FAMOUS SHIPS

The NORSK SJOFARTSMUSEUM, OSLO

This museum is housed in a modern, triangular brick building located on the waterfront in a small park at the harbor entrance.  Although the museum was founded in 1914, it took many years to find a permanent home for the museum collection.  The collection consists of models, paintings, navigational instruments, and other related maritime materials, including some full size ships.  As it was, the present building site was secured just before the start of WW II.  The present building was started in 1958 and was finally competed in 1974 when King Olav V, the museum’s high protector, opened the main gallery to the public.  The architects of the building won several architectural awards for the building.  The picture shows the exhibition building with the three-masted schooner SVANEN berthed in front.

There are other museums next to the Norsk Sjofartsmuseum.  One is dedicated to the balsa raft KON_TIKI, papyrus boat Ra II and the polar vessel Fram.  Just a short distance away are housed the Viking Ships of Norway’s ancient past, one of their great treasures.  These museums are specialized, but the Norsk Sjofartsmuseum is concerned with Norway’s maritime history and culture.  The collections emphasize the traditional theme of the development of overseas seafaring through the ages.  The historical aspect is particularly evident in the upper gallery, where numerous ship models and ship portraits are on display.  On is a half-hull model set into a sea diorama of the tiny sloop RESTAURATION, which left Norway in 1825 with 52 people bound for America.  It is a fact that, with the exception of Ireland, more people from Norway immigrated to America than any other European country.  There is a beautiful model of the 1,700 ton steel bark SKOMVAER from 1890, which is the largest merchant sailing vessel built in Norway.  There is another beautiful model of the SOPHIE AMALIE.  She was built in Oslo in 1651 for the Danish – Norwegian Navy.  A ship-of-the-line, she was among the largest and most lavishly decorated warships of her time.  The models range from Viking ships and other ancient and medieval Scandinavian craft to ships used in discoveries, colonialism, and naval warfare between the 15^th and 18^th centuries to the beautiful square-riggers and the emergence of Norway’s merchant fleet as one of the world’s largest and most modern in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The major theme in the lower gallery is the relationship among man, ship, and sea, with the sense of what a ship is as a means of transport and as a place for working and living conveyed through several restored ship interiors.  Norway has a huge coastline which explains why the sea has such a strong attraction for the Norwegian people and also explains why Norway is known as “the road to the North”.  Of course, fishing was also a major industry of Norway.  The ancient Viking tradition is evident in the model of a Norwegian fishing boat called femborings.  There is a forty-six foot OPREISNINGEN, a fishing boat from northern Norway, which is very conspicuous. 

The open grounds around the museum have many things of interest to see.  One of these is the famous sloop GJOA which is preserved in a dry dock.  Commanded by Roald Amundsen, she was the first vessel to conquer the Northwest Passage, in 1903-6.  She is also a fine example of the typical Norwegian coastal trader of the 19^th century.  There is a memorial to the 4,500 Norwegian sailors who gave their lives to the Allied cause during World War II.

The SCANEN, built in 1916, is used as both a floating activity center for youth clubs as well as being the museum ship, which goes on weekly cruises in summer.  They also have a racing sloop, the VENUS, which also cruises in the summer. 

The museum also has an extensive library of over 28,000 nautical books and periodicals.  There is also an extensive ship-plan collection and a large photograph archive of over 50,000 prints.  The maritime history of this museum is primarily concerned with the small, swift, supple Viking longships, the fishing craft, the weather-beaten, hog-backed timber barks, and the merchant fleet that grew into one of the largest and most modern in the world in the 20^th century.  If given the opportunity, this museum is a great place to visit.

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