The Charlestown Shipwreck and Heritage centre is a historical museum relating to the local port of Charlestown, Cornwall, England. It houses a gallery of shipwrecks including information about the famous RMS Titanic and HMS Victory. The shipwreck and historical artefacts on display in the centre are the largest private collection of this type on public display in Europe. Brought together over the last 45 to 50 years, it forms the basis of one of the most unusual and interesting collections open to the public. There are countless items from a bygone age as well as 8,000 artefacts from over 150 shipwrecks. These rare artefacts bring stories of the sea to life with rich tales of triumph, treasure and tragedy alike. The exhibition shows a tremendous range of maritime history from a locally recovered roman amphora base to artefacts from the wrecks of the Cita which occurred in 1997 off the coast of the Isles of Scilly.
Ships Cat.
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Handcart and Weighing Machine.
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This tunnel and others within the heritage centre building were dug out in 1900, when the volume of china clay being shipped from the port demanded it to be processed at the port instead of inland. The clay was moved from the drying kilns to the waiting ships by a hand cart along a track then tipped into the ships.
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Ships wheel from the wreck of the MV Robert, which was a single crew coaster that capsized and sunk off the eastern side of Lundy Island in 1975.
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The Charlestown Estate Bell. Which was situated at the weighbridge and was used to call the estate workers to work and inform them when it was time to finish work. The bell also rang when ships were coming in and going out of the harbour to alert the estate workers to open the gates, which were manual at the time. The bell last rang in approximately 1938, at the beginning of the second world war.
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Three swords used in the 1993 movie The Three Musketeers, filmed on location in Charlestown starring Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sunderland, Chris O'Donnell and Oliver Platt.
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Engine room repeater telegraph from a steamship.
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This gun came from S.S. Eastfield an armed merchant ship carrying coal to Dieppe, sunk without warning in 1917 by a deadly German UB boat off Mevagissey. UB-57 sank 47 ships in her 13 months of service.
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The only intact barrel of coins recovered from a wreck, which was opened under the supervision of a marine archaeologist and a conservation specialist in the laboratory funded by the HMS Invincible Project in Portsmouth. This may well be the only surviving intact treasure barrel in the world of any period and is quite unique.
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Coins and pieces of eight.
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A ships wheel.
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The large blazer buttons in this collection have been made from a mould taken directly from the lower, outside button of the tunic which the great admiral Horatio Viscount Nelson was wearing when he was mortally wounded during the battle of Trafalgar, October 21st 1805. His uniform is on permanent display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
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The bell from H.M Dockyard Tug Fresco, 365 tons, built by Hall and Co in 1940, sunk in an air raid, she was raised and renamed in 1941 the Handmaid.
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Diagram showing how the china clay was taken from the drying kiln through the tunnels to the waiting ships.
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This is very interesting, Les. Though I have never been one to wish to go to sea, the history is still fascinating. That clay business was quite the operation. One normally does not think about it in that perspective. I do like the ship's bells and of course the cannon. Who doesn't like cannons? After all they are neat looking and make a lot of noise! What could be more fun! The wheels and telegraphs are fascinating to me. Most don't think about the engineering complexity behind those devices. I think I would be a happy man if that barrel of coins was mine. Nelson's buttons. Cool. He was a great man. The Three Muskateer's swords. That's cool. Good movie as I recollect. You done yourself proud here, Les. This is really nice. Thanks!!!
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