On Al-Bida Street in Salmiya stands a wooden ship 80.4 metres long and 18.7 metres wide. It is called Al-Hashemi II, and it holds the Guinness record as the largest wooden ship ever built. It does not sail: it was built on land and it has stayed there.
A marine museum was built around it and opened in 2000, founded by the late Abdul Husain Mohammed Rafie Marafie. The Marafie family owns the property on the site and maintains the museum — so the museum is Kuwaiti, whatever the hotel’s flag says.
Inside is what explains the ship: the builders’ tools, models of the older craft, pearl diving equipment, and photographs from the period when a ship’s timber came from India and East Africa.
Visiting, practically. The museum is open from nine in the morning to five in the afternoon, and the published advice is to call ahead and take an appointment: 2567 3252. The site’s switchboard is 2567 3000.
The reason for that advice is practical rather than formal: the ship itself is used as a conference hall and a restaurant, so it may be booked on the day you turn up.
What we could not confirm: the entrance fee. No official page and no Kuwaiti daily states a figure, and we do not carry the numbers that travel booking sites publish. One call settles both the price and the appointment.
It suits a Friday or Saturday afternoon: the seafront is next door, there is parking, and the tour inside is short enough for children.
Photograph: the marine museum hall with the ship on its cradle. By Zairon, CC BY 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Source: Kuwait Times on the marine museum and the preservation of Kuwait’s maritime heritage · the site’s own pages · the published contact numbers.
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