The Maritime Museum of BC

Community Week
2024-03-12 10:00 - 2024-03-16 17:00 (America/Vancouver) | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Admission by donation all week long to celebrate our 2024 Float the Boat fundraising campaign. All donations will count towards the milestone counts in our boat tank.

DOnate Now

Museum Tots
2024-03-16 10:30 - 11:15, 2024-03-23 10:30 - 11:15, 2024-03-30 10:30 - 11:15, 2024-04-06 10:30 - 11:15, 2024-04-13 10:30 - 11:15, 2024-04-20 10:30 - 11:15, 2024-04-27 10:30 - 11:15, 2024-05-04 10:30 - 11:15 and 3 more dates | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
This weekly program introduces children ages 3 – 5 to the fun world of museum learning. Each week’s program revolves around a new theme, encouraging children to learn through crafts, play, song, and dance. There is a new maritime theme every week.

No registration required–drop-ins welcome!

For more information, please call us at 250-385-4222 or email us at programs@mmbc.bc.ca.

Please note that parents are required to stay for the duration of the program.

Sea Glass Jewelry Workshop
2024-03-23 14:00 - 15:15, 2024-04-06 14:00 - 15:15, 2024-04-20 14:00 - 15:15 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Learn about the history of sea glass in this interactive workshop. Then design your own piece of jewelry using locally sourced sea glass.

Using locally sourced material, our workshop leader will guide you through the process, connecting each piece to stories and histories of local areas around Vancouver Island.

Ticket includes all materials, instructions, and admission to the Maritime Museum of BC (valid for 24 hours).

Please note that this workshop is limited to a maximum of 10 participants. We will contact you 24 hours before the workshop, should it be cancelled. A full refund will be issued, if the workshop does not run. For our full Refund Policy, please click here.

Nautical Nights: The Coffin Ship: Superstition and Incompetence in the S.S. Clallam Tragedy
2024-03-29 18:00 - 20:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
One-hundred-and-twenty years after one of the worst maritime disasters in the Pacific Northwest, historian Erik Kosick joins our Nautical Nights Speaker Series to delve into the history of The Coffin Ship: Superstition and Incompetence in the S.S. Clallam Tragedy.

In January 1904, the 6-month-old steamer Clallam foundered in the Strait on Juan de Fuca, with the loss of at least 54 lives, the worst maritime disaster in the Pacific Northwest since the wreck of the Pacific in 1875. Struggling in a gale, the steamer had fallen into distress only three miles from Victoria’s harbour, well within sight of onlookers ashore. Launched in fear of an immediate sinking, her lifeboats became deathtraps in the Strait, drowning all that entered them. The steamer remained afloat for several more hours. When the Clallam finally slid below the waves of the Strait, only fourteen of her passengers survived; every woman and child was lost, while nearly all the crew survived. Victoria was hit particularly hard by the tragedy, as many of the victims came from the city. Rumblings of ill omens surrounded Clallam’s launch and final voyage and was posthumously labeled as the ‘Hoodoo Ship’.

Despite unbroken champagne bottles and nervous bellwether sheep, the causes of Clallam’s wreck were not supernatural. In fact, she had been well-liked by the traveling public and had passed all inspections. As Canadian and American investigations in the wreck revealed a culture of incompetence and corruption inside the steamboat industry, grief turned to anger in an explosive scandal that sowed Canadian wariness of American steamships. On the American side, the inquiries were a source of local and national contention; the Clallam would be an ignored warning for worse maritime disasters soon to come. 120 years after the tragedy, through rarely seen photographs and objects, writer and historian Erik Kosick will take you aboard the final voyage of the Clallam, exploring the stories of her passengers and crew, and how this almost forgotten shipwreck drastically altered the course of the maritime industry in the Salish Sea.

The Speaker – Erik Kosick

Erik Kosick graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in History from Pacific Lutheran University in 2016, and currently works for the Washington State Historical Society in Tacoma. Erik has a strong interest in Pacific Northwest history, particularly in maritime history. In 2020, he consulted and donated artifacts for the Society’s exhibit Unforgiving Waters: Shipwrecks of the Pacific Northwest. Erik was a historical consultant and presenter for the 2023 documentary Death is With Me, on the 1937 ‘Lady of the Lake’ murder case at Lake Crescent, Washington.

He also writes for the Washington State Historical Society’s magazine COLUMBIA under the feature Maps and Legends. The Clallam disaster is a fascination of his and has been researching the shipwreck since 2009. He also presented a lecture on the shipwreck for the Pacific Northwest History Conference in October 2020 and a corresponding feature article for COLUMBIA. He is also nearing completion of a book concerning the tragedy.

Book Launch: Michael Hadley (Boxing the Compass: A Life of Seafaring, Music, and Pilgrimage)
2024-04-05 15:30 - 17:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
An award-winning historian and mariner takes readers on an engrossinginternational journey of self-discovery that explores timely themes of humanconflict, ethics, and reconciliation.

Included in admission to the Maritime Museum of BC, this event will run in the museum gallery. There will be a Q&A period and a book signing, with copies available in the museum gift shop.

Walk-ins are welcome, but registering ahead ensures you get a spot!

Register Now

About the Book

A member of the so-called Silent Generation, Michael Hadley has a great deal to say in his twilight years. Opening with his Depression-era childhood on a lonely lighthouse on the west coast of Vancouver Island, this remarkably nuanced memoir spans decades, countries, and oceans.

Hadley’s reflections move through his years growing up in wartime Vancouver in the 1940s, his concert tours on the British vaudeville stage in the 1950s, and his early teaching career in Manitoba in the 1960s. He shares his naval service on both coasts and on the Great Lakes, and his professional experience in Germany, where unexpected friendships with former submariners trigger an interest in how countries deal with difficult wartime pasts.

Human conflict, ethics, and multi-faith engagement in criminal justice reform and Restorative Justice shape Hadley’s understandings of reconciliation, taking him on prison visits across Canada, the UK, and Uganda. Whether examining ancient historical sites and battlegrounds, navigating at sea, or riding camels in the desert, he seeks universal patterns of human experience. At once a deeply personal chronicle of a fascinating life and a measured, mature reflection on some of the most cataclysmic events of the past century, Boxing the Compass is an unforgettable journey that will leave readers reflecting on the experiences that affect us all.

About the Author

Michael Hadley is an award-winning writer, scholar, yachtsman, retired naval officer, international traveller, and lecturer. He is the author and editor of several books on naval and maritime history, including Spindrift: A Canadian Book of the Sea (co-edited with Anita Hadley) and Citizen Sailors: Chronicles of Canada’s Naval Reserve, 1910–2010 (co-edited with Richard H. Gimlett), and his work has won such prestigious awards as the John Lyman Prize of the North American Society for Oceanic History and the Keith Matthews Award of the Canadian Nautical Research Society. He is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Victoria, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and was awarded the Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for Maritime Achievement in 2023.

Closure: Exhibit Changeover
2024-04-07 00:00 - 2024-04-10 23:59 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
The Maritime Museum of BC will be closed to the public for our exhibit changeover. Take a first look at our new No Walk in the Woods: The History of the West Coast Trail exhibit when it launches on April 11!

Exhibit Opening: No Walk in the Woods: The History of the West Coast Trail
2024-04-11 10:00 - 17:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
A landscape of forbidding bluffs and nearly impassible brush, punctuated by the ominous sound of crashing waves, hardly seems like the route to salvation for anyone escaping a sinking ship. For those unlucky enough to find themselves in just that situation along the unforgiving southwestern edge of Vancouver Island, the rough trail over slick rocks and fallen trees may have been their only chance.

The 75 kilometer stretch of coastline from Bamfield to Port Renfrew has evolved from a narrow telegraph track carved into the woods to one of the most popular hiking destinations in less than a century.

Come along with us as we follow the rain-soaked path from the tragic wreck of the S.S. Valencia, that led to the creation of the lifesaving trail, to the stories of adventurers who brave the modern-day West Coast Trail. Meet some of the characters who devoted themselves to helping others, sometimes at great personal cost, and learn what was done to try to prevent a small portion of the Graveyard of the Pacific from claiming even more lives.

MMBC's Birthday
2024-04-18 10:00 - 17:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
The Maritime Museum of BC is turning 69 this year—celebrate our birthday with us on 18 April 2024.

Admission is by donation all day long, there will be treats, and our new exhibit No Walk in the Woods: The History of the West Coast Trail will be open!

We first opened our doors on April 18, 1955 on Signal Hill, just outside the gates of the HMC Dockyard in Esquimalt. Since then, the Museum has moved to Bastion Square, Humboldt Street, and finally, our current 744 Douglas Street storefront location.

Sea Glass Jewelry Workshop
2024-05-11 14:00 - 15:15, 2024-05-18 14:00 - 15:15 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Learn about the history of sea glass in this interactive workshop. Then design your own piece of jewelry using locally sourced sea glass.

Closure: Facility in Use
2024-05-16 16:00 - 18:00
The Maritime Museum of BC will close early at 4:00 PM on 16 May 2024 for an internal event.

Sea Glass Jewelry Workshop
2024-05-18 14:00 - 15:15 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Learn about the history of sea glass in this interactive workshop and design your own piece of jewelry using locally sourced sea glass.

Sensory-Friendly Hours
2024-05-19 09:30 - 12:00, 2024-05-26 09:30 - 12:00 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Explore the Maritime Museum of BC during our weekly Sensory-Friendly hours, designed for visitors who prefer a quiet and subdued environment. Enjoy low-volume surroundings, dimmed lighting, and a scent-free atmosphere. These dedicated hours provide an inclusive experience for all, ensuring everyone can engage with our exhibits comfortably and peacefully.

Sensory kits are available to borrow during your visit from the front desk during all opening hours.

Community Day
2024-05-19 09:30 - 16:30 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
Admission by donation all day long to celebrate our start to the summer season!

Salty Sunday: Pop-Up Sale
2024-05-19 12:00 - 16:30 | The Maritime Museum of BC, 744 Douglas Street, Victoria, British Columbia, V8W3M6, Canada
The summer season truly begins on Sunday, May 19 at the Maritime Museum of BC: not only will we be launching new opening hours, a seven-days-per-week schedule, and a summer of new programming for all ages, but we are starting the season with a Community Day and Pop-Up Sale!

From 9:30 AM – 4:30 PM, admission will be by donation, with the Pop-Up sale running from noon until close.

Just like our long-running Massive Marine & Outdoors Garage Sale, this Pop-Up Sale will include donated marine items at great prices all in the gallery, with sales supporting the Museum. Everything from rubber boots, to books, to furniture, to a mount for a radar display will be on sale!
