The Dutch Ships and Sailors Project

In this document, we present the Dutch Ships and Sailors project. This project brings together four Dutch maritime historical datasets. We use Semantic Web technologies for representing and interlinking the resulting data into one interoperable but heterogeneous data cloud. The dataset is available as five-star linked data. The individual datasets use separate data models, designed in close collaboration with maritime historical researchers. We present the project goals, technologies and current status as well as discussing current work in a second phase of the project. We show ways of accessing the data and present a number of examples of how the dataset can be used for historical research. The Dutch Ships and Sailors Linked Data Cloud is a prime example of the benefits of Linked Data for the field of historical research.