We are saddened to announce that on Thursday, December 20, 2007, our building including showroom and our second floor residence, was destroyed following a fire at an adjacent church and subsequent building explosion. The web store was also closed as a result of the disaster due to the loss of all of our inventory.

We are in the process of rebuilding the Skipjack Nautical Wares and Marine Gallery web store with plans to be back online sometime in early spring of 2008. An announcement of its completed date will be e-mailed to our subscribers and customers prior to the website’s re-opening. If you are interested in being notified of the upcoming event, please e-mail us at askus@skipjacknauticalwares.com

As William Shakespeare once said, “Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.” As luck has it, a customer recently contacted us requesting assistance in marketing an extremely large collection of nautical antiques including binnacles, compasses, ship lighting, instruments and various parts of ship’s hardware. We will hopefully have a portion of this collection posted for sale for our website reopening. Also, we are pleased to announce that all of the exceptional marine artists that we have represented in the past are creating new works of art for us and will be shown on the web store and in a future gallery.

We would like to thank the Olde Towne and Portsmouth community and Friends of Skipjack for the outpouring of support during this difficult time. We would also like to thank all the wonderful customers who have supported us through the years and we hope that you will one day venture through our doors and visit us in a new Skipjack Nautical Wares & Marine Gallery.

Here's a link to FriendsofSkipjack.com