Hull Maritime Museum

Maritime Museum

If you would like to discover more about Hull’s maritime heritage, come and enjoy free admission to the city’s Maritime Museum.

The museum is housed in the Victorian Dock Offices in Queen Victoria Square. These nautical themed offices were designed by Christopher G Wray and originally opened in 1871. Now they display Hull's maritime activities from the late 18th century to present.

Discover the whaler’s craft of Scrimshaw and see a full-sized whale skeleton, alongside superb ship models and stunning artefacts from Hull's whaling, fishing and merchant trade.

Maritime galleries

The collections are divided into three main categories whaling; fishing and the merchant trade and concentrate on Hull's maritime activities from the late eighteenth century to the present.

Whaling originally began in the 16th century but really took off from c.1760. By the 1820s there were more than 60 whalers sailing out to the Arctic every season which brought back the produce, oil and baleen (whalebone), of some 600 Greenland whales. The oil was used for lamp fuel, softening coarse woollen cloths and various industrial processes including tanning.

The displays are remarkably comprehensive, showing the skeletons of various species of whale as well as the whole range of harpoons and tools used in the trade. Journals, logbooks and contemporary paintings of the ships are to be found as well as the largest collection of scrimshaw this side of the Atlantic.

These decorated pieces of whalebone, walrus tusks and sperm whale teeth are the folk art of the whaler produced in his spare time aboard ship or after his return home.

Arctic Corsair

Come aboard Hull’s last sidewinder trawler the Arctic Corsair and let the crew take you on a guided tour (access is limited).

You’ll hear all about life at sea and the dangers deep sea trawlermen faced in the Icelandic fishing grounds.

Our free guided tours are the only way to see inside the Arctic Corsair (please note restricted opening times on right).

Before each tour starts you can watch a short 10 minute action film - Life at Sea - in the Arctic Corsair visitor centre (next to the Hull and East Riding Museum). You can also find out more about the Arctic Corsair at the museum, which is free to enter and you do not need to book.