Northwest Maritime Heritage | A resource guide to Northwest maritime heritage organizations

Hot spots

Schooner Martha Foundation

The not-for-profit Schooner Martha Foundation owns and operates the 1907 schooner yacht Martha. The Foundation’s sole purpose is to maintain and restore Martha and to use Martha to operate sail training programs. Martha has been under the care of the foundation since 1996. Martha takes both youths and adults on sail training adventures in and [...]

Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding

The Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding is located along the waterfront of the newly established six-acre Port Hadlock Heritage Campus. School facilities currently include more than 15,000 square feet of covered space located in several buildings. The historic, two-story, 7,500 square foot Captain Westrem Building accommodates a lumber-milling room, two boat shops, administration offices, and [...]

The Center for Wooden Boats

Wooden boatbuilding inspired Seattleites Dick and Colleen Wagner to found a hands-on museum dedicated to preserving the boatbuilding arts. Described as an urban oasis near the heart of downtown Seattle, The Center for Wooden Boats, located on the southern shore of Seattle’s Lake Union, offers boatbuilding classes for individuals and families, novice to expert. The [...]

Harbor History Museum

The Harbor History Museum is devoted to the history of Gig Harbor, a small maritime community located in southern Puget Sound just north of Tacoma. Gig Harbor is a small inlet from Puget Sound, and it was named by explorers aboard the USS Porpoise, who explored the harbor in the captain’s gig in 1841. At [...]

Adventuress

The 133′ historic schooner Adventuress (1913) is owned and operated by nonprofit Sound Experience. As Puget Sound’s environmental tall ship, Adventuress is used as a platform to educate, inspire and empower all to care for the region’s waterways.

Admiralty Head Lighthouse

Nineteenth century mariners coming into Puget Sound from the Pacific Ocean needed to know where the Strait of Juan de Fuca ended and the sound began. The government lit the light on Admiralty Head for the first time on January 21, 1861, using whale oil for the lamp. The fourth-order Fresnel lens dispersed the light [...]