A ship replica is a reconstruction of a no longer existing

ship A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...

. Replicas can range from authentically reconstructed, fully seaworthy ships, to ships of modern construction that give an impression of a historic vessel. Some replicas may not even be seaworthy, but built for other educational or entertainment purposes. Reasons to build a replica include historic research into

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other Watercraft, floating vessels. In modern times, it normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation th ...

, national pride, exposition at a museum or entertainment (e.g., for a TV series), and/or education programs for the unemployed. For example, see the project to build a replica of the Continental

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the l ...

. Apart from building a genuine replica of the ship, sometimes the construction materials, tools and methods can also copied from the ships' original era, as is the case with the replica of ''Batavia'' in Lelystad and the

ship of the line A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed during the Age of Sail from the 17th century to the mid-19th century. The ship of the line was designed for the naval tactics in the Age of Sail, naval tactic known as the line of battl ...

replica in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

( Delfshaven).

Definition

The term "replica" in this context does not normally include scale models. The term

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small numb ...

is used for an old ship that has been preserved and converted into a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

open to the public. A ship replica may also be a generic replica, one that represents a certain type of ship rather than a particular historic example, like '' Kamper Kogge'', replicating the Cogs that were used extensively in Northern Europe by the

Hanseatic League The Hanseatic League was a Middle Ages, medieval commercial and defensive network of merchant guilds and market towns in Central Europe, Central and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Growing from a few Northern Germany, North German towns in the ...

in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, but where there is little knowledge of specific ships. Some generic type replicas such as Thor Heyerdahl's '' Ra II'', qualify as true replicas as these ships were built to investigate the craft and or culture of the original era. That they do not replicate a specific vessel is mainly because no details of such a specific vessel are available. Some other ships that are modeled after ships of a certain type or era (and are in that sense replicas) do not qualify as true replicas. Some ships may be borderline cases, such as ''Kanrin Maru'', which is actually twice the size of the original, but built following the plans of the original. Replicas can be temporary, cheap and very simple, such as the replica of a Viking ship that was burnt at the Leixlip Festival. Notable historic type ships that are ''not'' replicas include: * (1795) is strictly speaking not a replica but the original vessel. However, most of the ship's timber has been replaced over time, with only 10-15% of the original remaining. This is a modern version of the philosopher's dilemma concerning replica versus original; known as the

Ship of Theseus The Ship of Theseus, also known as Theseus's Paradox, is a paradox and a common thought experiment about whether an object is the same object after having all of its original components replaced over time, typically one after the other. In Gre ...

dilemma. * (1765) is still the original vessel, although unlike ''Constitution'', she is in dry dock and does not sail. She has also been heavily restored, with only 10-15% of her original timber remaining. * ''Mircea'', which is an almost exact copy of '' Gorch Fock''. ''Mircea'' was built as a copy because ''Gorch Fock'' was a very successful ship. Thus ''Mircea'' was not built as a replica per se, but as a copy for other reasons (i.e. to perform economically, in this case as a training vessel). * '' Stad Amsterdam'' is a generic clipper type ship combining the best qualities of clippers of the past with modern materials and technologies. Another ambiguous case subject to the Ship of Theseus dilemma is ''Niagara''. The original was sunk in 1820 for preservation, and the ship has been rebuilt three times since. The third reconstruction was considerably more extensive, and the only parts from the original which were retained are non-structural, leading many authorities to classify her as a replica, rather than a reconstructed original.

Notable ship replicas

Some sailing ship replicas with their home port; and key information of the original (many articles are about the original ship):

Europe, Middle East, Australia and the Americas

Austronesia

East Asia

* ''Kanrin Maru''; Minami Awaji harbour, Japan; a double-size replica of a Japanese warship *'' Namihaya''; Osaka Maritime Museum, Japan; 5th-century Japanese ship replica *'' Naniwa Maru''; Osaka Maritime Museum, Japan;

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

merchant ship * ''San Juan Bautista''; Ishinomaki, Japan; a Japanese warship *

Turtle ship A turtle ship (; ) was a type of warship that was used by the Korean Joseon Navy from the early 15th century up until the 19th century. They were used alongside the panokseon warships in the fight against invading Japanese fleets. The ship's name ...

; a generic replica of a Korean ship *'' Michinoku Maru''; Michinoku Traditional Wooden Boat Museum, Japan; 18th-century Japanese trade ship (Kitamae Bune) replica *''

Princess Taiping Princess Taiping (, lit. "Princess of Great Peace", personal name unknown, possibly Li Lingyue (李令月) (after 662 – 2 August 713) was a royal princess and prominent political figure of the Tang dynasty and her mother Wu Zetian's Zhou dyna ...

''; a replica of a

Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

Chinese junk. *

Replica A replica is an exact (usually 1:1 in scale) copy or remake of an object, made out of the same raw materials, whether a molecule, a work of art, or a commercial product. The term is also used for copies that closely resemble the original, without ...

(stationary, not seaworthy) of a Chinese treasure ship, in the Treasure Boat Shipyard Park,

Nanjing Nanjing or Nanking is the capital of Jiangsu, a province in East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of , and a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yang ...

*'' Dingyuan''; a replica of an Imperial Chinese

ironclad An ironclad was a steam engine, steam-propelled warship protected by iron armour, steel or iron armor constructed from 1859 to the early 1890s. The ironclad was developed as a result of the vulnerability of wooden warships to explosive or ince ...

from the late 19th century

Other vessels

* SS ''Bandırma''; Turkish passenger cargo vessel *'' Jewel of Muscat'';

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

i 9th-century sailing ship built to retrace the route of the original ship from Oman to

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

. * ''Ictineu II''; Barcelona, Spain; a replica of the first mechanically powered steam driven submarine. * The Hjortspring Boat is replica of a Danish Iron Age rowing boat. *At the Viking Ship Museum in

Roskilde Roskilde ( , ) is a city west of Copenhagen on the Danish island of Zealand. With a population of 53,354 (), the city is a business and educational centre for the region and the 10th largest city in Denmark. It is governed by the administrative ...

, replicas of Viking ships are built. * Various projects for building replicas of the ill-fated have been proposed over the years. The first ''Titanic'' replica to actually commence construction is being built by Chinese firm Seven Star Energy Investment; by summer 2021, the hull is essentially complete and construction of the superstructure is beginning. The ship will not sail on any ocean, but be permanently docked on a river in Sichuan province to function as the main attraction for the Romandisea Seven Star International Cultural Tourism Resort. * Various "replicas" of Noah's Ark have been built. Whether they are properly regarded as "replicas" depends on whether one takes the Biblical flood story as mythology or fact. Since the Biblical description of the vessel is very brief beyond the basic measures, the exact design of any "replica" is necessarily conjectural.

References

External links

Replica of Captain Cook's ship, Whitby

Extensive photo gallery, overview of ship replicas all over the world
Sea Club Polar Odyssey

The wooden ships company "Varyag"

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Shipbuilding