Royal Naval Museum

Sea Your World

Hands on sessions

Shipmates

 

Discovery Visits

There are four galleries in the Museum. All are ideal for school groups as they are visually exciting with lots of interesting objects to discover plus films and interactives, making a Discovery Visit very 'hands-on'.

The galleries offer strong curriculum links to history, geography, citizenship, art and design, science, design and technology. A Discovery Visit will enable pupils to develop key skills through asking and responding to questions, observation and enquiry, group discussion and interaction, and interpreting evidence.

To supplement the Discovery Visit a range of trails and activity sheets are available.

Each gallery requires approximately 30 minutes to see everything. A visit to the Victory Gallery should allow an extra 20 minutes for the Trafalgar Experience.

Highlights in each gallery are:

Victory Gallery

Opposite HMS Victory, this gallery tells the story of the famous ship, its crew and the battle of Trafalgar. Upstairs, there is the special exhibition - ‘Chasing Freedom: the Royal Navy and the suppression of the transatlantic slave trade plus a number of beautiful figureheads providing opportunities for art and design work.

Highlights for schools include:

  • Trafalgar! - a multi-media experience telling the story of the battle. You can stand on the gundeck of the Victory and feel what it must have been like to be there on 21 October 1805. The experience finishes with W L Wyllie’s huge Panorama painting.
  • The Quarterdeck - A special section of hands-on exhibits and computer interactives showing how the ship was sailed and fought.
  • Spirit of a Ship - The Royal Naval Museum's superb collection of figureheads.
  • Chasing Freedom – replica handling items, short films, personal accounts and a slave deck reconstruction focusing on the horrors of the slave trade.

Nelson Gallery

This gallery enables visitors to find out about and contrast Nelson the public hero with Nelson the private man.

Highlights for schools include:

  • The Nelson Figure showing what Nelson really looked like.
  • The Nelson Story – an audiovisual presentation on Nelson's life and career.
  • Personal belongings of Nelson and those closest to him.
  • Activity Centre – with jigsaws, feely boxes and a chance to write Nelson’s signature.

Sailing Navy Gallery

A chance for visitors to explore life on board a sailing warship, take command and learn how the lower deck lived.

Highlights for schools include:

  • The 74 gun ship - a computer interactive, which enables you to take command of a sailing warship and sail her into battle.
  • Have you got scurvy? A light-hearted look at how this key health problem was eventually solved by the Royal Navy.
  • The hidden messages of portraits - a display of some of the Museum's fine portraits of naval officers with a sound and light show revealing the hidden 'messages' they contain.
  • The Yardarm - for younger visitors to learn how to furl and reef a sail.

‘Sea your History’ Twentieth Century gallery

Find out about changes in the Royal Navy across the century, how technology changed and how the navy’s people lived through conflicts including World War 1, World War 2 and the Falklands.

Highlights for schools include:

  • World War II artefacts  including a  version of the famous World War 2 Enigma Machine, Japanese prisoner of war artefacts and ‘Albert RN’ a life-sized figure used by prisoners at roll call after colleagues had escaped.
  • Listening posts - hear veterans telling their stories
  • Dressing-up stations and interactives.

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