The museum moved through several locations over the next three decades before its current building was constructed in 1981 as part of a waterfront redevelopment program.

Its location provides the museum with several piers and boatsheds, as well as a strategic view of the Halifax Harbour, which looks seaward towards the Harbourmaster office and Georges Island and across to Dartmouth.

Public galleries include the Days of Sail, the Age of Steam, Small Craft, the Canadian Navy, the Halifax Explosion, and Shipwrecks.

The museum has the world's foremost collection of wooden artifacts from Titanic, including one of the few surviving deck chairs.

Monuments to the Canadian and Norwegian Merchant Navy are located just outside the museum along with a unique children's playground in the shape of a submarine.

[4] The 2012 exhibit explores the experiences of the cable ships based in Halifax who recovered most of the victims of the RMS Titanic sinking.

The museum hosts an annual commemoration of the Battle of the Atlantic on the first Sunday of every May and Canadian Merchant Navy day every September 3.