Hong Kong Maritime Museum - Murray House, The Museum's First Home

Murray House, The Museum's First Home

The museum first opened to the public in 2005. It was located on the ground floor of Murray House, itself a 19th century historic building that had been dismantled brick by brick and moved from its original location to be reassembled overlooking Stanley Bay.

The museum was divided into two galleries, the ancient gallery and the modern gallery, displaying more than 500 items including models of ancient and modern ships, paintings, ceramics, trade goods and ships manifests. A model of a 2,000-year-old boat made of pottery from the Han Dynasty is one of the museum's highlights. Another treasure is the early 19th century, 18 metre long, ink-painting scroll, Pacifying the South China Sea, which relates how the Viceroy of the Two Guangs, Bailing, solved the problem of piracy on the Guangdong coast in 1809-1810. A featured highlight is the Battle of Lantau in which imperial naval forces battled Hong Kong's most famous pirate, Zhang Baozai Cheung Po Tsai.

The ancient gallery portrayed the fortunes of Chinese shipping during ancient and dynastic times. It also illustrated how China's overseas neighbours and Western trading nations together shaped the maritime history of Asia and the regions beyond. The modern gallery explored the historical factors and the Chinese entrepreneurship that have made Hong Kong a maritime success. It covered developments in ship design, and specialization that have changed the face of world's shipping industry and to which Hong Kong's port has had to adapt.

Between 2005 and 2011 the museum attracted an average of 35,000 visitors per year. But because of it size and location, the museum chose to move its operations to Central Pier 8 in order serve more people and exhibit more of its collection.