Few ports of call place travellers in the thick of things so quickly: in New London, the ship moors at City Pier, right in the centre, behind the 1887 railway station designed by architect H. H. Richardson. All around, the estuary of the Thames River — pronounced "Thaymz" here — buzzes with ferries to Long Island, training sailboats and Coast Guard vessels. This small Connecticut city, which ranked among the great whaling ports of the 19th century, also serves as the gateway to the most famous maritime museum in the United States.

A city to explore on foot

From the pier, a flat ten-minute walk is enough to cross the old heart of the city. You pass the Hempsted Houses, two colonial homes among the oldest in New England, spared when the city was burned during the Revolution, then the period façades of Bank Street, where independent cafés, record shops and galleries occupy the former counting houses of shipowners, beneath ornate cornices that recall whaling fortunes. The Lyman Allyn Art Museum, in its neoclassical building surrounded by gardens, displays a fine collection of American art, from folk painters to the Connecticut Impressionists, in a calm conducive to wandering.

The sea as a school

New London still lives to the rhythm of uniforms: the U.S. Coast Guard Academy occupies the bank upstream, and its training ship, the barque Eagle, a 90-metre three-master nicknamed "America's Tall Ship," can be visited free of charge when it is in port. Closer to the centre, Fort Trumbull projects its pre–Civil War granite bastions into the estuary; its interpretive centre and ramparts offer a fine view of the maritime traffic. At the entrance to the channel, the Harbor Light, first lit in 1801, remains the oldest lighthouse in Connecticut, a slender white column that passengers will see again at departure.

The 19th century, life-size

Most excursions head east, about fifteen kilometres away: Mystic Seaport Museum recreates a complete 19th-century maritime village, with a working forge, sail loft, print shop and shipyard, brought to life by artisans in costume. You can board the Charles W. Morgan, the last wooden whaleship in the world, launched in 1841. Demonstrations, river cruises and encounters with the shipwrights easily fill half a day; the neighbouring village of Mystic, with its drawbridge and riverside shops, adds a pleasant stop before the return.

The family waterfront

When the day is hot, locals head to Ocean Beach Park, at the southern edge of town: a long sandy beach, an old-fashioned boardwalk, playgrounds and a snack bar smelling of fried clams. The spot, very popular with families from the county, offers passengers an unfiltered dive into an ordinary American summer.

Port call pointers

• Old heart, Hempsted Houses and Bank Street: within walking distance of the pier.
• Fort Trumbull: a few minutes by taxi, or about a thirty-minute walk along the shore.
• Mystic Seaport and the nearby aquarium: about 20 to 25 minutes by road, on an organized excursion or by taxi.

A last look at the Thames

At departure, as the ship heads back down the estuary, you pass the 1801 lighthouse, the fort's bastions and, with a little luck, the white silhouette of the Eagle returning from a cruise, cadets lined up on the yards. New London does not hold its visitors through grandeur, but through this rare maritime density: three centuries of seafaring, a lighthouse, a fort, an academy and a museum village, concentrated along a few kilometres of shoreline within easy reach of the gangway.