Following a fire that destroyed more than 100 collection items, the Maritime Museum in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, reopened its doors to visitors on Tuesday, with the Indonesian Historical Community (KHI), a group committed to preserving historical sites, announcing a plan to lead a tour in Kota Tua, West Jakarta, on Saturday that included a stop at the museum.

As part of the community’s promise to promote all museums in the country, especially the Maritime Museum and Sunda Kelapa Port in North Jakarta, KHI founder Asep Kambali told The Jakarta Post that a walking tour would take participants to five historical points in Jakarta’s Kota Tua, starting from Sunda Kelapa to the Maritime Museum, Syahbandar Tower, Wood Warehouse and the Dutch East Indies (VOC) shipyard. The tour will run from 2 p.m until 6 p.m.

Tour participants will be charged Rp 50,000 (US$3.7), which will cover museum tickets, a tour guide and bottled water.

To join the tour, enthusiasts can register via WhatsApp at +6289622265420 or send enquiries to Instagram and Twitter accounts @WisataKotaTua.

The community had initially commenced tours to the Maritime Museum on Jan. 13, only three days before the inferno that caused severe damage to parts of the museum. Besides causing damage to the museum’s buildings, the fire destroyed 155 items, including historical traditional boats, boat replicas, navigation devices, anchors and other collection items from the archipelago as well as donations from visiting foreign diplomats.

“We are very sad about the fire that hit the Maritime Museum just a few days,” Asep said, adding that the community was ready to assist in the restoration of the museums by raising funds.

The museum closed down for a week after the fire, which was reportedly caused by a short circuit.

Around 250 items were spared in the fire, including various artifacts, boats and navigation devices.

Visitors can visit the second floor of Building A, which displays dioramas of historical events and legendary maritime tales.

Within the museum complex, visitors can also visit the historical Syahbandar Tower, a 12-meter tower that functioned as Sunda Kelapa’s customs center in the colonial era.

The museum resumed its normal hours of 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Tuesday.

Eko Hartoyo, head of the collection and care department of the museum, told the Post that the museum’s management had yet to calculate the total losses caused by the fire.

“However we plan to restore the buildings and collections immediately. The restoration will be conducted with the help of architects from the Indonesian Architect Association and will be fully funded by the regional budget,” he said.

He also said that the destroyed collections would be replaced with replicas, while the museum was expecting several new pieces from foreign embassies and the transportation agency.

Eko went on to say that the museum’s management planned to hold a disaster mitigation drill with staff members.

“We plan to at least hold standard training to enable us to prevent something like this from happening again,” he said.

Husnizon Nizar, the museum’s head, previously said that the museum lacked a fire prevention system. He said its fire alarm was broken and that the buildings were not equipped with a sprinkler system.

Eko added that the ceilings of the buildings were layered with iron sheets to prevent rainwater leakage. “Turns out that the iron sheets made it difficult to put out the fire,” he said.

He explained further that roads around the museum were packed with container trucks driving to and from Sunda Kelapa, making it hard for fire trucks to reach the museum.

“We are evaluating all of these factors,” Eko said. “We feel much obliged to improve the security of our collections, which are a part of Indonesia’s history.”

The museum complex was built in 1652 by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a spice warehouse complex. The blocks were built near the era’s most important port, Sunda Kelapa.

The complex was inaugurated as the Maritime Museum on July 7, 1977 by then Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin. (gis)

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