Kronstadt is a city of sailors. Ships were built and armed here, frigates, sloops, and cruisers set out on long voyages from its harbors and roadsteads. Some of the ships remained at sea. And the families and comrades of the dead sailors kept their memory for many years. That is why it was in Kronstadt that preparations began for the creation of the first Shipwreck Museum (Museum of Underwater Archeology) in the Northwest of Russia.

The first step on this path was the exhibition "History of Shipwrecks", created in 2009 on the basis of unique items raised from sunken ships during search expeditions of the "Underwater Heritage of Russia" project.

The underwater archeology exhibition is located in the building of the historic water tower and tells the story of shipwrecks. The artifacts raised from the battleship Portsmouth, the frigate Oleg, the battleship Gangut and other warships and merchant ships are on display here. Weapons, household items, dishes, shoes, tools and personal belongings of sailors and passengers of sunken ships have lain on the bottom for several centuries and are witnesses of bygone eras. In one of the halls, materials are being collected today to create a worthy exhibition in memory of the 54-gun battleship Portsmouth, which was wrecked on the London Shoal near Kotlin Island in 1719.