The Marine Museum of the Great Lakes is a museum dedicated to marine history in the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lak ...

. It is located at 55 Ontario St. in

Kingston, Ontario Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between To ...

, which is also a designated

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

History

The Kingston Marine Museum was incorporated by letters patent on August 29, 1975 with objectives to collect, conserve and display artifacts related to Great Lakes marine history, shipping and shipbuilding, construct an exhibition area for special exhibitions of both marine and non-marine character, encourage public participation in events and activities, develop a marine resource centre of archival material, books, publications, ephemera and items to permit research activity related to Great Lakes marine history by the public, students, researchers and historians and to develop educational programs. The museum was originally located in the 1892 Kingston Dry Dock, a national historic site in Kingston,

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada,. It should not be mistaken for

Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard The Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard was a Royal Navy Dockyard from 1788 to 1853 in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, at the site of the current Royal Military College of Canada. History The British naval forces on the lakes, known as the Provincial ...

, which was a British naval base and home of the then

Provincial Marine Provincial Marine was a coastal protection service in charge of the waters in the Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence River and parts of Lake Champlain under British control. While ships of the Provincial Marine were designated HMS, they were ...

. Once an important construction and repair facility for ships on the

, the Kingston Dry Dock was constructed in 1890 by the Canadian federal government in what had been the local riding of Canadian

prime minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Sir

John A. Macdonald Sir John Alexander Macdonald (January 10 or 11, 1815 – June 6, 1891) was the first prime minister of Canada, serving from 1867 to 1873 and from 1878 to 1891. The dominant figure of Canadian Confederation, he had a political career that sp ...

. Opened in 1892 by the Department of Public Works as a repair facility for lake vessels, the

drydock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

provided dry working access to the ship below the waterline. MacDonald would live long enough to see the $344,276 project targeted with allegations of

political patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

after the March 5, 1891 Canadian election. As he suffered a series of strokes in 1891, one of which proved fatal on June 6 of that year, he would never have the opportunity to see the facility open and in operation. The original 85.3 metre limestone dry dock was lengthened to 115.2 metres using concrete and leased in 1910 to the Kingston Shipbuilding Company; private companies would operate the Kingston Shipyards until 1968. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

naval vessels, notably

corvettes A corvette is a small warship. It is traditionally the smallest class of vessel considered to be a proper (or " rated") warship. The warship class above the corvette is that of the frigate, while the class below was historically that of the sloop ...

, were built in this dry dock. The site consists of a solid limestone 1891 main building which houses the drydock pumps and engines, an annex building added in 1915 and a smaller free-standing building added in 1938. The shipyard's distinctive square stone chimney stands 90 feet above the downtown city waterfront.

Facilities and collections

The Museum consists of seven galleries. The temporary gallery features changing exhibits (such as a Kingston Warships 1812–1814 exhibit for the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

bicentennial). The six permanent galleries include the Donald Page gallery which examines several stories including the Age of Sail on the Great Lakes, life as a sailor and changing ship technology. This room used to be the Air Compressor and Tool room of the shipyards. The newest gallery, the Eco gallery, explores issues such as pollution, water diversion and conservation, invasive species and sustainable development as they relate to the Great Lakes. The Shipwreck Gallery leads from the early days of wooden ship building through to the construction of modern "Lakers". This room used to be the shipyard's Dynamo room. The Calvin Gallery covers Garden Island, where the Calvin family ran a shipbuilding and logging business and includes stories from Kingston's maritime past. This used to be the shipyard's boiler room. The Pump Room explores the complexity of operating a shipbuilding dry dock. The pumps and engines in this room were used to drain the dry dock and move the dock's caisson gate. CCGS Alexander Henry

The Kingston Drydock buildings were converted into a year-round museum in the 1970s;

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

retired Coast Guard ship was decommissioned in 1985 and added to the site in 1986 as a museum ship. Displays cover

shipping since 1678; artifacts and exhibits include ship's models and

engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power ...

s, relics and instruments of lake vessels under both sail and steam, the drydock pumps and engine room of the original factory,

glass Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling ( quenching ...

and china salvaged from Great Lakes shipwrecks,

ship's bell A ship's bell is a bell on a ship that is used for the indication of time as well as other traditional functions. The bell itself is usually made of brass or bronze, and normally has the ship's name engraved or cast on it. Strikes Timing of s ...

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal , used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ''ancora'', which itself comes from the Greek ἄ� ...

binnacle A binnacle is a waist-high case or stand on the deck of a ship, generally mounted in front of the helmsman, in which navigational instruments are placed for easy and quick reference as well as to protect the delicate instruments. Its traditional ...

navigational instrument Navigational instruments are instruments used by nautical navigators and pilots as tools of their trade. The purpose of navigation is to ascertain the present position and to determine the speed, direction, etc. to arrive at the port or point o ...

s and equipment, a gallery of artistic paintings about the sea and the history of the Calvin and Son shipyard which once employed 700 workers on Garden Island. The museum has photographed historic shipwrecks at risk of being hidden by encrustations of

zebra mussels The zebra mussel (''Dreissena polymorpha'') is a small freshwater mussel. The species originates from the lakes of southern Russia and Ukraine, but has been accidentally introduced to numerous other areas and has become an invasive species in ma ...

which infested the Great Lakes in the 1990s. Archaeological exhibits commemorating the

on the Great Lakes were added for that war's bicentennial. Publications of the museum include "FreshWater", a journal of Great Lakes marine history, a "Jib Gems" museum newsletter and several books on local marine history. Extensive archives and collections are maintained with the assistance of Queen's University, documenting 19th and 20th century Canadian Great Lakes marine heritage and ships and shipping from vessel design and construction through a ship's working life to shipwreck or retirement.

Relocation

The museum future was clouded by the 2016 federal government decision to sell the property and resulting new landlord Patry Inc. requiring the museum to vacate the facility to allow for residential re-development. The museum galleries closed and the collections were moved into storage until the museum could find a new property to reopen to the public. The marine museum office was moved to 53 Yonge Street. Since the closure of the museum, the Alexander Henry was stored elsewhere and finally transferred to Lakehead Transportation Museum in

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...

, Ontario. In 2019 the museum received a donation from an unknown source, and repurchased the property after the re-developer could not come to agreement with the city on a residential high-rise. The museum plans to reopen after refurbishment and renovation.

References

{{authority control Museums in Kingston, Ontario Maritime museums in Ontario Museums of the Great Lakes

History

Facilities and collections

Relocation

See also

References