Digital & Temporary Exhibitions

Take a virtual stroll through our collection of online exhibitions and explore our regularly changing temporary exhibitions.

Dive a little deeper

Digital Exhibitions

Take a virtual stroll through our collection of online exhibitions.

Three Cruisers

Early in the morning of 22 September 1914, three Chatham Division cruisers, HMS ABOUKIR, HMS HOGUE and HMS CRESSY, were spotted by a single German submarine, U9, while on patrol off the Hook of Holland. In little under two hours, U9 had torpedoed and sunk all three ships.

This digital exhibition is a memorial to all those affected by this loss and a resource to help people to find out more.

Falklands 40: In their own words

To mark the 40^th anniversary of the Falklands War, we reached out to people to come forward and share their memories of the conflict.

Falklands 40: In Their Own Words

Blogs & Articles

Related Stories

Dive a little deeper into our Collections with our blogs and articles.

Remembering the Three Cruisers

Disability Histories

Warship Wednesday

Warship Wednesday: HMS GRAMPUS

Behind the Scenes

Commissioner’s House Ceiling Painting: A condition audit

Behind the Scenes

Volunteers’ Week: Meet the Collections Volunteers

Dockyard Characters

International Women’s Day 2023 – Celia Boorman | The Woman who made Dockyard history

Monsters of the Deep: where science and the supernatural co-exist

Behind the Scenes

Conservation in Action: Admiralty Pattern Anchor

National Authors Day with Collections Manager Nick Ball

Black and white pictures of the Chatham Chest at The Historic Dockyard Chatham

Creating A Disability History Focus Group

Meet Suchitra Chatterjee, our Curating for Change Fellow

Acquisitions and donations to our collection

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Library & Reading Room

The Library & Reading Room house our collection of over 6,500 books and manuscripts that focus on ships, shipbuilding, naval architecture and history.

Our Reading Room is open each each day from 11am – 2.30pm but please note the Reading Room is staffed by Volunteers and we may need to close at short notice if Volunteers aren’t available.

Dockyard History

The Royal Dockyard at Chatham has existed on this site for over 400 years and today, it is the most complete dockyard of the age of sail in the world.

The dockyard’s role in supporting the fleet linked it to many of the most significant events in history –from the Spanish Armada to the Cold War.

Dockyard History

Historic Warships

Our four historic warships mark key points in the development of warship building over two centuries.

The surviving timbers of NAMUR (1756), GANNET (1878), CAVALIER (1944) and OCELOT (1962).

Galleries

Four centuries of shipbuilding, shipfitting and naval warfare have generated a vast array of artefacts, many of which can be seen in open display across our galleries.