Maritime Museums for India 

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Dr V.H. Bedekar 
E 11/12 Vrindavan Estate 
             Pashabhai Park, Race Course Circle, 
Baroda - 390007

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Much original material related to maritime history and technology is
scattered in several Indian museums. But no independent institution was 
set up to represent that theme. The earliest independent museum was
established in 1970 in the Institute of Port Management in the form of a
Model Room in the New Traffic Building in Calcutta by the Calcutta port
Trust. Fortunately an independent maritime museum was created by the Indian
navy to cater to the needs of collecting, preserving, exhibiting maritime
artefacts, ship models, historical records and other treasures of Indian
maritime heritage. The National Maritime Museum was inaugurated in Bombay on the National Maritime Day on 5th April 1979. Also the National Maritime
History Society was formed and it is expected that the National Maritime
Museum will be developed into an international centre of maritime historical
research specially for the developing countries. Several ambitious projects
were planned in that field like converting S.S.Dufferin. During the last few
years very serious attempts were made to establish a maritime heritage
museum on the decommissioned aircraft carrier "Vikrant". Fortunately, on
26th November 1998 it was announced that the "Vikrant" would be given free
of cost to Maharashtra Government provided the maritime heritage museum
project is implemented. The earlier demand to charge Rs.l8 crores as scrap
value to the Central Government is also dropped. It seems that now a stage
is set to organize a network of maritime museums in India to suit our
requirements both at national, regional and local levels. 

The paper discusses the new professional museological developments related
to the organization of maritime museums on scientific lines. The Directory
of world museums published in 1975 has listed 429 maritime and naval
museums. A variety of collections, themes, exhibitions and activities are
found in the 429 museums which can inspire us in our work in India as
discussed in the paper The most outstanding example elaborately referred to
is that of Vasa Muscum in Stockholm, Sweden. Vasa was the pride of Swedish
fleet but sank on her maiden voyage in 1628. It was salvaged in 1961 and a
wonderfully unique museum was created around the reconstructed ship. Because
it was on the bottom of sea for 333 years it was badly waterlogged and a
fabulous expensive project was launched to save the ship. In the process,
valuable museographical technology is made available to those who have to
deal with waterlogged shipwrecks in their museums. 

The paper refers to ecomuseums which are set up in the reopened shipyards as
in Arrentela, Portugal where maritime communities are involved. We can
evolve similar projects in Indian coastal areas where communities still
preserve the traditional maritime heritage. 

The four national conferences organized by the Society for Maritime
Archaeology and the National Institute of Oceanography have laid foundation
for new kinds of regional maritime museums and the paper elaborately
discusses the new possibilities like establishing maritime parks where
actual examples of ships and country crafts can be shown outdoor, floating
on water and they can be used For public recreation along with the exhibits
and activities in the indoor maritime museums. Historical settlements of
people may be reconstructed in which volunteers may wear period costumes and
demonstrate their traditional skills using old equipments. By this way
education can be combined with recreation for popularising the subject of
maritime history and technology.