New permanent exhibition

Sea of stories

Dramatic stories

The new exhibition Sea of Stories is about Swedish sailors in the world. The exhibition is based on people’s experiences and the museum’s own collections. With the help of sailors’ testimonies and authentic artefacts, images and videos, we recount dramatic events from the past 400 years.

The exhibition talks about the trade that forms the basis for seafaring, from the East Indiamen to modern container ships, but we will also talk about life on board for the crew and passengers. We will recount stories about emigration and the Swedish American Line alongside stories about the Swedish merchant fleet during the world wars; about expeditions at sea, Swedish sailors in colonial Congo and all the dangers sailors could face on the oceans.

Life in the tradewinds is a sailor’s paradise… warm, caressing winds. Night under a glorious starlit heaven is an ocean of beauty that only a southern sky can offer. There’s no denying that the tropics call sometimes, and with melancholy thoughts, you yearn to head south to the sun and starlit glory.

Oskar Andersson from Haga, a seaman who sailed on British and American sailing ships in the 1800s.