Character Encounters

Join an exciting performance and see maritime history brought to life.

Visit the Museum every Saturday to discover a different character from history with their own fascinating story to tell!

John Simmonds

John Simmonds (1783–1858), was a black sailor who served with Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, 1805. Developed with John’s descendants and using over 40 years of family research, the performance will take you on a journey through the museum, from Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle by Yinka Shonibare CBE to the Nelson, Navy, Nation gallery.

John Simmonds plays an important part in bringing hidden black British histories into the mainstream, and exploring the histories of the culturally diverse crews that the British navy relied upon.

Dates: 11 May, 18 May, 1 June, 8 June, 22 June 

Times: 11.30am | 12.30pm | 1.30pm | 2.30pm

Meeting point: The Sammy Ofer Wing, by the Parkside welcome desk

Explore Traders: the East India Company and Asia gallery with James Robson, a Chinese sailor who served on the fastest and greatest of the tea clippers, Cutty Sark. Find out about the struggles of the tea trade between Britain and China on your journey, and the impact of the 19th-century Opium Wars on both countries.

James Robson is an important character in revealing hidden British Chinese histories, and his story relates to Traders, our permanent gallery on the British East India Company.

Dates: 4 May, 6 July

Times: 11.30am | 12.30pm | 1.30pm | 2.30pm

Meeting point: The North end of the Traders gallery, level 1

Visit Traders: the East India Company & Asia

Pearl Morris

Meet Pearl Morris, a Caribbean woman who travelled to Britain in 1948 on the Empire Windrush, a passenger liner that brought one of the first large groups of post-war West Indians to the United Kingdom. A matron of the Windrush Generation, Pearl will tell you what life was like for a Caribbean woman in Britain in the 50s, and how she made this island her home.

Suitable for 6+

Dates: 18 May, 22 June

What was the Empire Windrush?

Alice Leghorn

Meet Alice and find out about life at sea during the Golden Age of Piracy. Alice has found her way on board a pirate ship dressed as a man and will tell you what life is like as a woman disguised as a man at sea. 

Dates: 11 May, 25 May, 15 June, 29 June, 13 July, 27 July

Times: 11.30am | 12.30pm | 1.30pm | 2.30pm

Meeting point: The Sammy Ofer Wing, by the Parkside welcome desk

Tamera the Time Traveller

Join Tamera as she travels through time and place exploring stories of encounter, exploration and endeavour across the Tudor and Stuart Seafarers, Polar Worlds, Pacific Encounters and Sea Things galleries.

Dates: 20 July

Times: 12pm | 1pm | 2pm | 3pm.