Maritime Museum launches new online database featuring 100K historic vessels

The Maritime Museum of BC (MMBC) has unveiled a redesigned version of their online archival database on the historical maritime records of the province and beyond. 

What started on paper index cards over 50 years ago is now one of the largest digital collections in the world. 

The MMBC’s database is called ‘Nauticapedia’ and is accessible to anyone looking to learn more about maritime history. 

Nauticapedia was first launched in September 2025, but over the last year has been rebuilt from the ground up to make it easier to navigate and learn. 

“The old website was over two decades old, which is practically the ‘carboniferous period’ in internet development,” said John MacFarlane, founder of Nauticapedia. 

“The Maritime Museum of BC and our sponsors have completely transformed our operating model. Where we once added two or three thousand records in a year, we are now updating that many each month.”

He added that this leap forward has established MMBC as a national leader in heritage preservation.

Nauticapedia features searchable entries for more than 100,000 vessels and 58,000 biographical overviews. 

The platform also houses nearly 2,000 long-form historical stories on everything from local shipbuilders to deep naval history. 

Furthermore, Nauticapedia features a new interactive voyage-tracking map that allows users to see individual vessels’ travels across more than a century of sea travel. This shows users exactly where ships were built, sailed and lost. 

Another fun feature allows users to click the “Random Vessel” button beside the search bar to be shown the historic data, photos and timeline of a random entry to the database. 

“Nauticapedia allows us to break down barriers to local and global history,” said Brittany Vis, executive director of the MMBC. 

“By providing such an extensive, growing database free to anyone with an internet connection, we are fulfilling our core mission of accessibility. John has given the public an incredible gift, and we are thrilled to host it in a format that is modern, intuitive, and available to researchers worldwide.” 

According to the MMBC, by the fifth day of the soft launch, the site recorded over 20,000 unique visitors coming from over 100 countries. 

This jump in impressions has reportedly inspired a new wave of historical donations, with the public offering photos, documents and physical artifacts to the museum’s archives.

The MMBC invites members of the public, whether they are from BC or beyond, to explore the new platform and track over a century of maritime voyages through Nauticapedia.