The Maeklong

In 1935 a corvette warship was commissioned by the Royal Thai Navy and constructed at the Uraga Dock Company in Yokosuka Japan. The HTMS Maeklong entered service in 1936, and had a long and proud service. It was officially retired in 1995 and converted into a museum ship. It is still the longest-serving active ship in the Royal Thai Navy and the second-longest serving in the world (the distinction, I believe, goes to the USS Constitution). Today, you can visit it at the Navy Club at Chulachomklao Fort in Samut Prakan.

During the Second World War, the Maeklong patrolled the Gulf of Thailand. After the war ended, it served on and off as a royal escort ship.

The Maeklong carried the brothers King Rama VIII and Rama IX to and from Switzerland during and after the war (where the boys studied safely in a neutral country). It also carried the ashes of King Rama VII during his royal funeral in 1941.

The ship was decommissioned in 1996 upon the Golden Jubilee of King Rama IX. The king, who was fond of the ship due to his time spent traveling aboard as a boy, asked the Royal Navy to preserve it as a museum. 

This may be just the way corvettes are built, but once you are aboard the Maeklong, it feels tiny.

It felt like there was barely any space to move around! I guess this type of warship was built for efficiency, not necessarily comfort. It also felt like it was definitely not built for people of Western stature!

Even though it requires a lot of ducking and squeezing around corners, you are free to explore the old ship! It's free to visit, and visitors are encouraged to climb all over the decks.

a very tiny cabin on board

the ship's meeting room / galley 

the bridge - it had been updated with new technology several times in the past few decades

This photo is from the National Archives of Thailand. In it, you can see King Rama VIII (left) and King Rama IX (right) learning about the ship's guns from two officers.