The Great Lakes Maritime Museum is a small museum dedicated to the maritime history of the Great Lakes, located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
History
The Kingston Maritime Museum was incorporated by letters patent on August 29, 1975 for the purpose of collecting, preserving and displaying artifacts related to Great Lakes maritime history, shipping and shipbuilding, constructing an exhibition area for special exhibitions of both maritime and non-maritime related exhibits, encouraging public participation in the study of maritime history, developing a maritime resource center of archival materials, books, publications, ephemera and objects so that the public, students, researchers and historians can prorate and study the history of the Great Lakes, and developing a maritime resource center of archival materials, books, publications, ephemera and objects so that the public, students, researchers and historians can study the history of the Great Lakes.
The museum in 1892 was originally located at the Kingston Dry Dock, a National Historic Site in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. It should not be mistaken for the Kingston Royal Naval Dockyard, which was a British naval base and home to the then-provincial Marines.
Once an important site for building and repairing ships on the Great Lakes, the Kingston dry dock was built in 1890 by the federal government of Canada during Canadian Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald’s tour of the province. Opened in 1892 by the Department of Public Works as a repair facility for ships navigating the lakes, the dry dock served dry cargo ships and ships below the waterline.
Sir John A. Macdonald laid the cornerstone of Kingston’s dry dock in 1890.
Macdonald would live long enough to see the realization of his $344,276 project, which would later fall to accusations of political patronage after the Canadian election of March 5, 1891. Because 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 dock opened and begin operations.
The original 85.3-meter limestone dry dock was lengthened to 115.2 meters of concrete and leased to the Kingston Shipbuilding Company in 1910; private companies would operate it until 1968. During World War II, warships, particularly corvettes, were built at this dry dock.
The dock site consists of a main building built in 1891 of solid limestone that houses the dry dock pumps and engines, an additional building constructed in 1915, and a small freestanding building completed in 1938. The dock’s distinctive square stone chimney is 90 feet taller than the city’s urban waterfront. As of 2014, the federal government still owns the dry dock, buildings, and pier; it plans to relinquish its ownership, which could leave the museum without a location after 2015.
Facilities and Collection
As of 2012, the museum consists of seven galleries. The temporary gallery shows changing exhibits (such as an exhibit of Kingston warships 1812-1814 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812). The six permanent galleries include the Donald Page Gallery, which includes several exhibits including the Great Lakes Sailing Era, the lives of sailors, and the evolution of ships of the years. The room where it is housed used to be an air compressor room and tool room at the dock. In the newest gallery, the so-called Eco-Gallery, visitors can learn about global issues such as pollution, water diversion and conservation, invasive species associated with the Great Lakes. The Shipwreck Gallery tells the history of shipbuilding and maritime disasters, from the early days of wooden ships to the construction of modern liners. This room was called the dynamo room at the dock. The Kelvin Gallery shows Garden Island, where the Kelvin family was involved in shipbuilding and lumbering, and also tells of Kingston’s maritime past. The dock’s boiler room used to be located here. The Pump Room tells the story of the complexity of operating a dry dock for shipbuilding. The pumps and engines in this room were used to drain the dry dock and raise the dock caisson gates.
Kingston’s dry dock buildings were converted to a year-round museum in the 1970s; CCGS Alexander Henry was decommissioned in 1985 and put on display in front of the dock in 1986 as a ship museum.