The 2011 Salem Maritime Festival was a great success! Check back here for photos from the Maritime Festival, and our plans for 2012!

Friday, August 5^th

6:30 - 9:00pm
Sunset Concert on
Historic Derby Wharf

Saturday, August 6^th

10:00am - 5:00pm
Free Family Fun All Day!

Come Celebrate Four Centuries of Salem's Maritime Heritage!

The Salem Maritime Festival is hosted by Salem Maritime, the national park in Salem, and sponsored by:

Click here to see all of our generous sponsors!

EVENT SCHEDULE

Free Harbor Cruise Ticket Drawings: 9am
(Central Wharf Ticket Booth)
Free Harbor Cruises: 10am - 1pm
Seaside Kite-flying: 10am - 4pm
NE Aquarium Tide Pool Exhibit: 11am - 2pm
Face Painting: 12noon - 3pm
Muck Walk, Life at Low Tide: 12noon, 2pm
Hayrides around Historic Salem: 1 - 4pm
The Rebel Shakespeare Company: 1pm, 3pm
The Weebluets, Scottish Dancers: 2pm

All DAY

Live Music (Schedule)
Friendship of Salem Tours & Demonstrations
USS Constitution Master Gun Drills
USCG 47' Motor Life Boat Tours
Canoe and Kayak Rides
Hands-on! Jolly Boat Sea Adventures
Traditional Craft Demonstrations
Special Children's Jr. Ranger Program
Boatbuilding, Kite-flying and a Muck Walk!
Roving Storytellers

Experience the Salem waterfront as it was in its early seaport heyday!

Courtesy of Schooner Fame

Schooner Fame is one of the vessels offering harbor cruises during the Maritime Festival.

Harbor Cruises

A popular feature of the Maritime Festival again this year are free 90-minute boat rides around the harbor. Two vessels, Schooner Fame of Salem, a full-scale replica of a War of 1812 Privateer and Vessel Finback with HOBBES onboard marine ecology program will be taking visitors on cruises.

Ticket Lottery Starts at 9:00am at the Central Wharf Ticket Booth. All Festival visitors are invited to enter a drawing for a ride on the ship of their choice. Random ticket drawings will be held 30 minutes prior to each departure. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Scheduled departures for the 90-minute boat rides are:

• 10:00am Fame (Ticket drawing 9:30am)
• 10:15am Finback (Ticket drawing 9:45am)
• 11:45am Fame (Ticket drawing 11:15am)
• 12:00n Finback (Ticket drawing 11:30am)
• 1:30pm Fame (Ticket drawing 1:00pm)
• 1:45pm Finback (Ticket drawing 1:15pm)

Ticketed passengers (only) should be prepared for immediate departure down the Central Wharf gangway, and will come aboard and join in the hands-on activities.

Schooner Fame is a full-scale replica of a once famous Chebacco fishing schooner, reborn as a privateer when war broke out in 1812, and arguably the first American privateer to bring home a prize, with a total of 21 captures before being wrecked in 1814, in the Bay of Fundy.

Built in 1978 by Malcolm Melville Boat Works of Maryland, Finback is a 50-foot long cruising vessel that sports a bright, Caribbean color scheme. Aboard Finback, a HOBBES (Hands on Boat Based Education and Science) instructor will lead an exploration of marine ecology, and the fascinating marine world revealed in the coastal waters of Massachusetts' North Shore.

NPS photo

Kite making and flying are perennial favorites at the Maritime Festival.

Children's Activities

Radio controlled boats, face painting, and kite-making are only some of the children's activities that will take place on the historic wharves. There's an entire Children's tent of fun crafts to do. Kids can also tour the tall ship Friendship, and earn Junior Ranger badges by participating in scavenger hunts and other fun activities. On Derby Street, Nolan Draft Horses will be providing horse-drawn wagon rides with Gary and Ralph, the Clydesdales. On the Derby Wharf beach, the Salem Sound Coastwatch will sponsor a muck walk. Learn about life at low tide in Salem Harbor. Boots will be provided.

Live Music

Friday, August 5th 6:30 - 9:00pm

Sunset Concert on the Salem Waterfront featuring Coyote Run , with picnicking by the waterside and dancing under the stars.

Coyote Run, a very contemporary Celtic rock band blends a marvelously eclectic Celt setlist with their ancient earthy vibe for a lavish musical feast of harmony and rhythm. "Imagine Jethro Tull on Broadway and you start to get the picture." … "The take-no-prisoners approach to Celtic music."

Saturday, August 6th 11:00am - 5:00pm

11:00 am Ben Rudnick & Friends

12:30 pm Three Sheets to the Wind

1:30 pm Whose Muddy Shoes

2:30 pm New Bedford Harbor Sea Chantey Chorus

3:30 pm The Love Dogs  

Theater and Dance

Enjoy the Rebel Shakespeare's version of Othello.

Kick up your heels with the Salem Scottish Country Dancers.

NPS photo

The Furniture Institute of Massachusetts demonstrates the art of cabinetmaking.

Demonstrators and Exhibitors

Hands-on demonstrations and other activities will be scattered around Salem Maritime. Traditional crafts like spinning, coopering, traditional small craft building, and model shipbuilding will be exhibited in working demonstrations up and down Derby and Central Wharves.

NPS photo

This year, visitors will be invited to join the crew of Friendship to row the ship's jolly boat.

Visiting Vessels

USS Constitution Gun Drill Team

At Hatch's Wharf, next to Derby Wharf, the USS Constitution Master Gun Drill Team will demonstrate their replica 1812-era cast iron long gun, and tell stories of the famous battles of the War of 1812. 

USCG 47' Motor Life Boat Tours

The Lewis H. Story, an authentic replica Chebacco Boat

On Derby Beach, the Essex Shipbuilding Museum will display their replica Chebacco boat, Lewis H. Story. The Story was built in 1998 by Essex shipbuilder Harold Burnham, and she is a replica of the type of schooner that was built in Essex between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. 

Canoe, Kayak and Jolly Boat Rides

For those who like to paddle their own boats, Rock, Paddle Surf will be providing kayaks for short trips in the harbor, and partnering with the Coast Guard Auxiliary on paddling safety. In addition, Friendship's jolly boat will also be hosting short rowing trips in the harbor on a first-come, first-serve basis. Traditionally built ten years ago by National Park Service volunteers at Salem Maritime, the jolly boat is a multi-purpose boat that would be used to transport crew and cargo to and from the ship. It is 18' in length and made out of cedar planks on white oak frames.

NPS Photo

Help load cargo onto the ship the way the original Friendship's sailors would have!

Friendship

Friendship will be open from 10 to 5, with hands-on cargo loading and sail setting activities, Junior Ranger booklets, and National Park Service Rangers and Volunteers to introduce visitors to the lives of sailors, captains, and merchants in the Great Age of Sail.

Sponsors and Partners

The National Park Service would like to thank the following sponsors and partners of the Maritime Festival for making this event a success:

Beverly Coop Bank

1805 Custom House Realty

Dominion Salem Harbor Station

Hawthorne Hotel

Salem State University

The Pig Next Door

Bouchard & Sons, Inc.

Haunted Happenings Magazine

Instant Signal & Alarm Company

Kensington-Stobart Gallery

Michaud & Raymond Oil, Inc.

North Shore Bank

Peabody Essex Museum

Pickering Wharf Merchant Association

Salem Witch Museum

Shetland Properties

Stop & Shop

The Salem Inn

Victoria's Station and Vic's Boathouse

Winter Island Yacht Yard

Captain Dusty's Ice Cream

Harbor Sweets

Lobster Shanty

 The Salem Maritime Festival is produced in partnership with