Life at sea

Insight into the lives of sailors and seafarers throughout history

Time machines: chronometers from the collection

Putting our new Beagle chronometer into context

Beaglemania: treasures from HMS Beagle

Seven items from the collection that reveal the people, places and painstaking practical work behind the famous surveying voyage

What is the Merchant Navy?

Discover the role and history of the commercial shipping fleet – and its connections with Royal Museums Greenwich

Making Waves: Captain Philippa Bowden

What’s it like to work in Antarctica? Ice pilot Captain Philippa Bowden on navigating the immense frozen wilderness – and the challenges facing the region

Safeguarding Tresco's guardians: the Valhalla Collection

Safeguarding Tresco’s guardians: the story of the Valhalla collection

'I want to go to sea, do you think this might be possible?' – Nina Baker in her own words

Dr Nina Baker became the first female deck cadet in the British Merchant Navy. Listen to her account of a pioneering career

Thames barges and London docks – an oral history

Gordon 'Willie' Williamson worked aboard Thames barges throughout the 1960s, and witnessed the final years of central London as a busy cargo hub

'By the Stars influence'

Former Caird Fellow Dr. Jack Avery explores the seventeenth-century maritime journals held at the Caird Library and Archive, and in particular the one written by the amateur poet and astrologer Jeremy Roch

Printed ephemera: the golden age of ocean travel

Explore printed ephemera at the Caird Library and Archive, a collection that brings to life the golden age of ocean travel.
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