Seamen at the Maritime Museum

Planes, trains and automobiles… except substitute the cars for boats. The next museum stop on Port Adelaide was the Maritime Museum. I love planes and trains but am not really much of a seaman. I got seasick on a boat that was docked at a calm harbour once. That said, the maritime museum was there and given it’s called Port Adelaide, I figured it was worth a look.

The building the museum is housed in is a beautiful old heritage building. This made a great location to learn about maritime history, which focused a lot on the poor conditions for workers and passengers and the ordeal of migration by ship. Like all maritime museums in Australia, a lot of the content relates to migration both pre and post WW2.

My mother and family migrated to Australia onboard one of these vessels (although they arrived in Perth, not Adelaide). Thus looking at the mockup of the cabins was an interesting exercise in learning about how their journey must have been. I was just thinking how boring 45-70 days at sea must have been in these tiny cabins - the next exhibit focussed on boredom. They read my mind.

The museum was modern, clean and really well put together… that said, having been on a plane and train high from the last museums, the nautical theme just didn’t hit me up as much. Maybe I should have taken a leaf out of Hyacinth Bucket’s book and dressed more seaman-like to really appreciate it. Reckon I could pull off a ‘Hello Sailor 😉’ look?Read more