World Port days Rotterdam in September
In Rotterdam you can visit the fantastic World Port Days every year in the first weekend of September.
A delight for people of all ages who love sailing ships, ports and maritime adventures. Spectacular demonstrations on the water, impressive ships and exciting port excursions.
The World Port Days traditionally take place around the New Maas River. This World Port event gives insight in Europe's largest harbour. A wide range of activities is offered to the visitors. There are spectacular stunts on the water and fully organized excursions to one of the many harbour-related companies located in Rotterdam.
During the World Port Days visitors can get a glimpse behind the scenes of the largest harbour of Europe and its industrial area. This large, annual maritime event offers all kind of activities such as ship tours, naval activities, demonstrations, seminars, excursions, exhibitions, music and fireworks.
The excursions give an immediate view of what is going on in the harbour. Port companies demonstrate what their ships and other sailing equipment are capable of. Visitors can furthermore enjoy breathtaking stunts and spectacular action from the Erasmus Bridge or from the Wilhelminakade.
On the bank of the Leuvehaven, near the Rotterdam Maritime Museum, you will also find the location of the Tug Boat Harbour Foundation (Stichting Sleepboothaven) Maassluis and the National Dutch Towage Museum (Nationaal Sleepvaart Museum) of Maassluis. On the south bank, near hotel New York, we have an information stand too. 10 historic tugs and other ships from Maassluis will be present there.
This year this event will take place from friday september 6th till Sunday September 8th. For more information please contact: https://en.rotterdam.info/agenda/world-port-days-2019/
The permanent exhibition of tug models, curiosities and image material covers the history of Dutch towing in the most extensive way. Our museum also pays attention to towing related activities, such as rescue operations at sea, salvage, diving, working with floating cranes, the offshore business and heavy transport.
The museum is roughly divided in four sections.
At first there is the Sea Hall, where you can admire the deep sea towage activities and scene over the last 150 years.
The second towage branche is shown in the Harbour Hall: Here you will experience the towage scene in the Dutch harbours, assistance and mooring of seagoing ships, such as tankers, bulk carriers, ocean liners and freighters.
Specific for the Netherlands is the history of inland towage (and river pushing). The river Rhine bears the busiest traffic of the world. This activity and its history is presented in the Rhine and Inland towing Hall.
At last you will find the smaller Salvage Hall. This room contains a collection of historic salvage vessel models.
Each of these subjects is dominated by specific characteristics, ship designs, materials, photographs, videos and curiosities.
The National Towing Museum also means a lot to the elder generations of sailors; it brings so to speak their past to life again. And younger people will experience what their forefathers have managed in this heroic and peculiar shipping branche during the past 150 years.
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.
