Wheelhouse Maritime Museum, maritime museum in Ontario, Canada
The Wheelhouse Maritime Museum was a museum in Ottawa focused on ships and boats used in Canadian waters. The collection included historical photographs from the 1880s to early 1900s, artifacts recovered from shipwrecks such as bottles and maritime equipment, plus ship models and navigation tools spanning different time periods.
The museum opened in 1965 and was run by the Underwater Society of Ottawa, which began exploring shipwrecks in the region starting in 1963. It closed in 1976 due to space and funding challenges, after which its collection was transferred to the Museum of Science and Technology and other institutions.
The museum served as a place where local stories of people whose lives centered on water and boats came alive through displays. The exhibitions connected visitors to the working lives of sailors and the importance of maritime activity to the region.
The museum was located on the top floor of a building on Cumberland Street and was open mostly on Sunday afternoons and weekday evenings. Entry was free and required no special arrangements, though the museum is now closed.
The Underwater Society of Ottawa, which operated the museum, discovered nearly 200 shipwrecks in the region and retrieved artifacts such as plates, bottle openers, and even an 1859 toilet design from sunken vessels. This unusual collection of objects from drowned ships made the museum a repository for finds that might otherwise have remained lost beneath the water.
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