The building was completed in 1989 to a size of 30,000 square feet. In 2010 it was reported the museum underwent a renovation to address water issues arising out of a design flaw in the roof. The museum’s campus is dominated by a sculpture, designed to reflect the "Wyoming", which was the largest wooden vessel ever built in the United States. The "Wyoming" sank in 1924, but in an effort to connect Maine visitors with the seafaring past and raise the profile of the museum, a full-scale sculptural installation was erected in 2001 to celebrate the ship. The sculpture is almost 600 feet of empty space- which encourages viewer’s imagination to fill in the rest- and is made of white steel replicas of the "Wyoming's" bow and stern. The sculpture resides upon the area where the "Wyoming" was built, and amounts to one of the largest pieces of New England public art. In 2001 the museum raised $4 million through donations from the public and spent $300,000 from those funds on the sculpture. The banks fishing schooner "Sherman Zwicker" operates from the museum site seasonally in a partnership arrangement with the museum. In 1983 it was reported that the museum was one of Maine's most popular attractions receiving 30,000 people in 1982.