If you take a serious interest in the rich maritime history of The Netherlands, the town of Maassluis is the place for you to be. In the beautiful and picturesque heart of this old town situated on the Nieuwe Waterweg you will find the Nationaal Sleepvaart Museum (National Towage Museum). A magnificent, flourishing and fascinating institute, situated directly at the end of the Inner harbour.
This website comes with a lot of information about this tugboat museum. The Nationaal Sleepvaart Museum is the only museum in the world that is purely dedicated to towage. So, no doubt we are indeed unique.
A visit to our museum allows you to become thoroughly informed about the history and development of the Dutch towing industry in a most extensive way from 1842 until the present day.
Apart from the towing service, you will experience lots of interesting facts about related operations, such as rescue at sea, salvage, diving, offshore and – originating from towing – heavy transport.
Next to our permanent exhibition we organize on a regular basis exhibition specials, that intensively highlight special subjects on the rich history of towing.
Our collection consists of photographs, paintings, tug scale models, curiosities, towage tools, decorations for heroic actions, personal possessions of legendary crewmembers, radio cabins, a complete tug bridge as well as a navigation simulator.
The Nationaal Sleepvaart Museum is in the possession of a large library and documentation centre with logbooks, press clippings, more than 100.000 photographs, 200 videos, technical plans for the construction of models, a film system and a visitors information system.
We hope you find much pleasure in reading our website. You may even decide to pay a visit to our museum when you have the opportunity. So, when you have plans to come to Holland, we would appreciate your visit muchly!
In case you have questions or suggestions, we would like you to contact us by mail or telephone. We will reply as soon as possible.