Halifax Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

The Halifax Maritime Museum of the Atlantic commemorates the city’s important relationship with the seafaring life.

The Museum is a valuable historical, cultural and educational institution. It is the largest site in Nova Scotia that collects and interprets various elements of Nova Scotia's marine history.

You are introduced to the age of steamships, local small craft, the Royal Canadian and Merchant Navies, World War II convoys and The Battle of the Atlantic, Nova Scotia's role in the aftermath of the Titanic disaster and the Halifax Explosion of 1917, (which occurred on December 6, when the city of Halifax, was devastated by the huge detonation of a French cargo ship, fully loaded with wartime explosives, that accidentally collided with another ship in Halifax Harbor.

Approximately 2,000 people were killed and it is estimated that over 9,000 people were injured).

This is still one of the world's largest man-made, conventional explosions to date.

The Halifax maritime museum has on display over 20,000 maritime artifacts, as well as providing multiple exhibits.

One of the museum’s most recognized treasures rests dockside.

You can board the elegant CSS Acadia, Canada’s first hydrographic vessel and also one of the first ships to extensively chart the Arctic Ocean floor. It served Canada for more than five decades including being commissioned twice into military service for the Royal Canadian Navy during both world wars.

She is currently a historic museum ship stationed in Halifax Harbour at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

Much of the ship is open for self-guided tours, including the captain's quarters, upper decks, wheelhouse, and oak-paneled chart room.

If you want to see more of the ship, there are guided half-hour tours which offer access to the engine room and more. These guided tours charge an additional fee.

The HMCS Sackville, the other boat on display, was one of more than 120 corvettes built in Canada during the Second World War. Corvettes soon became the workhorses of the North Atlantic, escorting convoys and attacking submarines.

During August 1942, the Sackville encountered a U-boat on the surface. At a range of less than a quarter of a mile,Sackville fired a star shell and the U-boat crash-dived. The corvette accelerated, steamed into the swirl of water and fired a pattern of depth charges.

The powerful blast literally threw the U-boat to the surface. She slipped back into the water and disappeared. Sackville was credited with a probable kill.

Much later, when efforts to make repairs were unsuccessful it was decided to take Sackville from active service and use her as a training ship and research vessel.

This action prolonged the life of the ship, making her available as The CanadianNaval Memorial, in memory to all those who served in the Canadian Navy.

When in port, the world-famous schooner Bluenose II docks at the Halifax Maritime Museum and offers sailing tours of Halifax Harbor

There is a small entrance fee.

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