Visit to the Navy Museum – Lyceum International Club of Lisbon

On 12 June, the Lyceum Club paid a visit to the Navy Museum. In 1863, King Luís founded a museum in honour of the Navy that is ‘a world of discoveries’, including models of galleys, river and coastal vessels, sea charts and navigation instruments, weapons and uniforms, impressive replicas of ships and royal vessels from the Discoveries to the 19th century.

At the entrance to the museum, the Cantino Planisphere, drawn in 1502, is a copy of a large-scale chart obtained clandestinely by Alberto Cantino, based on the so-called royal pattern, which hung in the chart room at the House of Guinea and Mina in Lisbon. It is one of the oldest nautical charts depicting the Portuguese maritime discoveries.

Allegory of the Sagres School, Infante D. Henrique’s legendary school of maritime exploration

Model of the NRP Sagres, the Portuguese Navy’s main training ship

Vault that carried the Royal Banner embroidered by Queen Amélia aboard the cruiser D. Carlos I

Discoveries Room

Portuguese galleon from the early 16th century

Frigate Ulisses (1792-1809), a 44-piece ship built in Lisbon and launched in 1792, lost at sea near Cape Verde.

Model of a mid-19th century frigate from the former Portuguese Naval Academy

The Madre de Deus ship was built in Lisbon in 1589 and was considered the largest ship of the time. It only made two trips to India and had the capacity to carry a crew of between 600 and 700 men. In August 1592, laden with extremely valuable goods and returning to Lisbon on its second voyage to India, it was attacked and captured by an English fleet of six ships off the Azores.

A painting depicting the naval battle at Cape St Vincent between the Liberal and Miguelist fleets on 5 July 1833

The naval battle of Cape Matapan (Greece) against the Ottoman Empire, fought on 19 July 1717, was decisive in stopping the Turkish threat in the Western Mediterranean

Paintings of D. Francisco de Almeida, first Viceroy of India (1505-1509), on the left, and D. Afonso de Albuquerque, Governor of India (1509-1515), on the right

Queen’s Chamber on the Royal Yacht Amélia (1900-1910)

King Charles’ cabin on the Royal Yacht Amélia (1900-1910)

Galleys Pavilion

The Galleys Pavilion houses royal vessels such as the Bergantim Real, built by Queen Maria I in 1780 for the wedding of her son, the future King João VI, to Princess Carlota Joaquina in 1784. It sailed for the last time in 1957, on the occasion of Queen Elizabeth II of England’s official visit to Portugal.

Below, photos of the Great Galley, built in 1728 by order of King João V.