Saving Lives from the Sea – Neutral Portugal in a World at War (1939–1945)

Portugal stayed out of the Second World War, and more than a dozen of its ships were sunk anyway, mostly by Axis and Allied submarines. In the same years its navy, merchant and fishing crews pulled about 6,000 people out of the water, survivors from ships of 12 different flags, mostly in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans.

The Navy Museum tells this through objects, documents and first-hand testimony, 80 years after the war ended. It also covers two less familiar stories: Portuguese sailors on Allied merchant ships, a few of whom ended up in German concentration camps, and Lisbon as an exit from Nazi Europe. The refugee ships bound for the United States, Cuba, Jamaica and Brazil sailed down the river you can see from the museum steps.

It closes on 18 October 2026. Winter hours are 10:00 to 17:00 with last entry at 16:30, and on Mondays the museum opens at 13:00.