Groton men didn’t just build ships, they sailed them. Local mariners racked up some of the most impressive sailing records of the 19th century. Captain Joseph Warren Holmes doubled Cape Horn at the tip of South America 83 times, more than any other man afloat. On one trip, after a year at sea on his Pioneer, Captain Ebenezer Morgan returned with 1,391 pounds of whale oil and eleven tons of bone which he sold for a profit over $100,000, considered a record voyage.

In 1655 the first settlers colonized the east bank of the Thames River; when Groton became a separate town in 1705, the east bank was called Groton bank. In the waning days of the American Revolution, in late summer 1781, a British raiding force under the direction of turncoat Benedict Arnold overwhelmed a cadre of militia defenders on the heights overlooking the Thames River here in the only major battle of the war in Connecticut. Arnold sacked the town and New London across the river.

This is where our walking tour will take place, in a small sliver of the town of Groton, about 12 square blocks. We’ll start at one of the two museums in town, where there is abundant parking down by he Thames River and a view of the Gold Star Bridge, a pair of steel truss bridges that are the longest span in Connecticut...