THE MARITIME MUSEUM

The Maritime Museum is located on the northern tip of the capital Jakarta, precisely in the old Sunda Kelapa port area, which displays a wide range of the Dutch Company properties at the time in smaller models and scales. The museum attempts to provide a description to its visitors about the maritime tradition of the Indonesian ancestors and the significance of maritime to the Indonesian economic growth until now.

 

The museum also has a variety of model fishing ships from all over Indonesia, stone anchors from a few places in the country, modern steam engines, and the Pinisi sailboat from Bugis, South Sulawesi, which is now one of the last existing sailboats in the world.

The building was originally built by the Dutch to store spices. The construction of the building involved three phases was in 1718, the second 1773, and the third 1774. After the independence, the building became a telecommunication office. In 1972 it was considered as historic building with protection from the law of monuments. Then on July 7^th, 1977 it was inaugurated as a maritime museum. The current building that is now the Maritime Museum is the old site developed in stages from 1652 to 1774. At the time the Dutch VOC were using the building as spice warehouse.

To monitor its commercial activities both on the sea and land, the VOC built a tower on the Gulf of Jakarta coastline, not far from the current location of the Maritime Museum building, known for the port authority tower (Menara Syahbandar). Built in 1839, the tower monitored activities on the sea and the surrounding areas.

Two buildings overlooking the port authority tower were built to monitor the paperwork and administration of the commercial goods before the spices were sent over to Europe.

Much latter during to Japanese occupation in Indonesia the building was converted to a warehouse of military logistics. In 1976 the building began renovation and finally on July 7^th, 1977 was officially opened by the Governor of Jakarta Ali Sadikin as the Maritime Museum.

The museum collection comprises traditional sailboats from all over the country, for example the Pinisi sailboat from Budis, Makassar, the Kora-kora boat from Maluku, the Mayang boat from the North Beach of Java, the Lancang Kuning boat from Riau, and the Jukung boat from Kalimantan. Other collection includes, sea creatures, navigation equipment, sailing equipment, the Onrust island model, traditional fishing equipment, and sailing maps as well as photos of maritime activities since the colonial era.