Editor's note: This version corrects the location of East End Seaport Museum in Long Island.

Stories of ghosts, infidelity and lost treasures marked a ride Thursday aboard the Sea Jet as Cross Sound Ferry gave a preview to tourism and business officials of new lighthouse cruises that will start Saturday from its terminal in New London.

Hosted by former Navy man and sailor Ted Webb, the trips were inspired by annual lighthouse-cruise fundraisers for the East End Seaport Museum in Long Island that have been consistent sellouts, said Stanley Mickus, director of marketing and public affairs for the ferry service.

They will run from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays through Labor Day before tapering off to only Saturdays through Columbus Day.

"We've been talking about it for a couple of years," Mickus said. "We figured there was no better time than now."

As Mickus tells it, this is Cross Sound Ferry's first foray into sightseeing tours; the company had previously concentrated only on transporting passengers to Block Island, R.I., and Orient Point, N.Y. 

The Sea Jet high-speed ferry, with a capacity of 400 passengers, currently makes two runs in the morning and two at night, but had not been in use during afternoons when lighthouse cruises are now planned.

"A significant number of people like lighthouses and love to be out on the water," Mickus said.

And the waters near New London are teeming with lighthouses, islands and interesting historical sites.

Eight lighthouses — Avery Point Lighthouse, New London Harbor Light, New London Ledge Light, North Dumpling Lighthouse, Little Gull Lighthouse, Race Rock Lighthouse, Plum Island Lighthouse and Orient Point Lighthouse — are included on the tour, which costs $28 for adults and $14 for children.

Cruise information can be accessed at www.lighthouse.cruises.

What wasn't planned Thursday on the 32-mile trip were up-close views of two nuclear submarines — one arriving and another departing from the U.S. Naval Submarine Base — at the very beginning of the excursion near the mouth of the Thames River.

The Sea Jet had to slow down from its top speed of 35 miles per hour at one point to ensure that it was staying the required 500 yards away from a U.S. Navy vessel.

Sighting subs on the river gave narrator Webb a chance to riff on the region's ties to the sub base and Electric Boat shipyard, demonstrating, Mickus said, how important it is to have a live presentation.

Mickus discovered Webb, a resident of Orient, N.Y., knowledgeable about local history when he hosted similar tours for the Long Island museum that he once oversaw as chairman of the board.

"He is a natural," Mickus said, "and he loves doing it."

Among Webb's stories were the legend of a former lighthouse keeper at Ledge Light who nearly a century ago is said to have fallen or jumped from the building after his wife ran off with another man. His ghost is said to still inhabit the lighthouse.

Webb also talked about the legendary lost treasure of pirate William Kidd reputedly left in the late 1600s on Gardiners Island that he repeatedly tried to find without success during his youth in the 1950s.

Other highlights included a peek at North Dumpling Island in Fishers Island Sound, currently owned by famed entrepreneur Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway and a noted eccentric who erected a Stonehenge replica on site.

Kamen at one time talked about seceding from the United States when he was involved in a dispute with the government over the erection of a wind turbine and later signed a joking "non-agression pact" with President George H.W. Bush, naming his island the Kingdom of North Dumpling with its own constititution, flag and national anthem.

"This is the kind of thing we need," said ferry rider Mark Christiansen, whose family operates city-based Jan Electronics. "It's great for tourism."

"It's great for diversification," added Frank McLaughlin, a local real estate developer and economic-development activist.

"This is special," said Tony Sheridan, chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce of Eastern Connecticut. "Where else can you find this?"

Mickus said the Rhode Island tours he is familiar with have attracted lighthouse buffs from around the country.

He said the Cross Sound Ferry tours are meant to complement excursions offered by the New London Maritime Society, which actually brings people inside local lighthouses.

"We're promoting one another," Mickus said. "We're very different tours."

l.howard@theday.com

Twitter: @KingstonLeeHow