Just 10 minutes walk from the famous gateway A Famosa you will see a big wooden ship "grounded" on the shore of Melaka river. It doesn's look dilapidated but so sure this is not the kind of ship that will sail in the sea these days. So what is it?
Melaka is always being well known for the mythology and history that mixed with legends, so it won't be surprised to see a ship like this in the middle of the city. This ship came along with a beautiful name - Flor de la Mar, which means "Flower of the Sea" in Portuguese. Now you're linked with the colonial history of the Portuguese, the first foreign country which took over Melaka and made it its first port of transshipment in South East Asia.
The Flor de la Mar was the Portuguese galleon with Alfonso de Albuquerque as captain, which sunk off the coast of Sumatra after defeated Melaka in 1511 and taken almost 2000 pieces of precious items from the Melaka Sultanate Palace. The cargo included beds, thrones, statues of elephants and tigers in solid gold, rubies, sapphires, diamonds, porcelain...and Sotheby's valued the content of the ship US$ 9 billion. The loss of the Flor de la Mar has ever since inspired many treasure hunters. It was reported to be the richest shipwreck to sink in that part of the world as Melaka was then the richest seaport in Asia at that time.
After 500 years, the wreck has not been found yet. Maybe you will be the lucky guy who found the gold coins of Melaka Sultanate. Even though if you don't like to dive, you can still see some treasure found and exhibited in the Meritime Museum. The museum itselfs is rich in history and collection, including some sunken treasure hauled up from another shipwreck, the Diana.
The replica of the "Flor de la Mar" is the centrepiece of the Maritime Museum with 110 feet length by 22 feet width (34 meters high, 36 meters long and 8 meters wide). It was built without using a single nails by the master boat maker from Pulau Duyung of Terengganu without a draft or a blurprint. It was opened to the public in 1994.
The Portuguese used this kind of galleon to sail all the way from Europe to South East Asia.
In old days, the navigation seamen drawn the map according to what they saw from the ship. So in this map you can only see the coastline and nothing inland.
Portuguese battleship formed alignment to invade Melaka.
This is how mankind made history and create civilization.
Cheng Ho's ship that went through 7 voyages around the world
tradition fishing boat of Terengganu. but i doubt they will put it in water
the Malay traditional boat Letik
the world first iron clad, the Turtle Ship
View Larger Map
email for the museum please tededwards@westnet.com.au Australia
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