Åland Maritime Museum

The Åland Maritime Museum is a museum in Mariehamn, Land, Finland. It is located on Hamngatan on the western side of town, about 1 km (0.62 mi) from the opposite end of Storagatan. It is, together with the Lands Museum, the most significant museum on the islands and a tribute to Aland's past as the owner of the world's biggest fleet of wooden sailing ships. The main attraction is a four-masted barque named Pommern, which was constructed in Glasgow in 1903 and is docked behind the museum. The museum structure is supposed to seem like a ship's prow piercing into the soil. It's been described as a "kitsch museum of fishing and marine business".

The museum built a ship's central core, which had a mast, salon, galley, and staterooms. Along with the boats, the ships' figureheads are on exhibit; the prominent figurehead featured, the main figure, previously ornamented the ship "California". There are also nautical trappings, ships in bottles, and sea chests on exhibit. The museum displays paintings of ships (docked at Hull, Antwerp, Hong Kong, or elsewhere) done by local painters who were expressly commissioned by the captains of each ship. Models of ships from various eras are shown on a similar scale, making it easy to see the difference between a Baltic schooner and an ocean-going windjammer.

Location: Hamngatan 2, 22100 Mariehamn, Finland

Website: sjofartsmuseum.ax/en