynasty Battleship. This model has been constructed one Mr. Pauwels of Belgium after years of research on Chinese sailing traditions. The hull is carved from a single piece of wood, and is fully rigged, including wooden figures representing Chinese sailors on deck.
  • the King Ho Li
  • the English tea clipper Cutty Sark. Launched 1869; used as merchant vessel until 1923; then as stationary training ship until 1954; and as museum ship at Greenwich, London until today.
  • the Canadian fishing and racing ship Bluenose. Launched 1921 to compete in the Nova Scotian Fishing Schooner Delawana; won that prize several times; sunk 1946 off Haiti.
  • the Goleta. A commercial ship of the 19th century Mediterranean.
  • the Danish school ship Lilladan. Launched 1951.
  • the Dutch De Liefde. The vessel became a model for Japan's first Western-style sailing ships after it accidentally landed in Japan in 1600. Abord was the sailor William Adams who later became advisor to the Japanese Shogun.
  • the Japanese school ship Nippon Maru II. Launched 1984; still in service.

Link to Description Page on the Museum's website.

[edit] 輪船 Modern commercial ships

  • another typical container ship
  • principal depiction of a 100,000 DWMT bulk carrier
  • the ocean liner RMS Titanic. Launched 1911; sank 1912.
  • a Liberty-class ship. A class of cargo ships built in the US between 1941 and 1945 to replace ships lost to U-boats during the war. With 2,751 of those ships produced this is easily the largest number of ships produced to a single design.
  • the container ship Venus
  • the Panamax container ship "璟龍輪". Launched 1997.
  • the cruise ship MS Fuji Maru. Launched 1937; sunk 1943.
  • principal depiction of a 28,000 DWMT bulk carrier

Link to Description Page on the Museum's website.

[edit] 漁船 Fishing vessels

  • A taiwanese Spearfish Boat. This boat was specifically designed to catch Spearfish (Marlin), which is quite different from catching other fish. Spearfish are caught using harpoons or with nets that have sharp gills. Spearfish are traditionally caught in Eastern Taiwan during the nord-east wind season in October and November.
  • A Danshui sampan boat. Danshui River is the only water in Taiwan where these boats were traditionally used for fishing. A long time ago they have also be used to reach northern Taiwan from Mainland China. Some of these boats are still in use today.

Link to Description Page on the Museum's website.

[edit] 遊艇 Pleasure and racing vessels

Link to Description Page on the Museum's website.

[edit] 作業船 Construction and utilitarian vessels

Link to Description Page on the Museum's website.

[edit] Taiwanese Aboriginal boats

  • an Assembled Boat (拼板船) as traditionally used by the Taiwanese aboriginal Tao people on Orchid Island (Lanyu). Their way to produce boats from several pieces of wood is unique to the Tao people, which are well known for their Assembled Boats.
    Although those boats are often referred to as "Orchid Island Canoe" or "Lanyu Canoe", they are actually not canoes, but boats, because they are assembled from several pieces of different woods. To build the boats either 21 (for the small variant) or 27 (for the larger variant) pieces of wood are used, where different kinds of wood are used for different pieces. For painting the boat only the colors black, white and red are used. The colors are produced from materials found naturally on the island.
    This boat is exhibited as original, not model. Link
  • A New Zealand Māori War Canoe (Ngatokimatawhaorua). This is the largest canoe in the world. It was built in 1940 using techniques already known before the colonization period. It has a length of 35 m and offers space for 80 persons paddling. It was made from three large trees: one for the main boat, one for the head and the stern and the third one for the paddles. (獨木舟, Link)

[edit] External links