Fetterman Maritime Museum

The Admiral John H. Fetterman State of Florida Maritime Museum and Research Center is a 50,000 square foot museum planned to be part of the Vince Whibbs Sr. Community Maritime Park. It is named for Vice Admiral Jack Fetterman, who conceived the idea and championed its creation until his death.

The museum, which will also serve as headquarters for the Florida Public Archaeology Network, will contain educational displays about Pensacola's maritime history, from early European explorers, to the shipping boom brought by the lumber and railroad industries, to the more recent naval presence. Artifacts from some of the hundreds of ships sunk in Pensacola Bay will be on display, and visitors will be able to observe and participate in University of West Florida research projects in the fields of public history, underwater archaeology, marine biology and environmental science. The museum will also house an aquarium.

The cost of the museum is estimated to be $18 million. Thanks to the State of Florida’s Alec P. Courtelis Matching Gift Program, only $9 million in private donations will be required. The honorary chairs of the fundraising committee are U.S. Senators Bill Nelson and John McCain, former "Good Morning America" host David Hartman, New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson, and Nancy Fetterman, UWF Trustee and Admiral Fetterman's widow.

In early 2007, the Pensacola News Journal announced they would co-sponsor a "Do It!" fundraising campaign for the museum, in which members of the community are invited to make personal donations that are matched by the "Do It!" corporate partners, which include the News Journal, the Gulf Power Foundation, McGuire’s Irish Pub, the Nature Trail subdivision and Whitney Bank. Those monies will then be doubled by the Alec P. Courtelis Matching Gift Program, so the campaign's goal of $250,000 will actually yield $1 million towards the museum.