Shipwreck Museum

About

Touch part of the wooden London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in Roman times; sit on a dinosaur footprint while holding a dinosaur bone; get up close to part of a Roman ship, identified as the earliest sea-going sailing vessel ever discovered in the northern hemisphere; feel a perfectly-preserved 4000 year old Bronze Age tree; try out your skills at tying knots and handling pulleys; see an Anglo-Saxon dugout canoe. All this – and a great deal more – awaits you at the Shipwreck Museum, situated in the historic Old Town of Hastings, which contains a truly astonishing array of maritime artefacts.

Outstanding amongst these are the displays focusing on two major historic shipwrecks, both to be found locally - the 17th-century warship Anne, the only known accessible survivor of Samuel Pepys’ Restoration navy, and the great 18th-century Dutch East Indiaman, the Amsterdam, the best-preserved wreck of an East Indiaman anywhere in the world, two-thirds complete and with most of her cargo still on board! With the additional attraction of a well-stocked gift shop for you to browse, it is no surprise that the Shipwreck Museum draws in around 80,000 visitors each year.