A walk around the harbour of Flensburg will also take you to the area that is known as the Museum Harbour. Although this was our second trip to this place we still discovered many new things all around seafaring.
The Museum Harbour Flensburg was established in 1979. The Museum Harbour Flensburg Association started by renovating the old quay. With that done they started working towards their objective to „rebuilt and maintain traditional sailing ships and other historic vessels“. They are mainly dealing with ships that were built in 1880 or later. The Museum Harbour Association purchased the first vessels and started their restoration work. They started with vessels that were used to earn money for their owners as opposed to leisure boats. Such vessels were e.g. fishing boats and cargo boats.
The concept for the Museum Harbour was introduced in 1984. Over the years a historic shipyard with exhibitions and slipways was created. A collection of dinghies, steamers and yachts was slowly assembled. The Museum Harbour Flensburg Association describes its tasks as follows:
- Maintain and care for former commercial vessels
- Maintain traditional seamanship
- Collect and pass on knowledge about traditional seafaring
- Support people to learn about seafaring in practical and theoretical ways
- Host local and trans-regional events
The club raises awareness for its work and asks for support through historic regattas like their annual rum-regatta.
Visiting the Museum Harbour in Flensburg
A walk through the shipyard gives the visitor a pretty good impression of how a ship is built.
The workers use historic plans to restore the old ships. During the process, the workers share insights about the historic art of building ships. They offer workshops, too, to show their craft to interested individuals. It was very interesting to watch them work. When the weather is nice the little museum café is very tempting, too. Visitors can sit in the sun and enjoy some cake.
Many different boats are moored to the piers of the museum shipyard. Some of them do look quite old and one can tell that restoration work is still ongoing. Other boats look as if they are brand new and I as a layperson could not tell if those were historic boats. Maybe some signs at the docks with descriptions of the boats would help with that.
I certainly enjoyed the walk through the Museum Harbour and the shipyard. Even as a non-expert, I gained a lot from the visit.
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