National Maritime Museum, London

After a dramatic entrance to the sound of a breakwater, becoming one of the finest maritime museums in the world, the National Maritime Museum in London, which houses models, exhibitions, paintings and trophies from every continent.

Organized in several thematic galleries, you can evoke the romance of the great ocean liners, appreciate the elegance of the golden boat of Prince Frederick, delve into the traditions of maritime London and study the controversial history of the transatlantic trade.

Children will be entertained at the All Hands gallery while the older ones can try the professional ship simulator on the bridge or study the impact of recklessness at sea.

The museum offers a complete program full of fun events for the whole family, serious conference, a major reference library consisting of books and manuscripts and an electronic library for personal research. The National Maritime Museum is a large museum with numerous objects of interest to marine specialists and model makers.

The museum has the largest collection globally on the history of Britain's relationship with the sea, which comprises more than two million objects, including (both British and Dutch seventeenth century) maritime art, cartography, manuscripts ( official public records, models and drawings of ships, for example), scientific and navigational instruments, instruments for measuring time and astronomical. British portraits collection is only exceeded in size by the National Portrait Gallery, although its collection of Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson and Captain James Cook, among many other individuals, is unique.

The Museum houses the largest reference library maritime history in the world, with about 100,000 volumes, with books dating from the fifteenth century. An active loan program ensures that objects in the collection to be seen in other parts of the UK and abroad.

Because of its association with the Royal Observatory, the Museum has a unique combination of subjects (history, science and arts), enabling you to track the movement and the achievements of the people and the origins and consequences of maritime history for the British Empire . Thus, the goal set by the Museum is to achieve a better understanding of maritime history, politics, social, cultural and economic life of Britain and its consequences in the world today.

The collection of the National Maritime Museum also includes brought from Germany after World War II, as several models of ships and paintings objects. In this sense, the museum has been criticized for having what is described as "looted art" .4 The Museum considers these objects as "war trophies" taken under the provisions of the Potsdam Conference.