Zübeyde Hanım - museum ship

In the Izmir harbor, we discovered this floating museum, Zübeyde Hanım, with a focus on rescue ships and some of the earlier technology used on them.

Model of a rescue ship

Zübeyde Hanım 

Zübeyde Hanım Training and Exhibition Vessel

Tube radio

Ohmmeter

Amp meter

The helm

Engine order telegraph

Typewriter - note the most worn keys are AZERI. This is not the standard Turkish Q or Turkish F keyboard layout.

Lanterns and compasses

Lanterns, compasses, and megaphones

Calipers

Flare guns

Admiral Piri Reis Map (1531)

Electron lamps

Medical instruments

Viking ships

This summer we visited the Viking Ships Museum at Roskilde in Denmark. The museum is dedicated to preserving five viking ships that were discovered submerged in the Roskilde Fjord. The five ships were submerged for about a thousand years and so recovering them was a challenging task. Modern replicas of the ships have been built and there is an ongoing open source project where visitors can take part in constructing a boat. 

Photo by Vassia Atanassova - Spiritia (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The summer program included hands on activities for children to make jewellery, swords, shields, axes, model boats and other viking themed crafts.

At the cafe, we enjoyed a modern Nordic meal based on the types of foods Vikings would have eaten, including mead.  

Historic film clips of fantastic inventions

Last month the newsreel archive, British Pathe, uploaded thousands of historic films to its YouTube channel. Among them is this playlist of fantastic inventions.

Underwater Car

A self-driving car that goes underwater too! The sQuba, to be launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March, features an on-board, self-contained, fresh air breathing system so the driver and passenger can dive down to 10 meters.

The Falkirk Wheel

Just over a year ago we visited the Falkirk Wheel in Scotland. An amazing piece of engineering that has replaced a complex system of locks and has helped to revive canal boat tourism.

A boat entering the bottom of the wheel.

Another boat entering next to ours before we go down again.

The Falkirk Wheel in action.

Using Archimede's principle of displacement, the Falkirk Wheel uses very little energy to lift the boats up and down in rotating balanced tanks.

Read more on Wikipedia.

dolphin-inspired submersible watercraft.