Groton (CT) (Images of America)

Boats and the sea have always been an important part of the history of Groton, known as the submarine capital of the world. It is home to a U.S. submarine base and to General Dynamics-Electric Boat. Electric Boat's prolific submarine construction in the 1940s helped America win World War II, and it was in Groton that the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, was built and launched. The village of Mystic, now a popular tourist destination, was home to the nineteenth-century shipyards that built the Andrew Jackson, the clipper ship that made the record-setting voyage between New York and San Francisco, and the Galena, the first oceangoing ironclad used by the Union navy during the Civil War.