News & Stories

The latest news, press releases and stories from Royal Navy Museums. Read updates on our museums and ships, plus in-depth stories from the collection spanning the Royal Navy's history.

News

Royal Navy Museums announces the proposed sale of the Vision Retail Park in Hartlepool

Royal Navy Museums announces the proposed sale of the Vision Retail Park in Hartlepool, marking a strategic decision to shift the focus of its support for development of the Waterfront
National Museum of the Royal Navy Unveils New Name, Brand and Vision

The National Museum of the Royal Navy unveils a new name and brand: Royal Navy Museums. The new identity launches across all digital platforms this week, with a phased physical rollout across its museums and ships over the next two years.
Six Coins Discovered Beneath HMS Victory's Foremast Reveal Hidden Maritime Tradition

Thursday 21 May 2026: Six nineteenth-century coins and tokens have been discovered beneath the foremast of HMS Victory during the latest stage of the ship’s major conservation programme
See History In The Making

HMS Victory is entering one of the most important chapters in her conservation story. This is conservation on a scale few people will ever witness. And you can see it for yourself.
Funding Announced To Reimagine Historic Boathouse Including New Royal Marines Museum

Royal Navy Museums has secured Development Round funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
HMS President Statement

Royal Navy Museums holds one of the world's largest collections of historic Royal Navy ships and has extensive experience of conserving nationally significant vessels.
£15m Royal Marines Experience to open at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Royal Navy Museums is proud to announce that Royal Navy Museums: Royal Marines Experience will open on 24 October 2026, creating a new national home for the story of the Royal Marines inside Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.

Stories

Operation Frankton and the Cockleshell Heroes

On 7 December 1942, ten Royal Marines slipped into the darkness from the submarine HMS Tuna and began paddling towards occupied France.
Read their story
From West Africa to Warrior

It is the summer of 1825 and our story starts inland, deep within the Niger Delta in West Africa. The air is thick with heat and the sounds of family life – voices overlapping, laughter – and at the centre of it all is an eleven-year-old boy named Asa-Asa. The sea isn’t just distant, for Asa-Asa it is unimaginable. Nothing in his life suggests what is coming.
Read their story
‘Free a man for the fleet!’ - Stories of inspiring Wrens

The Women’s Royal Naval Service, also known as WRNS, was a special branch of the Royal Navy formed initially to help ‘free a man for the fleet!’ during the First and Second World Wars. At its peak, around 75,000 women served in a range of diverse specialisms.
Read their story
The British Special Service Squadron - March 1924

In this ongoing blog series, Royal Navy Museums is following the route of the British Special Service Squadron during the centenary of its voyage. In this entry we discuss their travels from East Asia to Australia.
Read their story