Battle cruiser HMS New Zealand, gifted by the people of New Zealand to Great Britain and the Royal Navy in 1909, undertook a world tour in 1913.

The ship sailed from England on 6 February 1913 and arrived in New Zealand on 12 April. Proudly displayed as a symbol of New Zealand’s nationhood, HMS New Zealand visited 18 ports around the country during the three month visit. It is estimated that almost half of the then population of New Zealand saw or visited the ship during her stay.

To mark this significant event the National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy, in collaboration with the Auckland War Memorial Museum, has created an online resource that brings the historic 1913 HMS New Zealand 10-month round-the-world world cruise alive.

Dutch company, Flying Focus, has selected 25 of their best aerial photographs of ships in rough seas for exhibition by maritime museums.

For more than 25 years, maritime aerial photographer Herman IJsseling, from Flying Focus, has regularly made flights to photograph ships under the most difficult weather conditions imaginable. He has even flown and worked in force 10 gales.

Even after all these years, IJsseling finds it is still a privilege to be able to fly above the sea in such stormy weather conditions. He says; ‘It is always fascinating to see what storm force winds can do to the sea, and what severe conditions vessels have to cope with’.

IJsseling has now made a selection of 25 of his best storm photographs available for exhibition to the public at maritime museums around the world.

The 385th anniversary of the naval Battle of Oliva between ships of the Polish and Swedish navies is being marked by the Polish Maritime Museum in a temporary exhibition – ‘TO BOARD!’ – in the Granaries on Olowianka Island in Gdansk. The exhibition highlights one of the oldest and most effective techniques used for centuries in naval battles – boarding the enemy’s ships.

Visitors to the exhibition learn about how naval battles were fought through examples of selected battles over the centuries – from antiquity to present times. ‘TO BOARD!’ presents such naval battles as the Battle of Salamis between the Greeks and Persians on September 28th, 480 BC; the Battle of Vistula Lagoon, fought between ships of the Teutonic Order and the Prussian Confederation, allied to the King of Poland, on 15th September, 1463; and the Battle of Oliva on November 28th, 1627. The boarding activities of Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean, in the region of the so-called ‘Horn of Africa’, are also highlighted in the exhibition.

Discovery of the second largest maritime paintings in the Netherlands

The Burgerhout Panorama went on display at the Rotterdam Maritime Museum in February 2013. The three paintings are two metres high and between six and ten metres wide, making them the largest maritime paintings in the Netherlands after the Mesdag Panorama.

The rolled-up paintings had been in the museum's depot for years. Eighteen months ago, a place was found where they could be unrolled safely and experts then discovered three tableaux of great historical importance.