My additional suggestions:

1. Legitimising the web:
   • I am unclear about the exact complexion of the searchable database of paintings that is to be available as part of this project, but trust it will include the same levels of possible output as are to be found in the printed Catalogue, including the ability to order persons, vessels and events by date etc, and to locate places connected with paintings; given the importance of several of the discrete collections in the Museum, the ability to order by collection might also be contemplated, as a useful adjunct to any essays on their museology;
   • NMM might wish to contemplate putting one or more of the out-of-print publications to which it holds the copyright on the web - and only on the web to indicate its support for the web as a serious medium for scholarly publication. Such an action could only help the present project;
   • Were the NMM to contemplate putting a brand-new publication only on the web (offprints or sections to be downloaded as required?) all the better; this would bolster yet further the credibility of the present project;
2. looking through the other end of the telescope, is it worth considering the publication of the project as a pamphlet with CDROM in the back? i.e. essentially as a CDROM with a bit of packaging?
3. going further down this path, why not contemplate distributing a CDROM of the project as an add-on to The Maritime Yearbook? And, naturally, get some publicity how-we-did-its in the same accompanying magazine?
4. There might be scope for borrowing some of the articles in The Maritime Yearbook for the project: for example, Mary-Jane Holton's piece in issue 2000/2001/No.8, pp.39-42, could well form the basis for an overview of conservation because it is already built around images;
5. rivalling the National Gallery: It is instructive to compare the National Gallery's web presence with what the NMM can provide from this project. Their home page refers to themselves as housing the national collection of Western European painting ... It has around 2,300 pictures, including many instantly recognizable masterpieces, and covers every European school of painting from about 1260 to 1900. These pictures belong to the public and entrance to see them is free. We can address several aspects of these claims, and echo/counter them:
   • NMM also houses a national collection (whatever that means); some of the plums (e.g. the great Turners) are elsewhere; but the great advantage of the NMM collections is their coherence. Collected with a purpose in view (rather than just fortuitously as examples of art), the NMM works are more readily capable of presenting a coherent view of maritime art than the National Gallery would be of exhibiting a comprehensive survey of anything - simply because so much of the comparative material is elsewhere;
   • The National Gallery website is excellent, with all works available from A-Z listings over the web, via thumbnails and then catalogue entries (which I understand we shall offer via the 4,000-item database). It also has the MicroGallery, which includes the entire collection enabling visitors to explore individual areas of interest whether it is a particular painting, artist, period or subject matter;
   • but their Achilles' Heel (like that of the Louvre, the NGA in Washington, or any other such collection) is precisely the bittiness of their holdings, and the common desire to skim the surface and keep text to a minimum. These aspects are reflected in their web entry points - (a) At A Glance: 12 selected works; (b) Collection Explorer: an overview of the collection; and (c) full collection index. i.e., no focus or theme;
   • we should therefore emphasize that the NMM's is a themed collection, in the sense that a majority of questions can be answered from its holdings, and make a great deal of the provision of scholarly essays to underpin the images; the final design of the NMM project will (as I understand it) allow interrogation of the image database of paintings in much the same way as that at the National Gallery - but the essays are value-added!
   • at the same time, we should not exclude links to the holdings of others, because to do so seems to me dog-in-the-manger - NB there appear to be no such links at the National Gallery. Such an omission surely sends out the wrong signals, namely (a) they are self-sufficient in their offerings (never the case, surely?); and (b) by throttling connectivity they are mis-using the web, which is precisely about the benefits of a distributed network of information;
   • "Interactivity": although it is tempting to build in extra interactivity with a bulletin board, or by encouraging feedback from users, my experience is that this simply encourages children doing projects (or their parents!) to email me for information they are too lazy to get for themselves from a library (although all queries I consider legitimate I answer at length). I recommend we knock this particular idea on the head by diverting it as follows:
     1. give users the URL to sign up for any existing NMM newsletters, notice of special events, etc;
     2. invite feedback on the range, depth and efficiency of the project;
     3. invite suggestions by email for materials to be incorporated in the second stage of the project;
     4. offer links to any maritime discussion lists or newsgroups;
     5. if the teaching role is to predominate, we might think about text or image quizzes, which might well have to be staged to catch students of various ages;