The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic occupies a red-brick warehouse on the Halifax waterfront, right on the boardwalk. It is one of the finest maritime museums in Canada, covering everything from small craft building to the Royal Canadian Navy, but two exhibits draw particular attention. The Titanic gallery holds the largest collection of Titanic artifacts in the world outside of the ship's wreck site itself — wood panelling, a deck chair, crew effects, and the haunting small items recovered from bodies brought to Halifax in April 1912. The exhibit is understated and serious, which makes it more powerful than flashy recreations you find elsewhere.
The Halifax Explosion exhibit covers the 1917 disaster when two ships collided in the harbour and the resulting blast killed nearly 2,000 people, levelled the North End, and shattered windows as far away as 90 kilometres. The museum holds a clock stopped at the moment of impact — 9:04:35 a.m. on December 6, 1917. Outside, the HMCS Sackville, Canada's last surviving World War Two corvette, is moored at the dock. A visit to the museum and a walk aboard the Sackville takes around two hours.