Last week brought news of a generous donation of $100,000 from Cross Sound Ferry of New London to the The National Coast Guard Museum Inc., a wonderful commitment by the ferry company, not just to the service that does so much for mariners and the marine industry, but to its hometown.

No one questions the remarkable impact the new museum could have on New London.

I hope the ferry company's generosity serves as an example for a much bigger player in the industry that also hails in part from New London: Electric Boat.

Not only should EB follow suit, but the big defense contractor that lives off public money should add a few zeroes.

In fact, I am not privy to all the numbers, but I bet if EB made a donation comparable to Cross Sound's, based on a comparable percentage of gross revenues, it would be a very large number indeed.

EB could be the lead donor, here in its own backyard, for its corporate parent, General Dynamics, which owns one of three shipyards now bidding on $12 billion worth of Coast Guard shipbuilding for a new generation of offshore cutters.

I will leave it to more creative minds to think of a way to help New Londoners shame EB into making a generous donation for the National Coast Guard Museum.

Meanwhile, fundraising for the museum, it would seem, got another boost recently with the release of the trailer for the new Disney movie "The Finest Hours."

[naviga:iframe frameborder="0" height="240" scrolling="no" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/8I0ifMz5PbQ" style="outline: 0px; border: 0px currentColor;" width="320"] [/naviga:iframe]

This is the movie made from the excellent book by Michael J. Tougias and Casey Sherman about a remarkable and heroic 1952 rescue by the Coast Guard off Chatham, Mass., after two oil tankers split in two during a dangerous nor'easter.

Former Coast Guard Commandant Robert J. Papp Jr. actually recommended the book during his appearance here back in 2014 for the signing of the agreement to build the new museum in New London.

Papp also said he has an agreement that the wooden lifeboat used in the rescue and featured in the new Disney movie may be displayed periodically here in New London. The lifeboat, CG36500, already has been here once.

"The Finest Hours" trailer seems to do justice to the fine book. In fact, some critics are suggesting the movie may be a blockbuster in the making.

The book makes Coast Guard heroism plain. The notion that the Coast Guard crew from the Chatham rescue station would head out in a little boat into the teeth of a storm, with little hope of returning, is hard to imagine.

To think that they brought 62 survivors back alive with them to Chatham is, well, the stuff of a Hollywood movie.

But it's what the Coast Guard does. In 1952 they did it in a little wooden lifeboat. Today, they jump out of helicopters, sometimes into seas roiled by hurricane winds, with no tether, if someone needs help.

That's what they did during Hurricane Sandy, to rescue most of the crew of the Bounty after it began sinking in the storm after leaving New London.

It's hard to imagine, if you passed a hat for fundraising for a museum showcasing Coast Guard bravery after a screening of "The Finest Hours," how it wouldn't come back full.

My favorite story about the writing of the book was the interview one of the authors had with Bernie Webber, the commander of CG36500, just days before he died at the age of 80.

Webber sent the authors a picture of the lifeboat, which by then had been restored by Cape Cod volunteers. It is now on the National Register.

"Guys — here's your boat," he wrote to the authors. "If a movie is made, she'll be ready, just like brand new. I won't be around but give her a kiss for me!"

The movie is scheduled to be released in January.

Maybe the good folks at New London's Garde Arts Center could begin to make a pitch to have a premiere of the movie here, the future home of the museum that will be dedicated to brave Coast Guard rescuers like Bernie Webber, who didn't hesitate to risk his own life to save others.

Maybe someone could make Jeffrey S. Geiger, the president of Electric Boat, sit in the front row.

This is the opinion of David Collins.

d.collins@theday.com

Twitter: DavidCollinct