U.S. Coast Guard Museum
Coast Guard Museum
U.S. Coast Guard Academy
15 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320-4195
Telephone: (860) 444-8511
Fax: (860) 701-6700
The Coast Guard Museum
Tucked
away on the grounds of the picturesque U. S. Coast Guard Academy, the Coast
Guard Museum contains artifacts that span
the two hundred year history of America's premier maritime service.
Featuring everything from models of a series of early steamships to the
270-foot cutter that plies the waters of today, the exquisite craftsmanship
captures the changes in ship design over the last two hundred years. Other
fascinating things include one of the only first-order Fresnel lenses on
display in the United States. This 10-foot tall set of prisms was
initially installed in the lighthouse at Cape Ann, Massachusetts.
For
figurehead buffs and wood carvers alike, the museum offers a small but
choice collection of carvings. Of special value is the figurehead from
the Coast Guard's training ship Eagle. One of the largest
figureheads displayed in an American museum, it hangs as if mounted on the
bow of a ship. Cannon, paintings, uniforms,
and medals round out the displays. A stroll through the grounds of the
Academy, watching the flag raising and lowering, attending a chapel service,
reading the memorials in the park overlooking the Thames River, and, when
available, walking the decks of barque Eagle and reviewing the
Corps of Cadets, immerse those who come to the Academy in the history of the
U.S. Coast Guard and its predecessors: the Life Saving Service, the
Steamboat Inspection Service, the Lighthouse Establishment, and the Revenue
Cutter Service.