Age of Sail

Age of Sail

For centuries sail power was the main method of traversing the seas, whether from small local fishing vessels through to the large fully rigged ships. We have a diverse range of artefacts from the age of sail with key sites and themes being:  

  • Navigation – featuring astrolabes, octants and sextants, also ships clocks, telescopes and compasses.  
  • Santa Lucia – the 16th century Protected Wreck at Yarmouth Roads, including the rare bronze Alberghetti gun from the site.  
  • Henry Addington – the East India Company ship wrecked in 1798 while bound from London to India and China. 
  • The ‘gun deck’ – showing a typical gun deck of the 18th century on a naval vessel, here we recreate where the ships surgeon would have worked on injured sailors in confined space with minimal equipment.