Marstal Søfartsmuseum, Marstal

Marstal Søfartsmuseum is a state-recognized cultural history museum responsible for the maritime cultural history of Ærø in recent times, located at the port of Marstal on Ærø. The museum is an independent institution founded in 1929 and state recognized in 1959. Since 1980 the museum is managed by Erik Kromann.

Marstal Maritime Museum's communication strategy is to communicate through permanent exhibitions and changing special exhibitions as well as through guided tours, harbour and city walks, sailing trips, lectures, information publications and the museum's website.

The museum employs five full-time and three part-time staff, but also has a large number of volunteers. The museum currently has five exhibition buildings with 37 exhibition rooms, where seafaring is richly represented from the 17th century to the present day. There are over 200 ship models, more than 130 ships in bottles, several hundred ship portraits, wheelhouses and cabins from coasters, cabins and cabins from sailing ships, other large ship equipment and much more. However, the museum is not only about seafaring, it also exhibits local history, including a small "city walk", collections of old costumes, faience and paintings by marine and Greenland painter Carl Rasmussen. In the museum's courtyard, there is a maritime playground with a drifting vase and a whirligig. In the museum's administration building there is an archive of regional and maritime history, with documents, photos and some maritime and local literature, which is available in a reading room.

Behind Marstal harbour's long battlement pier, which was begun on 28 January 1825 to secure the town's large sailing fleet against the forces of nature, lies the Marstal Maritime Museum's Eriksens Plads department with Eriksens Værft. Over 10 wooden shipyards have launched ships from this site over the years. At various times, the shipyard hall and the engine hall are open, where various boat engines are started up. There is also a play ship building and dinghy sailing on certain days and other activities for children and families.