The Maritime Museum is situated on area with the width of approximately 7.415 m2. Unlike the other museum, the Maritime Museum consisted of several buildings. The main building stood in front of the fish market, while the other building is the Syahbandar Look Out Tower. In the beginning of the 17th century, VOC trading company developed rapidly. Due to this development it was felt necessary to make a trading office as well as a sufficient storage house for the spice, peppers, tea and coffee they managed to collect.
A piece of land in the west of the river Ciliwung, near the Sunda Kelapa harbor were considered an idyllic place to build a great storage room. Thus, from 1652 through 1774, a great storage room was gradually built. Its width was 1800m2.
The old town (kota lama) were the central of Jakarta in the old times. “At the time, point zero of Jakarta was not the National Monument, but this place,” said Makmun Hidayat, one of the guides in this museum.
The storage room then called Westzidschje Pakhuizen, or storage rooms in the east of the river. Besides as a place to keep the commodities , this place also functioned as a place to sort, pack, as well as send the valuable commodities. Because of its valuable contents, this storage house was surrounded with a thick and tall wall that functioned to guard the safety, as well as the sign of the borders of Batavia at the time. This storage house had undergone several renovations on 1718, 1719, and 1771.
Other important part is the Syahbandar Lookout Tower. The area of this tower stood separately from the storage house. According to Dr.F.De Haan in his book Oud Batavia, this tower was built when the Jakarta Harbor was lead by a Dutch named Van Den Broeke in 1826-1849.
In 1976, Ali Sadikin, then the governor of Jakarta, felt the necessity to restore some part of the building. In his perspective the building has an important historical meaning. The following year, on July 7, 1977, Ali Sadikin then initiated the building in Jl. Pasar Ikan No.1 as the Maritime Museum. The museum has an important standing amongst historical building in Jakarta, because The Maritime Museum is the first museum in the archipelago that exhibits collections related to the maritime history and fishery of Indonesia, from Sabang through Merauke.
The Museum is situated in Jl. Pasar Ikan No.1, West Jakarta. It is not hard to go to this museum. Visitors can choose to take the Transjakarta Bus to Kota Bus Station. Then there are several options to get to the museum, motorcycle or bicycle rental are available for the visitors. They can also choose Mikrolet 015, a sort of minibus that travels from Kota to Tanjung Priok.
The entrance of this museum is located in front of the fish market. To look at it in a glimpse, this museum look a lot like a fortress, because of the high walls that surrounds its main building. The Dutch style architecture is preserved as close to its original form. Because the important historic meaning of this building, a little change would draw protest from historians or archeologists. One day, there was part of the museum floor that was changed. The substitute floor was different from the original one. The archeologists that became aware of this fact expressed their strong objections to the museums.
There are a lot of amazing collections kept by the museum. There are 14 cannons, 17 original boats, 104 navigational instruments. Not to mention, the collections of miniature boats, fishing equipments, navigational maps, photos and coat of arms of the navy that amounts to hundreds of items. Also maps of ancient cruising routes in Indonesia.
The Maritime Museum actually has a lot of interesting collections that can be explored by its visitors. One of its most valued collections is the Jayapura 02 vessel. An original vessel put on permanent display in this museum. Made from an old tree, the length of this vessel is 15 meters. To put it into the museum, the boat must be disbanded first, and the reassembled once all parts of it had enter the museum.
“The process of disbanding the boat was quite an effort,” said Makmun. “We must invite the heir of the person that made the boat from Papua, because a certain ceremony must be conducted first. Only after that, the process of assembling the ship can begin. The ship is made from a very strong wood with a substantial weight. This keeps the boat from floating when flood entered the museum.”
The other interesting collection is the Phinisi Nusantara schooner. It is interesting not because of its unique form, but because of the story behind the boat. The real Phinisi Nusantara had successfully sailed an 11.000 miles from the Pacific Ocean to Van Couver, Canada in 1986. Unfortunately, this ship sunk near Ayer Island in the area of the Thousand Islands in 2002. To honor the memory of the boat, The Phinisi Nusantara Foundation made a miniature of the boat and gave it to the Maritime Museum.
Another precious collection is perahu bercadik (a special kind of boat with a special weight on each of its side). It is donated to the museum by its builder, Effendy Sulaeman. This boat was made by Effendy to sail in an expedition to Brunei, where he traveled alone. Originally he made two weights on this boat, in the left and right wing of the boat.
An experiment showed that the boat with two weights did not go as fast as it was expected to. To enhance the speed, Effendy take one off. The boat traveled a lot faster. After he was finished with the expedition, Effendy donated the boat to the museum.
One of the biggest problems faced by the museum is the flood. “When the tide is high, the water often enters the museum,” said Muhammad Isa, one of the museum clerks. Not to mention the routine inundation faced by Jakarta.
In 2007, the museum went through a big flood. Many of its collections were destroyed or damaged because of the flood. The museum must arrange their collections once again. The cataloging process found a substantial decrease in the number of collection from 1888 items in 2006 to a mere 768 items in 2009.
Learning from their mistake, the Museum made a new drainage system that surrounded the museum. “The drainage system will keep the flood out of the museum, or if it is flooding, it won’t be as bad as before,” said Muhammad Isa. The rate to enter the museum is Rp2000,- for the general public and Rp1000,- for student. The museum is open from Tuesday through Sunday starting from 08.00am everyday.
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