We drove up through Vancouver but could have better taken the False Creek Ferry to arrive at the waterfront dock. The museum owns half a dozen historical boats, most carefully described: there’s also the ongoing products of a wooden boat building school. All this before you walk in the doors! Diverse galleries, with natural history, First Nations marine activities, kids “play” area, ship models, diving bells, nautical instruments and more. The A-frame part of the museum was literally build around famous arctic exploration vessel RCMP St Roch— a 1930s wooden motor-sailor 100 feet in length. We loved going aboard and literally into the crew’s forecastle quarters, the main deck’s officer quarters, climbing up metal ladders to the helm (!), then clambering aft to a working deck. Knowledgeable docent answered questions well ! Real treat for us !! In sub-grade level , underneath the vessel itself, is a detailed traditional museum display about three centuries of efforts to locate the fabled Northwest Passage — accomplished at last by Amundsen one-way and by Henry Larsen in this vessel both east-to-west and west-to-east.

Just a little bit about history of Vancouver see tradition a big ship to explore and some hence on activities. It’s OK for a short stop.

The St Roch ship there (from 1928-54) and it’s history pre WW2 and during, is quite well done and is the icon of the museum. It came here from Halifax to rest when the city bought it, they dry docked it here, then built the A frame museum over and around it. The museum is quite nice, smallish, and worth a visit. In the long run, it’s curating is a bit dated now compared to high end museums with big budgets. We walked from Granville Island, along the water and past the large Vancouver Museum building.

The museum, though relatively small, is interesting. It’s a bit of a mixture and given the absolute importance of maritime history in relation to Vancouver and the surrounding areas I’m surprised there wasn’t more. You will find a sextant used by Lt Joseph Barker on Vancouver’s ‘Discovery’, but it’s a single artefact hidden around the back of the St Roch. The highlight of the museum is the St Roch, which you can take a walk around. This is done at set times to allow you space on board. It’s really interesting but it would have been good to have had a 5 minute talk from the person sitting by the entrance to the vessel, they sat there mute and as we went on board said that if we had any questions we could ask afterwards. I feel they are missing a bit of a trick here! Give us a little background from a real person prior to us boarding, build up that story!

Not just boats, but really presented maritime life from past and presented. Fun, hands on area for kids and variety of exhibits. Temporary exhibit on residential schools was haunting.

Not as big as it seems, however it has a great local first nations collections explaining their culture and life living and moving around ocean. Also, there is a big boat in on the museum's wing and it is possible to explore inside. The museum is located in a beautiful area, it worth to go for a walk and explore.

When our plans for the day were shifted due to inclement weather, we were left with extra time in Vancouver. We decided to visit the museum and it was a good way to speak time, learning and away from the rain. The museum itself was interesting and educative. The staff were nice. I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to visit, but if you find yourself with extra time on a rainy day and/or visiting other nearby museum, it's a pretty cool place to visit.

It was an easy 25 minute walk to the museum from downtown Vancouver and once there we spent a good amount of time admiring the many beautifully constructed ship models on display. The best part of our visit was chatting with the Historian on site. I’m sorry I didn’t get her name. The reason the building is shaped like it is is because of the tall masts of the St Roch ship inside. It is a decommissioned RCMP supply ship that sailed to the Arctic and also performed a census of the Inuit people. Most interesting was that during WWll, they were the first ship to sail eastward through the Northwest Passage to Greenland to observe any German activity there. When they sailed back to BC, they became the first ship to sail the passage in both directions. Before it was decommissioned it sailed the Panama Canal making it the first ship to circumnavigate North America. Quite a feat for such a small ship. Definitely check it out!

An interesting building, and a beautiful location right on the water. A little way out of the main city centre, but worth the bus trip. The main exhibit, the St Roch boat can be boarded and explored.

….which houses the St Roch exploration vessel that navigated the North West Passage and now beautifully preserved and presented, acts as the centrepiece of the museum. Really rather thrilling, to be able to climb aboard and see the tiny living spaces and working innards and then, in the main part of the museum, follow the black-and-white film footage of the expedition. They have a wide selection of ships models and nautical bits and pieces and tell the terrific story of ships and shipping off Vancouver and in the north Pacific. The signage needs improving from the ample car park to the entrance – it isn’t very clear where to go once parked, but it is effectively round the back of the pointy building.

We went with kids ages 8 and 10, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. There was enough information throughout the exhibits that the adults were fascinated, while the kids also found so much of interest. The St.Roch was beautifully displayed and being to climb on and around and through the vessel was a treat. A definite highlight of the trip, in a lovely neighborhood, walking distance from some nice lunch venues.

Interesting museum with the centre point being the refurbished St Roch ship which dates from 1927 and had a number of notable achievements including being the first ship to complete the NW passage in both directions (1944). You can wander around the ship and be very glad that you will never have to endure such limited living conditions and extreme temperatures! There are some interesting displays and staff on hand to answer any questions. My only small criticism was that the sound quality of the short film shown near the entrance was very poor and it's location near the rest rooms with hand dryer noise in the background made it almost impossible to hear Also, some of the displays were poorly lit. However, overall it was a good place to visit and a bit different with having the ship to explore.

This small museum actually has 3 parts 1 outside and 2 inside. Along the pier outside is a collection of boats that plied nearby waters, such as a police vessel; when we visited in Sept., 2019 a boat was being redone. Although you can't board these boats, most have an informative placard. Inide there are 2 wings -- one houses only the St. Roch where you can board this historic vessel that circumnavigated North America and enjoy the nearby cases. On the other side of the entry area with a small gift/book shop is a more traditional museum with various permanent and special shows, such as the one on Greenpeace.

We bought a combined ticket for this museum and the Museum of Vancouver and Space Museum/Planetarium. Must admit we were a bit disappointed that the museum was so small and we only spent 1.5 hours here. The display about the RCMP ship the St. Roch was very well done and informative, its truly astonishing to think of this small and cramped vessel sailing West to East via the North West Passage in the 1940's!

Walking through the St. Roch, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America and the second vessel to transit the Northwest Passage, is great! You get to see a lot of the ship, and rooms are set up with historically accurate artifacts-it's very well done. It alone is worth the entrance fee. The rest of the museum is average.