BATH

Founded in 1962, Maine Maritime Museum details the local maritime history from the time of the early English settlers to today’s lobstering industry, and more exhibits are added all the time.

“We have three rotating exhibits a year, and our Lobstering exhibit was new last year,” said Katie Meyers, marketing and communications manager at the museum. “We also just purchased a new cruise boat with a grant from Merrymeeting Bay Trust. The boat is amazing. It’s like a floating classroom.”

The museum offers lighthouse and nature cruises up and down the Kennebec River, as well as a Sunday brunch cruise with pastries, coffee and mimosas. The museum offers two-, three-and four-hour tours.

One of Maine Maritime’s flagship programs is Discovery Boatbuilding, which teaches youngsters an innovative, hands-on approach to boat building.

“Schools send kids for a year-long program to build wooden skiffs,” said Meyers.

South Bristol and Woolwich academies both partake in the program, in which the seventh and eighth grade students come to the boat barn at Maine Maritime for one day a week to craft their vessels. The skiffs are then sold and the money goes back into funding for the museum.

Other funding resulted in a state-of-the-art lobstering exhibit in 2015, called “Lobstering and the Maine Coast.”

“The exhibit is housed in an old fashioned sail loft, which was brought up the river in the 1880s,” said Meyers. The building helps retain that old world charm of the early lobstering industry, which is now the largest fishery in Maine. “Many lobstermen have submitted buoys for display. We recently had a big dinner with all of them to celebrate.”

The evolution of the industry is evident throughout the exhibit, from displays of 100- year-old dories to interactive movies chronicling harbors up and down the Maine coast.

This theme of evolution permeates throughout the museum. “Meeting the Boat” chronicles life on the sea during the steam engine era, while “20 Years of Boat building” celebrates the success that the Discovery Boat building Program has seen since its inauguration.

Outside on the museum grounds, buildings that were used for Brunswick’s premier shipbuilding yard, Percy and Small, are still largely intact.

“It’s tremendous that all of these buildings are still here,” said guest Colleen Barrett, visiting Maine from Colorado. “It’s like going back in time.”

One notable sight at the museum is the to-scale skeletal model of the Wyoming, the largest wooden schooner ever built the United States. At 450-feet long, an actual model of the ship would have been nearly impossible to recreate. So instead the museum forged an image of its bow and stern out of steel, and put up six flag poles in between to represent the Wyoming’s masts. Outside the museum, the structure sits directly in the spot where the Wyoming was built and launched in 1909.

“The sculpture really puts things in perspective,” said Barrett.

With such a variety of exhibits and activities at the Maine Maritime Museum, a day might not be enough to take it all in.

“Admission is good for two days,” said Meyers. “People come here and they’re like ‘whoa, there’s so much to do.’ It’s nice to be able to come back.”

The Maine Maritime Museum is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m, seven days a week. Admission is $15.50 for adults, $14 for seniors, $10 for children ages 6-12, and free for children under 6. Members also have free admittance. Learn more about the museum at www.mainemaritimemuseum.org.

bgoodridge@timesrecord.com