The National Museum of the Royal Navy is holding a special family event called Makers of the Waves at the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard in Hampshire on 7 March 2026. This day of activities celebrates International Women’s Day by highlighting the vital roles women play in shipbuilding and maritime conservation through history and into the present day.
Visitors can take part in hands-on workshops that include rope technique lessons and demonstrations on how to seal wooden ship hulls. There will also be displays showing how manual pulleys are used to move heavy equipment during ship repairs.
The event is part of a 10-year project known as Victory Live: The Big Repair. This is a 42 million pound effort to conserve HMS Victory, the historic flagship of Lord Nelson.
Shipwright Betzy Shell will give public talks at 11:00 am and 1:00 pm about her journey from a career in hospitality to working in the dockyard. Other team members like Emily Stokes, who joined the project as a shipwright at age 45, and specialist rigger Dinnie Jay represent the modern workforce currently maintaining the fleet.
From 11:00 am to 2:00 pm, the Victory Gallery will host drop-in creative activities where children can try their hand at ship design. The day also recognises the history of the Triangle Girls, a group of women whose numbers grew from 50 to over 2,200 workers at the Portsmouth site during the First World War.
The Makers of the Waves event is sponsored by the APCL Group. It aims to show local families how traditional skills and modern conservation are keeping the city’s naval heritage alive.
