The North Carolina Maritime Museum is a system of regional museums within the

North Carolina Museum of History The North Carolina Museum of History is a history museum located in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. It is an affiliate through the Smithsonian Affiliations program. The museum is a part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives ...

, which in turn part of the

North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is a cabinet-level department within the state government of North Carolina dedicated to overseeing projects in the arts, culture, and history within the borders of the state. The cur ...

. There are several branches of the Maritime Museum located in

Beaufort Beaufort may refer to: People and titles * Beaufort (surname) * House of Beaufort, English nobility * Duke of Beaufort (England), a title in the peerage of England * Duke of Beaufort (France), a title in the French nobility Places Polar regions ...

Southport Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. At the 2001 census, it had a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England. Southport lies on the Irish ...

and Hatteras.

North Carolina Maritime Museum at Beaufort

The

museum focuses on North Carolina's cultural maritime heritage, coastal environment and natural history. Exhibit displays include shells from over 100 countries, fish models,

shipwrecks A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

, ship equipment, types of

watercraft Any vehicle used in or on water as well as underwater, including boats, ships, hovercraft and submarines, is a watercraft, also known as a water vessel or waterborne vessel. A watercraft usually has a propulsive capability (whether by sail, ...

historically used in North Carolina,

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

oyster Oyster is the common name for a number of different families of salt-water bivalve molluscs that live in marine or brackish habitats. In some species, the valves are highly calcified, and many are somewhat irregular in shape. Many, but not al ...

catching,

waterfowl hunting Waterfowl hunting (also called wildfowling or waterfowl shooting in the UK) is the practice of hunting ducks, geese, or other waterfowl for food and sport. Many types of ducks and geese share the same habitat, have overlapping or identical hunt ...

equipment and duck decoys, and

venomous Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...

snakes Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more joi ...

found in North Carolina. Small aquariums are on display with local marine life. Another exhibit focuses on the history of the

United States Lighthouse Service The United States Lighthouse Service, also known as the Bureau of Lighthouses, was the agency of the United States Government and the general lighthouse authority for the United States from the time of its creation in 1910 as the successor of t ...

United States Life-Saving Service The United States Life-Saving ServiceDespite the lack of hyphen in its insignia, the agency itself is hyphenated in government documents including: and was a United States government agency that grew out of private and local humanitarian effort ...

Revenue Cutter Service ) , colors= , colors_label= , march= , mascot= , equipment= , equipment_label= , battles= , anniversaries=4 August , decorations= , battle_honours= , battle_honours_label= , disbanded=28 January 1915 , flying_hours= , website= , commander1= , co ...

, Steamboat Inspection Service, and the

United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mult ...

in North Carolina. The separate Boat Shed contains a collection of traditional working watercraft. The Watercraft Center across from the museum is a facility for the repair and conservation of various watercraft, and offers

boatbuilding Boat building is the design and construction of boats and their systems. This includes at a minimum a hull, with propulsion, mechanical, navigation, safety and other systems as a craft requires. Construction materials and methods Wood Wo ...

courses. The Center also features the John S. MacCormack Model Shop, where visitors can learn the art of

ship model Ship models or model ships are scale models of ships. They can range in size from 1/6000 scale wargaming miniatures to large vessels capable of holding people. Ship modeling is a craft as old as shipbuilding itself, stretching back to ancient t ...

making.

North Carolina Maritime Museum at Southport

The North Carolina Maritime Museum at

focuses on the maritime heritage of the

Lower Cape Fear Cape Fear is a coastal plain and Tidewater region of North Carolina centered about the city of Wilmington. The region takes its name from the adjacent Cape Fear headland, as does the Cape Fear River which flows through the region and empties ...

area of southeastern North Carolina. Exhibits include ship models, nautical instruments, shipwrecks,

pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

history,

Fort Johnston (North Carolina) Fort Johnston was a British fort, later a United States Army post, in Brunswick County, North Carolina on Moore Street near Southport, North Carolina. It stands on the west bank of the Cape Fear River, four miles above its mouth. Colonial Before ...

, commercial and sport fishing, shells and

hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum in Hatteras

Named after a nickname for North Carolina's treacherous coast, the

Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum The Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum is a maritime museum that focuses on the maritime history and shipwrecks of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The museum is located in Hatteras Village, the southernmost community on Hatteras Island, North ...

in Hatteras tells the story of the more than 2,000 shipwrecks that lie off the Outer Banks. Exhibits explore some of the region's major wrecks, including those of the USS ''Monitor'', U-85, USS ''Huron'' and Blackbeard's ''Queen Anne’s Revenge'', and highlight the area's culture of SCUBA diving and fishing. Special attention is paid to the tradition of life-saving and the involvement of area residents in the War of 1812, the Civil War, World War I and World War II.Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum Official Website
/ref>

In media

* "Life in a Salt Marsh," a segment of a 1992 episode of the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

television series ''

Return to the Sea Return may refer to: In business, economics, and finance * Return on investment (ROI), the financial gain after an expense. * Rate of return, the financial term for the profit or loss derived from an investment * Tax return, a blank document or t ...

'', includes footage of a North Carolina Maritime Museum field trip to a

salt marsh A salt marsh or saltmarsh, also known as a coastal salt marsh or a tidal marsh, is a coastal ecosystem in the upper coastal intertidal zone between land and open saltwater or brackish water that is regularly flooded by the tides. It is dominated ...

References

External links

North Carolina Maritime Museums
- official site
North Carolina Maritime Museum in BeaufortNorth Carolina Maritime Museum at SouthportGraveyard of the Atlantic Museum in HatterasHarvey W. Smith Watercraft Center

''Return to the Sea'' Episode 201 "Life in a Salt Marsh" and "Big Sweep" at OceanArchives
(

Fair use Fair use is a doctrine in United States law that permits limited use of copyrighted material without having to first acquire permission from the copyright holder. Fair use is one of the limitations to copyright intended to balance the interests ...

policy for video a
OceanArchives
{{authority control Maritime museums in North Carolina Museums in Carteret County, North Carolina Museums in Brunswick County, North Carolina Museums in Dare County, North Carolina Lighthouse museums in North Carolina Natural history museums in North Carolina