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Royal Navy Museums Linking Navy and Nation with inspiring stories and experiences.

The National Museum of the Royal Navy was created in early 2009 to act as a single non-departmental public body for the museums of the Royal Navy. With venues across the United Kingdom, the museums detail the history of the Royal Navy operating on and under the sea, on land and in the air. We currently have HMS Warrior, HMS Victory, HMS M33 and other attractions at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, aircraft at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, HMS Caroline in Belfast and HMS Trincomalee in Hartlepool. If you would like to become a member of the National Museum of the Royal Navy and start you maritime adventure please go to https://www.nmrn.org.uk/membership

⚓ In the early hours of 14 October 1939, Royal Marine Horace Baber was asleep aboard HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow.Elsewhe...
14/10/2026

⚓ In the early hours of 14 October 1939, Royal Marine Horace Baber was asleep aboard HMS Royal Oak at Scapa Flow.

Elsewhere on the ship, Paymaster Lieutenant-Commander Eardley Maclean was still awake, having watched the Northern Lights over Orkney.

Within minutes, both men would be fighting for their lives. Torpedoes fired by the German submarine U-47 struck Royal Oak, sinking the battleship with devastating loss of life.

Of the 1,259 people aboard, 835 sailors and Royal Marines lost their lives that night or later died from their injuries. Baber escaped through smoke, flames and rising water before jumping into the freezing sea. Maclean followed a very different route to survival, twice finding himself thrown into the oil-covered water as an overloaded boat capsized.

Their remarkable first-hand accounts survive in the Royal Navy Museums collection, allowing us to experience the final minutes of HMS Royal Oak through the words of two people who were there.

Discover their stories in our latest article by Mark Berry, Assistant Curator at Royal Navy Museums.

https://orlo.uk/4EfUX

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HMS Royal Oak 80 Survey Team
HMS Royal Oak at Malta in 1927. RNM
Royal letter of sympathy regarding the death of Royal Marine J W Marsh on HMS Royal Oak, RMM 1977/166c

🍂 The job you keep putting off? It's free this Autumn.Write or update it with expert estate planners and we'll cover th...
12/10/2026

🍂 The job you keep putting off? It's free this Autumn.

Write or update it with expert estate planners and we'll cover the cost, up to £150. So a simple will is free, or a will with trust comes at a discount.

Give a gift to Royal Navy Museums and your will could help protect and preserve our historic fleet. Change starts with a will.

You can do it online, over the phone, or in person with an expert.

Claim your free will online https://orlo.uk/FooGh call 020 4525 3605 and quote Royal Navy Museums.

⚓ 209 years ago today, HMS Trincomalee took to the water for the first time.Her story had begun several years earlier, w...
12/10/2026

⚓ 209 years ago today, HMS Trincomalee took to the water for the first time.

Her story had begun several years earlier, when the Royal Navy ordered a new Leda-class frigate to be built at Bombay Dockyard in India. But before construction could begin, the first set of plans sent from Britain never reached their destination.

They were being carried aboard HMS Java when, on 29 December 1812, she encountered the American frigate USS Constitution during the War of 1812. After a fierce battle off the coast of Brazil, Java was captured and, too badly damaged to be taken as a prize, was destroyed. Trincomalee's plans were lost with her.

Her American opponent was no ordinary ship. USS Constitution, better known as “Old Ironsides”, had been launched in Boston in 1797 as one of the original frigates of the United States Navy. Remarkably, she survives today too.

A replacement set of plans eventually reached Bombay, allowing work on Trincomalee to begin.

When Trincomalee finally took to the water on 12 October 1817, she was the work of Indian shipwrights at Bombay Dockyard, led by master shipbuilder Jamsetjee Bomanjee Wadia. Built from Malabar teak rather than the oak traditionally associated with British warships, she was created thousands of miles from Britain for a Royal Navy whose ships and people were operating across the world.

More than two centuries later, much of that story can still be found in the ship herself. The teak hull built in Bombay has survived changing roles, generations of sailors and more than 200 years of naval history.

Today, HMS Trincomalee is the oldest warship still afloat in the UK, preserved at Royal Navy Museums: Hartlepool.

Step aboard and discover the stories of the people who built her, sailed in her and ensured that a ship launched on the other side of the world in 1817 is still with us today.

⚓ Discover HMS Trincomalee at Royal Navy Museums: Hartlepool.

https://orlo.uk/hTUwA

09/10/2026

⚓ A completely new experience is coming to Royal Navy Museums: Portsmouth.

Opening on 24 October, Royal Marines Experience brings more than 360 years of Royal Marines history to life through remarkable objects, personal stories, immersive technology and hands-on challenges.

Discover the people behind the Green Beret and come face to face with objects that connect us to their stories, including all ten Victoria Crosses awarded to Royal Marines, brought together in one place. Then step further into their world. Take on Commando-inspired physical and mental challenges, enter immersive virtual and augmented reality environments and discover some of the skills, resilience and teamwork demanded of Royal Marines.

From stories of courage and service to new ways of experiencing them, a new chapter in the Royal Marines story is about to begin.

Be among the first to step inside from 24 October.

Book online, arrive ready to explore.

📍 Royal Marines Experience, Royal Navy Museums: Portsmouth.

https://orlo.uk/3Y5PF

08/10/2026

⚓ How much of HMS Victory can you actually explore today?

Step aboard and walk the decks where generations of sailors lived and worked, from the Great Cabin to the gun decks and the cramped spaces that hundreds of people once called home.

But Victory’s story doesn’t end onboard. The new Victory walkway takes you alongside the ship for a completely different view of her historic structure and the conservation work helping to preserve her for the future. Beneath the ship, you can stand under the vast hull itself before continuing into the Victory Gallery, where objects and stories reveal more about her remarkable 260-year history.

HMS Victory is open, and today there are more ways than ever to explore the ship, the people who served aboard her and the work ensuring her story continues.

⚓ Discover HMS Victory at Royal Navy Museums: Portsmouth.

https://orlo.uk/IHU1z

06/10/2026

⚠️ A historically significant piano. A full-size RIB. A piece of military drone technology.

Three very different objects, each helping us tell part of the Royal Marines story.

⚒️ Behind the scenes at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, our teams have been carefully manoeuvring some of the largest objects into their new home as the Royal Marines Experience takes shape.

It takes careful planning, precision and teamwork to move objects like these safely into place. Watch as the team prepares them for a new chapter, ready to help tell the stories of the people who have served as Royal Marines.

The Royal Marines Experience opens at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard on 24 October.

⚓ Discover the stories behind the objects and the people connected to them.

https://orlo.uk/0cQqK

⚓ Portsmouth Historic Dockyard through a different lens.We were thrilled to welcome the Royal Navy Photographic Branch f...
05/10/2026

⚓ Portsmouth Historic Dockyard through a different lens.

We were thrilled to welcome the Royal Navy Photographic Branch for an aptitude test at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard last week.

These photographs by James Clarke capture some of the activity, with our historic ships and buildings providing the backdrop.

📷 AB Jordan Mold RN

03/10/2026

⚓ For more than 260 years, HMS Victory has been part of the Royal Navy’s story. Today, her story continues, and you can step inside it.

Walk the decks where generations of sailors served, explore Nelson’s Great Cabin and descend into the spaces where the crew lived and worked. Each brings you closer to the people who made this extraordinary ship their home.

Beyond her decks, see her iconic stern up close and stand beneath her vast hull. Discover the skilled conservation work preserving her timbers and the stories they hold for generations to come.

One ship. Hundreds of stories. Still making history.

📍 HMS Victory is open at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Discover her story for yourself. Book online before you arrive.

https://orlo.uk/Ltm0j

⚓ How do you learn to serve beneath the waves when almost everything is new?For Holland 1’s first crew, that was the cha...
02/10/2026

⚓ How do you learn to serve beneath the waves when almost everything is new?

For Holland 1’s first crew, that was the challenge. Launched without ceremony on 2 October 1901, the Royal Navy’s first submarine was small, experimental and built in secrecy. Inside, her crew had to learn an entirely new way of operating a warship.

Wheels, levers, valves and gauges crowded the tiny conning tower. Every dive meant putting new technology, their training and their trust in one another to the test.

Today, 125 years after her launch, we remember the people who helped the Royal Navy take those first steps beneath the waves.

Holland 1’s survival is another remarkable story. Raised after almost 70 years on the seabed, she needed pioneering conservation to preserve her for future generations.

👇 Discover the submarine, the people and the extraordinary work that saved her in our blog, then step aboard Holland 1 at Royal Navy Museums: Submarines in Gosport and discover where it all began.

https://orlo.uk/sOCNq

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Slide 2 - Holland 1 underway - National Historic Ships

⚓ Think you know Nelson?You know Trafalgar. You know how his story ends. But how many of these stories do you know?1️⃣ H...
29/09/2026

⚓ Think you know Nelson?

You know Trafalgar. You know how his story ends. But how many of these stories do you know?

1️⃣ He lost the sight in his right eye at Calvi in 1794. Three years later, he lost his right arm after being hit at Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Neither injury ended his naval career.
2️⃣ At the Battle of Cape St Vincent, he personally led his men aboard the Spanish San Nicolás and captured her. Then, using the captured ship as a bridge, they boarded and took the much larger San Josef. The extraordinary feat became known as: “Nelson’s Patent Bridge for Boarding First Rates.”
3️⃣ At Copenhagen, when his commander signalled for the action to be discontinued, Nelson reportedly raised his telescope to his blind eye, declared he couldn't see the signal and carried on fighting.
4️⃣ At Trafalgar, Nelson abandoned the conventional approach of two fleets fighting in parallel lines. Instead, the British attacked in columns, sailing directly towards the Franco-Spanish line and breaking through it.
5️⃣ And on the quarterdeck of HMS Victory, Nelson wore his uniform and stars of chivalric orders, despite the danger of making such a senior officer conspicuous. He knew the risk, but wore them anyway.

How many did you know?

Discover more of the stories behind Britain's most famous admiral at Royal Navy Museums: Portsmouth.

https://orlo.uk/01Liw

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Rear-Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson, c.1800, attributed to Guy Head. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, Greenwich Hospital Collection (BHC2903).

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HM Naval Base (PP66)
Portsmouth
PO13NH

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