How to Make A Sea Chest

What is a Sea Chest?

A Sea Chest is a wooden chest which was commonly used by sailors to store personal belongings.

Often sea voyages were very long and arduous so sailors would have to pack their chests with items that they would need for the voyage as well as personal momentoes and items.

Often the chests were personalized with paintings or inscriptions and might have the sailors name on it.

The chest would be sturdy and strong with a good lock to protect the sailors precious items.

Can you create your own sea chest to take on a trip?

You will need

A cardboard box (cereal box or similar will work)

Pens, pencils or crayons

Plain paper

Scissors

Step 1

See if you can find an empty box/container in the recycling that you think would make a good miniature sea chest.

Step 2

If your box doesn't already have a lid, then carefully cut a lid into the box.

Get some help with this step from an adult.

Step 3

Think about the style of the sea chest you want to make. You might want to make it personal to you or make it look like it is made out of wood. Decorate it using pens, pencils or anything else you can think of!

Step 4

Build up your decoration. You could print out some pictures to decorate it with or cut out images from a newspaper or magazine.

Step 5

You could add some additional decoration using tin foil or shapes cut into coloured paper to really create a unique sea chest.

What Will You Need For Your Voyage?

Now you have your sea chest, you need to decide where in the world you will sail to. What will the journey be like and what will the climate be like when you get there?

Why not create some things to take with you inside your sea chest?

You could pack...

Some warm clothing

If you are going exploring in the Arctic you will need to pack special warm clothing.

You could draw and cut out some items of clothing to pack. You could make some objects out of modelling dough or plasticine to pack in your sea chest.

A Map!

Why not draw a map of your journey to pack in your sea chest?

Take a look at some maps in our collection for ideas!