The National Maritime Museum occupies a vast 1671 Dutch warehouse just inside the Old Gate of the fort — the same building, with its row of pointed arches, that appears in nineteenth-century photographs of Galle. The collection covers Sri Lanka's maritime history from prehistoric times to the present, with strong sections on the Indian Ocean spice trade, ship construction and shipwreck archaeology.
Highlights include finds from the Avondster, a Dutch East India Company ship wrecked in Galle harbour in 1659 and excavated in the early 2000s, and a partial reconstruction of an oruwa, the traditional Sri Lankan outrigger fishing boat. The building itself, with its thick walls and cool, dim interior, is worth the entry fee on its own.