Maritime Museum of the Atlantic

I would recommend the Maritime Museum to everyone. No matter your age or interests you will enjoy your visit. The museum is easy to get to and not overpriced. I think the size of the museum is just right. Not tiny but not huge and overwhelming. I enjoyed the lighthouse lens and the the ship mastheads the most. If you are a Titanic fan you will find an entire section of the museum dedicated to the ship along with artifacts pulled up from the wreckage. With your museum ticket you also have access to the ship docked out back and that is worth a quick walk around as well. The museum overall is well organized and all the displays are labeled in both English and French.

If you are visiting Halifax and enjoy history, this museum is well worth a visit. Located right next to the harbor and in the middle of the downtown, there is plenty to do and see around the museum as well. If possible, I’d give this museum 3.5 stars.
They have done a good job here putting together an overall history of Halifax and the maritime industry upon which NS is based. Lots of great ship models and old maritime artifacts. But the main reason I suspect people go here is for the section of the museum that covers the Titanic. That alone is worth seeing; including a short documentary on the role Halifax played in the Titanic disaster. There is additionally a section of the museum devoted to the Halifax Explosion. This is also worth seeing and is a piece of history I knew little about until visiting here.
The museum also has an outdoor area right on the wharf, from where you can just keep right on walking to souvenir shops, pubs, and restaurants. The primary outdoor exhibit is an old Canadian exploration ship you can walk around.
The museum is self-​paced, you can make your stay short or long depending on your interest level. I’d say you could see all the highlights in less than 2 hours. There are a few interactive exhibits, but not a lot, so if you have small kids this may not be that great for them.

Visiting the Museum will be one of the highlights of a visit to the Halifax boardwalk. We learned much from our experience there, especially from the section devoted to the December 1917 Halifax harbor explosion, which was an horrific event that destroyed two square miles of the city and killed and seriously injured thousands. There’s a film, artifacts and lots of material devoted to that event, which was at the time largest man-​made explosion ever. The museum also has a Titanic section devoted to examining the sinking and includes some clothing and objects pulled from the wreckage (a small boy’s shoes are a powerful reminder of the tragedy). Overall, the museum does a good job of encapsulating the rich nautical history of Halifax and Nova Scotia. There are plenty of ships to view, and one of them a large naval training vessel, can be boarded and examined up-​close. All fascinating, and the museum shop has some interesting items for sale including ship models. We strongly recommend a visit when you;re nearby.

Extremely well done. My favorite part was the visible storage. All museums rotate displays but very few show you what is not on official display. The visible storage lets you see everything although most of it does not have the full story behind it. It is well organized.
The exhibits on the Halifax explosion and Titanic are very comprehensive and well done.
I only had 90 minutes to spend here but I could have easily spent 3 – 4 hours looking at everything in detail.

Lots of information for a little entry-​We didn’t go here to see things about the Titanic (eventhough it was really interesting). It was great to see and find out a bit more about the Maritime History of Nova Scotia and Halifax. Very informative and displayed. Worth the money.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic was a stop on our cruise excursion about the Titanic. Unfortunately, we didn’t get too much time there. The Titanic exhibit was small, but interesting. The rest of the museum was fascinating. If we make it back to Halifax, I would make it a point to go there again.

For someone with no knowledge of Halifax, this museum does a great job of sharing several views of history, from the «days of sail» to Halifax’s role in Canadian maritime events, including the world wars and the Titanic sinking.
A temporary exhibit about the war of 1812 shows important characters and events from four points of view: American, Canadian, British, and First Peoples. It was especially interesting to me to see some of the USS Chesepeake vs. HMS Shannon artifacts, along with things like the famous baby shoes from the Titanic sinking. Lots of info on shipwrecks too.
A moving and informative film on the Halifax Explosion of 1917 introduces the terrible event, and well-​done displays show more moving scenes from the disaster.
$ 9.25 per adult from May 1 to October. Good gift shop, and they accept US dollars (with change coming in Canadian $).

This a great three hour visit, and has lots of great models from the age of steam ships. There are a great deal of other models also.
Very good Titanic exhibit shows the Heroes in a tragedy.
Cunard donated a great deal of there ships to museum.

It had been many (and I mean many) years since the last time I had been to this museum. Unfortunately but fortunately, not much has changed. My memory was completely jogged by each display. I really enjoyed seeing the original pieces from Theodore Tugboat and kinda got nostalgic looking at them. The Titanic display is also another personal favourite but the exhibit was much smaller than I remember. After visiting the Titanic exhibit in Vegas, this one actually seems very tiny in comparison (I had thought it was the other way around) but it’s still cool to see some of the original artifacts from the disaster. I am also very interested in the Halifax Explosion but I remembered most of it from the last time.
It’s an interesting place and definitely worth the very affordable entry fee of 5 dollars but some of the stuff is a bit boring and tedious to spend time reading countless information on model ships and the like. It was still nice to go back and spend the day with friends and see Merlin the parrot.

I have gone a couple times (be sure to ask for your military discount here) the museum is great however I was sad to learn that after my second visit to the museum that there was a boat in the harbor that also was included in the fee and that we could go on that. I think the staff is dropping the ball on that little tidbit of information as I was even more disappointed to learn that we were not the only ones who didn’t know about it that most of the new comers and tourists don’t know that the boat is part of the admission fee. Also note that the boat is not open the whole day that it is only open certain hours. As I had told some visitors about the boat and when they went to tour it it was closed and again the front desk didn’t tell them that the boat even existed.

Beautiful maritime artifacts well presented. Many interesting personal vignettes but not hokey or maudlin. Countless beautiful ship models. Enjoyed over two hours there.

I’m not sure what I was expecting at this museum, what drew me in was the Titanic exhibit. I think that is why I was disappointed was that the Titanic exhibit was not very large and really didn’t teach me that much about the titanic. I like boats but I guess just not that much and I can only look at so many octants and sextants. I thought that the museum was laid out really well and someone who really likes boats would certianly enjoy this place but I got through it in an hour. The staff was awesome is the only other thing I would like to add. Also if you have a CAA or AAA card you save a $ 1 on admission, the first time I ever used my stupid card.

If you don’t already know the importance of the sea to the history of Halifax, you’ll certainly know it after visiting the Maritime Museum (be sure to show your AAA or CAA card for a $ 1 discount on admission). It’s probably most famous for its Titanic history and memorabilia, but since that’s at the back of the second floor, everything else will lead up to it. There are so many interesting pieces of history, such as the ships used to lay the first morse-​code transatlantic cables, the battleships, and the great fire of 1918. I was not aware of how many ships were wrecked off the coast of Nova Scotia, due in part to Sable Island.
The second floor has a wealth of history on some of the more famous transatlantic liners, notable shipwrecks, and of course everything on the Titanic. You can get a greater feel for the loss of life when you read about the involvement of numerous Nova Scotia ships recovering bodies all across the Atlantic for the next several WEEKS.
Allow about 90 – 120 minutes for your visit.

This museum has a great combination of fun and history, with a display on Theodore the Tug Boat and a parrot on display just steps for pieces of the Titanic. It is smaller than most museums I’m used to, but they make use of every part of it. The staff is also quite nice and helpful. Definitely stopping by for a longer visit next time.

When you really need a good Maritime binge, you’ll find all the east coast Canadiana you’ll ever want right here. Starting with a parrot who actually, no seriously, says hi and bye if you make the first move, and ending with full lighthouse bulbs and ship cannons, this is an adventure on the high seas without having to leave your land-​lubber ways behind.
I’ll be honest, I usually end up here for various events ranging from networking mixers, to award shows, to Nocturne art installations so I honestly don’t know that I’ve ever paid to get in. That said, having gone so many times, I know that I’d never hesitate to pay their cover charge knowing the cool stuff there is to explore within.

Where to start? I visited the museum for the first time this summer and loved it. My personal favorite exhibits were the sunken treasure and the ship out back.
All of the exhibits were interesting and it’s very fitting for the museum to be on the waterfront.
This museum should be a must for everyone to visit – not just tourists. You learn more here than you would/​did in a classroom. Thought I think that goes for most museums anyway.

This museum is a must for tourists. They have a wide selection of boats on display and some of the finest ship models I’ve seen. They have some really neat smaller items on display as well with nice write-​ups, though the labels seemed a little faded and are hard to read. The Titanic display is wonderful, as is the display for the Halifax explosion. In addition to the inside museum, you can step onto an actual ship outside, complete with period items in some of the quarters. The gift shop is smaller than I would have expected for a museum of this size.
On the downside, and this is odd and might have just been me, but I found the museum to be quite stuffy, especially upstairs where the Titanic display is. At one point I wanted to go outside for some fresh air, which is when I took the opportunity to step onto the ship.
The temporary exhibit had to do with gay culture in the navy. I didn’t spend much time in it. It had potential to be quite interesting, but I found it a little sparse and some of the items – a teddy bear that a gay sailor carries with him to think of his partner – a bit of a stretch.
Overall, I think this is something that tourists must do while in Halifax.

I wish I had more time…
The Maritime Museum was somewhere I could easily spend the entire day… perhaps two. Unfortunately I only had a few hours to spend here…
Being somewhat fascinated by the history of the Titanic, I spent most of my time in the Titanic portion… reading nearly everything there was to read, watching every video, thumbing through the log books… I really enjoyed myself.
I really would like to go back someday and see the rest of the museum.

See the sea
from the
safety
of land
In the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic there is a huge map with all the ship wrecks that have occurred off the coast of Nova Scotia. There are literally thousands of them. It almost seems that every ship that went near this place either hit a rock, collided with another vessel or blew up. That certain explains the large amount of extremely cool artifacts that the museum has.
Of course the Titanic displays are prominent and are fascinating to look at. Actually sends a chill up the spine knowing that you are staring at the real items from the doomed ship. But the Titanic is only a small part of this incredible place.
Another whole area is dedicated to the massive explosion that ripped Halifax apart in 1917 when two ships collided and blew up. The blast was the largest man made explosion until Hiroshima. It killed over 2,000 people, injured thousands more and literally flatten a large section of the city. Very poignant and amazing displays explain just how devastating the blast was.
The museum also contains a huge number of ship models in many different sizes and shapes. I could and did spend hours just looking at all the types of ships, especially the life sized examples on the bottom floor. An amazing collection.
Halifax played a vital part in both world wars and a plethora of information and displays delineates how important the area was in fighting and winning the battle of the Atlantic. Torpedos, mines, guns, artifacts and models of the warships are everywhere.
Displays and exhibits are always changing and there is so much stuff to look at and read that no matter how many times I visit this place I still feel the need to go again. The museum is in a great location right on the Harbor Walk and it even has a gift shop to buy some cool books or a crummy t-​shirt.
One of my very favorite museums anywhere. You not only get to read and learn about the maritime history of Nova Scotia but can actually feel, hear and experience it. An absolutely wonderful place, I would love to be able to give it more than five stars.

We decided to check out the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic located on the downtown waterfront. This museum details the rich maritime history of Nova Scotia through exhibits and galleries of large ships, sail boats, naval ships, model ships, artifacts, maps, images, tools and other neat treasures on two levels. Guided tours of the museum are available.
We spent most of our time on the second floor checking out interesting exhibits such as ship wrecks and Titanic exhibit, the unsinkable ship. A 3D movie of the Titanic is also shown every hour for an additional cost ($ 4). Be sure to check out the Museum Gift Shop (Maritime Heritage Store) which sells souvenirs, books, gifts, and more. Our enjoyable visit to this museum lasted 2 hours and we still had plenty of time left check out the CSS Acadia docked in the harbour in back and take a nice stroll out on the boardwalk on a warm sunny afternoon.
For more information, check out the website at
CAA/​AAA discounts are offered on admission.