Bellingham International Maritime Museum

The museum focuses on the maritime and naval history of the United States. Its collection includes a number of PBR Mark-II gunboats, which suffered the highest casualty rates and were the most frequently decorated vessels in the Navy during the Vietnam War. An exhibit about the past 200 years of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, as well as one on loan from the Smithsonian called “From Sea to Shining Sea: Charting America’s Coasts” that concerns itself with the history of American cartography, are currently on display on a temporary basis. Among the other exhibits are a display on Pacific American Fisheries, one of the world’s largest salmon canning operations that operated on Puget Sound between 1899 and 1965 and claimed global market dominance, an early iron cannon of unknown origin, a collection of anchors, and an on-site ship restoration operation.