Seawolf Park on Pelican Island with its fishing pier and museum ships
Things to do

Seawolf Park and the Galveston Naval Museum

A park on Pelican Island with a World War II submarine and a destroyer escort you can walk through, a fishing pier over the bay and a concrete ship wreck offshore. Plan 1 to 2 hours for the ships, and $10 for parking on top of the tickets.

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The Naval Museum
Checked November 1, 2026Parking $10Museum $10–14

Seawolf Park, Pelican Island · Photo: CJ TravelTips / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Credits

The short answer

What to know before you go

The City of Galveston's parks department runs Seawolf Park; local press reports it took over from the Park Board in October 2025. The Naval Museum on its grounds is run separately, by the Cavalla Historical Foundation. The park also has a playground, picnic areas over the water and a bait shop.

Sources: the City of Galveston's Seawolf Park page, the Galveston Naval Museum and its FAQ, and Visit Galveston, read on November 1, 2026.

Where
Seawolf Park on Pelican Island, across the Galveston Channel from downtown. 100 Seawolf Park Blvd
Getting there
Only by car or bike over the Pelican Island lift bridge on Seawolf Parkway. No golf carts. About 16 minutes by car from Cruise Terminal 25 or the east end of the Seawall
Parking
$10 per vehicle, one entry. Free if you buy a fishing band
Naval Museum
Winter hours from November 1, 2026: daily 9 am to 5 pm, last ticket at 4. Open on every holiday except Christmas
Tickets
$14 for 12 and older; $10 for ages 5 to 11, seniors over 65 and veterans; under 5 and active military free. Parking not included
How long
1 to 2 hours for both ships
Access
The ships aren't accessible for wheelchairs or anyone who has trouble climbing: hatches are tight and stairs steep
Park rules
Dogs on a leash, but not at the military displays. Alcohol allowed, glass not. No drones, no camping, no open fires; BBQ pits are fine
Galveston Naval Museum

Two warships you can walk through

Both ships are self-guided: you climb through hatches and down steep metal stairs at your own pace. Strollers and wheelchairs can't come aboard; the museum offers a virtual tour online instead. Buy tickets at the museum or online.

USS Cavalla (SS-244)
World War II submarine, 311 ft. In June 1944 she sank the Japanese carrier Shokaku in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. A museum ship here since 1971
USS Stewart (DE-238)
Destroyer escort built in Houston in 1943, 306 ft, with 30 North Atlantic convoy crossings in 1944–45. The museum calls her one of only two destroyer escorts left in the US. Here since 1974
Also on show
The sail of the submarine USS Tautog, the conning tower of USS Carp, artifacts and three staged officers' cabins on the Stewart
Food and drink
Bring snacks for the park grounds; on the ships only water is allowed. No glass or alcohol in the museum, and only service animals
Not right now
Hard Hat Tours of the Stewart's engine rooms are listed as closed. Overnight stays on the Stewart, normally for ages 5 and up at $40 or $60 a person, are paused in November 2026 for renovations

From the museum's pages on the USS Cavalla, USS Stewart, visiting and sleepovers, read on November 1, 2026; lengths from Wikipedia.

Viator price as shown on October 31, 2026. At the museum the ticket costs the same.

Fishing

Fishing pier fees

The pier reaches out into Galveston Bay. Galveston Island residents pay less.

A man fishing at Seawolf Park with a cruise ship in the background
Fishing at Seawolf Park as a cruise ship passes.Seawolf Park, Galveston · Photo: Gower Brown / Unsplash

Fees and rules from the City of Galveston and Visit Galveston, read on November 1, 2026; license prices from Texas Parks and Wildlife, read on October 29, 2026. More piers in fishing in Galveston.

Seawolf Park fishing fees
AgeIsland residentsVisitors
Adults 12 to 64$6$15
Seniors 65+$3$10
Children 5 to 11$3$6
Children 0 to 4FreeFree
License
A Texas fishing license is required from age 17. A one-day all-water license costs non-residents $16 and residents $11
Limits
Two rods per person. Staff can reduce the number of people on the pier at any time
At night
Night fishing is seasonal. After dark everyone in the park needs a fishing band, fishing or not. Overnight bands must be bought by 6 am
Parking
The fishing band covers the $10 parking
What else you see

The concrete ship Selma, dolphins and pelicans

Look northwest from the fishing pier and you'll see a hull sticking out of the bay. That's the SS Selma, the largest of the experimental concrete ships built at the end of World War I. She was launched in Mobile, Alabama, on June 28, 1919, tore a 60-ft hole in her hull on a jetty at Tampico, Mexico, in 1920, and was sunk off Pelican Island on March 9, 1922. A state historical marker in the park tells the story.

Dolphins are around all year; early morning and late afternoon, when the water is calm, are the best times to spot them. Brown pelicans, roseate spoonbills, egrets, herons and terns feed nearby, and you can watch ships and the Coast Guard station across the channel.

The park takes its name from the submarine USS Seawolf, lost in 1944 when US forces sank her by mistake. Two bronze propellers from the Stewart and two guns from the Battleship Texas stand on the grounds.

Sources: the Selma marker text, Visit Galveston on dolphins, the Port of Galveston on Pelican Island and Wikipedia, read on November 1, 2026.

Pelican Island

Can you visit Pelican Island?

Yes. Pelican Island is part of the City of Galveston and the road onto it is public. For visitors there's Seawolf Park; most of the rest is shipyards, industry or empty land, plus the campus of Texas A&M University at Galveston, whose students make up most of the people living there.

The island covers about 6.4 square miles and is mostly man-made: in the early 1900s two sand spits were joined with sand dredged from the ship channels. In 1856 Texas handed it to the city as "worthless to the state". Later it held quarantine stations for arriving immigrants, and in 1965 George Mitchell bought land here and gave part of it for the university campus.

Texas A&M Galveston is at 1001 Texas Clipper Road. Visitor parking on campus costs money, and the graduate school runs a campus tour about once a month on a Friday morning.

From Cruise Terminal 25 it's about 6.4 miles and 16 minutes by car to Seawolf Park; from the east end of the Seawall about 7.8 miles, also about 16 minutes. Golf carts aren't allowed on the Pelican Island bridge. There are no hotels on Pelican Island; see where to stay for the island's neighborhoods.

Sources: Visit Galveston, Texas A&M Galveston, the city's golf cart rules and Wikipedia, read on November 1, 2026. Driving times from OpenStreetMap routing.

The Pelican Island bridge

The old bridge and its replacement

Locals call it the 51st Street Bridge; officially it's the Seawolf Parkway bridge over the Pelican Island Channel. It's open and in use. If it ever has to close suddenly, there's no other way onto the island, so check the news on the day you go.

Sources: TxDOT project page, read on November 1, 2026. The 2024 barge strike from Wikipedia and Hoodline, February 2026.

Today
A two-lane lift bridge from 1960 with a weight limit, 3-ft shoulders and no sidewalk or bike lane. It's the only road to Pelican Island
May 2024
A barge hit the bridge, part of it collapsed, oil spilled into the bay and the island was cut off for a time
Its condition
The bridge has reached the end of its design life, and TxDOT warns its condition "could lead to sudden closure"
The replacement
A fixed bridge on a new line with two 12-ft lanes, wide shoulders and a 10-ft path for walking and cycling. Environmental decision expected in fall 2026, final environmental permit in fall 2028. No construction date is published