Maritime Museum

  

Yesterday (Tuesday) I went to the Rauma Maritime Museum.  It is housed in a large, attractive, old house that (I was told) was used as their "Seaman's School" until the mid 20th century.  It is very well done, I think for a specialized collection.  There are many real, life-sized, beautiful examples of ship art such as those painted ladies that adorned the prows of sailing ships.  I saw a couple of unusual ones, like a polar bear!

The collection was organized by era, with the sailing ships' stuff in two or three rooms and the more modern merchant marine articles in another couple of rooms.  I took lots of pictures of the radio and navigation equipment for my dad, the former (Canadian) merchant marine.

I regret that I don't know how to read or understand spoken Finnish, as there were many well preserved examples of sailors' correspondence to folks back home in Rauma (from the 1800's) as well as audio recordings of Finnish (more recently retired) sailors' memories.

Even the Ladies' bathroom was striking, with an ancient, but working (!) porcelain toilet with a blue pattern of flowers, a brass sink and a wall display of blue & white procelain fixtures from a 19th c. sailing ship that used those items in its passenger rooms.  That room, as well as the rest of the house, was full of beautiful, dark, wood cabinetry. 

There is a nice gift shop (where I indulged!) and the friendly lady at the front desk helpfully directed me to her supervisor for further information when she begged off from answering my questions, excusing her English language skills.  Like just about everyone I've encountered here, her English seemed fine to me.

After the museum I was ready for lunch and I met Anne & the twins at the Cafe Sali.  We are going to pick up the bicycle today!  Ha! Ha!