Two other sides, partially used as classrooms, are principally dedicated to the museum. Visitors to the museum enter through fort's sally port, cross St. Mary's pentagon, and enter the center bastion. T he museum was established in 1986 when Capt. Jeffrey Monroe, a former Associate Professor of Transportation at the Maritime College, with the help of Jack Hayes, a 1947 engineer graduate of the college. Since then, steamship lines, related companies in the maritime industry, and merchant marine history buffs donated objects and artifacts to supplement the museum collection.
T ouring the museum is like strolling through passages of time.
The museum offers one of the largest collections of maritime industry materials in the nation and is displayed chronologically. Exhibits in the area include paintings, models of early sailing vessels, clipper ships, turn of the century vessels up to and including the present day, as well as tools and navigational instruments of bygone days to modern times. Displayed, also are famous naval battles fought in the United States during the 1700s and 1800s and the developing technology in ship building tools and navigational equipment used throughout different maritime eras. T he museum collection serves as a depository for maritime industry books, periodicals, documents, papers, prints, photographs, and old steamship company records. F. J. Duffy P resently the museum is located on two floors.