The water came first. The Pequot people lived and fished at the mouth of the Thames, and the settlement that John Winthrop the Younger began here in 1646 was called Pequot until it was renamed New London in 1658 — for the city in England, on a river the colonists renamed the Thames to match. With one of the best deep-water harbors on the coast, New London became a shipbuilding and shipping town, and in the Revolution a base for privateers who captured hundreds of British vessels. That made it a target: on September 6, 1781, a British force led by Benedict Arnold burned much of the city and stormed Fort Griswold across the river. New London rebuilt — chartered as a city in 1784, it turned back to the sea.
Today New London is a working harbor city and a college and Coast Guard town, proud of its whaling past, its academy, and its place at the mouth of the Thames on Long Island Sound. Its story runs from the Pequot shore and Winthrop's 1646 founding through the 1781 burning, the whaling boom that made it the world's second-busiest whaling port, and the arrival of the Coast Guard Academy and the Eagle. Our New London designs gather that identity into wearable form — the whaleship, the oyster shell, the Coast Guard, the deep harbor. New London, Connecticut — the Whaling City on the Thames.
Why People Visit New London Connecticut
- Visit the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and, when she's in port, the barque Eagle.
- Tour Fort Trumbull State Park, the granite fort with harbor views and coastal-defense exhibits.
- See New London Harbor Light and the offshore New London Ledge Lighthouse.
- Walk Whale Oil Row and the historic downtown around Bank Street and the 1833 Custom House.
- Spend a summer day at Ocean Beach Park, or catch a show at the Garde Arts Center.
- Ride the Cross Sound Ferry across to Orient Point, or sail for Block Island.
