New England Naval Coast

A south-to-north traverse of New England's maritime spine. KGON Groton-New London is the heart of the U.S. submarine force: 1.5nm north on the west bank of the Thames is the U.S. Coast Guard Academy (smallest of the five federal service academies, the only one with no Congressional-nomination requirement), with its training barque USCGC Eagle — built in Germany in 1936 as Horst Wessel for the Kriegsmarine, surrendered as war reparations in 1946. Across the river on Naval Submarine Base New London, USS Nautilus (SSN-571), the world's first nuclear submarine, is preserved as a free museum — the boat that reached the North Pole submerged August 3, 1958. Eight nautical miles east, Mystic Seaport on the Mystic River holds Charles W. Morgan (1841), the last wooden whaling ship in the world and the oldest U.S. commercial vessel still afloat. East to KUUU Newport State on Aquidneck Island, RI, three miles from the Gilded Age mansions — The Breakers (1895, Vanderbilt, 70 rooms), Marble House (1892, $11M when built, $7M of it imported white marble), Rosecliff, The Elms — eleven preserved summer "cottages" on the Atlantic cliff edge, with the 3.5-mile Cliff Walk public path tracing the rocks. North to KPSM Portsmouth at Pease: the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard across the Piscataqua in Kittery, Maine has been continuously active since 1800 — oldest in the U.S. Navy. USS Albacore (1953), the first all-welded teardrop-hull submarine, is preserved nearby in Portsmouth.