By sea

In the exhibition, the interaction between man and the sea will be at the center, with emphasis on nature, resources, technology and the world of imagination. The museum looks forward to once again showing parts of the boat collection and boat dicoveries from the large excavations that have taken place in the last decade in Bjørvika in Oslo.

The Boat hall was the Norwegian Maritime Museum's first building and exhibition hall at Bygdøynes. In 1958, it opened with traditional boats from all over the coast and exhibitions on Norwegian shipping during the sailing ship era.

The exhibitions were supplemented and upgraded over the years, but there have not been sufficient funds for maintenance and rehabilitation of the buildings. In 2009, the hall was closed to the public and the exhibits and objects were removed.The boat hall and the museum's main building were designed by Trond Eliassen & Birger Lambertz-Nilssen. The hall repeats the Fram Museum's (1936) boat shape, but on a smaller scale. The hall has approx. 736 m2 exhibition area on the ground floor and 150 m2 on the mezzanine.

In the State Budget for 2016, the museum was granted an application for a grant for the rehabilitation and reopening of Båthallen. Since then, the Bergesen Foundation, the Sparebankstiftelsen, the UNI Foundation and private contributors have contributed significant funds to the project. The reopening of Båthallen with new exhibitions will again give the people along the entire coast a central place in the museum's dissemination.

For the past 15 years, the Norwegian Maritime Museum has carried out major archaeological excavations in Bjørvika in the port of Oslo. The oldest traces of harbor activity in Bjørvika are dated to the 15th and 17th centuries. This area was abandoned after the city fire in 1624. During the excavations, archaeologists found over 30 shipwrecks and large, hitherto unknown wharf facilities and boathouses. Many thousands of objects have been collected and transferred to the museum's collections. The shipwrecks have aroused interest in international research environments and among the city's population.
In the exhibition, the following themes are central:​

• Results from the last decades of archaeological research in the old port are:

• Presentation of the shipwrecks from Bjørvika - construction, shape and use of materials​

• Shipping, communications and trade

In the Boat hall, beautiful and interesting finds from the excavations will be exhibited. A large glass display case with an 11 meter long shipwreck from the 17th century (Barcode 8) is a key element in the exhibition. We believe the ship was once used to transport goods and people in the inner Oslo Fjord and along the Skagerrak coast. In other stands, we will exhibit objects that tell about trade exchange and life in the harbor. Several other shipwrecks will be presented with original ship parts, animations, text and images as well as models.