Southport Maritime Museum

The Maritime Museum focuses on Southport's cultural maritime heritage, coastal environment and natural history. First, You can see the colorful satellite photo of the Lower Cape Fear area. Next move to Storyboard No. 1 to view a 2,000 year-old 54" Indian canoe fragment.

Pirate Stede Bonnet's pleas for clemency, before he was hanged. Play pertinent trivia, from our own jeopardy board. Great fun for "children" of all ages.

There are many artifacts from the important colonial port of Brunswick.

The Civil War Blockade exhibits include a 200 lb. pile torpedo retrieved from the historic waters of the Cape Fear River.

There is an extensive collection of delicate ship models, including those built by the late Col. Herbert Franck.

The Rescues and Aids to Navigation" section offers a variety of nautical instruments, including a 48" Coast Guard nun buoy.

The shipwreck "City of Houston" display will bring back memories of great-grandmother's home of 1878. See our rescued treasures from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean, near the Frying Pan Shoals.

A local net expert has made a 9' model of a shrimp-boat net for our museum, complete with "doors." If he's in the museum while you are visiting, he'll be glad to show you how to knit a net.

North Carolina shells are on display, as well as white and black coral. Shark teeth, a loggerhead turtle skull and an overhead 8' whale jaw bone await your discovery.

Also learn about hurricanes and listen to the weather forecast on marine radio; when storms are present in the Atlantic, we will be tracking them on a hurricane chart.

And please sign the visitor's log before you leave.