Jersey Maritime Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Maritime Museum is located in Saint Helier, Jersey in the Channel Islands. It is housed in a set of five 19th-century warehouses and was opened in 1997. The collection includes artefacts from the island's maritime industry as well as from piracy and the 1692 Battles of Barfleur and La Hougue. The museum houses the Occupation Tapestry a 1988-1994 work created by islanders to depict life under the 1940-1945 German occupation.
The museum is sited in a set of five linked warehouses on the New North Pier in Saint Helier.[1][2] The pier was constructed in the 1880s as part of a redevelopment of the harbour by the States of Jersey. The warehouses were built, for let, in 1889. After the liberation of the island from German occupation in 1945 the warehouses housed the harbour's customs and maintenance teams. They were empty by the 1970's, owing to changes in harbour practices with the coming of containerisation. The pier was converted to a marina from 1980. The warehouses were occupied from 1992 by the Friends of the Maritime Museum group. The museum was established in the warehouses after it was decided to use them to house the Occupation Tapestry, after the 50th anniversary of liberation.[3]
In 1996 a memorial was erected outside of the museum buildings to Channel Islanders who died after being deported to Europe by the Germans.[4] The museum formally opened in 1997.[5] Its collection covers the island's fishing and ship-building industries, its mercantile operations and piracy.[1] The collection includes artefacts recovered from the burnt wrecks of some of French Admiral Anne Hilarion de Tourville's fleet from the 1692 Battles of Barfleur and La Hougue.[6]
