Napoleonic Newsdesk

Open Museum
Short Course Programme
1998

National Maritime Museum

by Paul Chamberlain

The Open Museum is a programme of lectures and talks demonstrating the Museum's firm commitment to wider public access to its collections and a broader understanding of their significance. The programme offers something for people of all ages, whether learning for pleasure or for academic study. Their programme for 1998 includes some courses that are of interest to the naval historian. All take place at the National Maritime Museum.

Keeping in Touch, Saturday 21 February 1998, 10.30am - 4.15pm.

Communication on land and at sea has always been vital to both naval and merchant fleets, and essential for safety and security. This course explores early methods used to assist ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore communications: flag signalling, the mechanical telegraph, the early electric telegraph and the wireless telegraph.

The Royal Navy in the 18th Century - The Rise to Supremacy, Thursday 30 April 1998, 10am - 4.30pm.

This is a unique opportunity for students to study the Royal Navy during the 18th century through the Museum's collection of plans, prints, manuscripts and other artefacts. This course will consider how the Navy lived and fought during this period, and how warships were built and handled.

Nelson and the Nile Campaign, 1798, Saturday 13 June 1998, 10.30am - 4.30pm.

The Battle of the Nile, the first of Nelson's three great victories, was fought almost 200 years ago, on 1 August 1798. It was perhaps the most decisive naval battle of all time, with political and strategic consequences that (popular myth notwithstanding) were more far-reaching that those of Trafalgar. The victory almost wiped out the French Mediterranean Fleet, checked Napoleon's career for the first time and made Nelson a national hero. This course looks at the Nile Campaign and the battle, and traces the beginning of the Nelson legend.

All the courses are reasonably priced (£25 soldiers, aged 16 or over, to carry a musket, and for camp followers and ladies. We welcome families as well as single people and we are sure you will find us a friendly lot.- £30, with concessions).

For further information and a full prospectus contact

    The Open Museum, National Maritime Museum,
    Greenwich, London SE10 9NE.
    Tel: 0181 312 6747.
    Web site: http://www.nmm.ac.uk

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