No one can dispute the good and learned efforts by so many dedicated men and women who presently support and provide direction for the new up and coming National Coast Guard Museum in New London. However, historical research indicates that a portion of the site was underwater!

The Day publication of, “Looking Back, Volume 1, page 42,” shows a photo taken in 1915 behind the train station during the Yale and Harvard regatta. The photo shows private vessels in an existing boat basin directly behind the train station. Aerial photos taken by the Fairchild Aerial Survey of New London in 1934 (online at CT Aerial Survey Finder Page 19340, photo No. 474) also shows that a portion the site was underwater. The boat basin was filled in at a later date.

Mandatory test borings may indicate that expensive pilings must be installed. The Pfizer complex located less than a mile away required months of structural pile work driven over time, for support.

The proud Coast Guard Motto is Semper Paratus (Latin: Always Ready). The directors seem to be ready to place the museum behind the train station but are they ready to incur extra costs for necessary structural work?

Never too late to send the design staff over to Fort Trumbull for a better location. 

William C. Bucko Sr.

Montville