Mystic — Some of the boats with the best stories at Mystic Seaport Museum are rarely, if ever, seen by visitors.

These include Franklin D. Roosevelt's sailboat, author John Steinbeck's Boston whaler, a 20-foot fishing boat that carried two groups of Cuban immigrants to safety in Florida, a tiny rubber life raft that carried a man across the Atlantic for 76 days, and one of two lifeboats that brought Stonington resident Tod Johnstone and 12 others to safety in 1961 after their sail training vessel sank in a storm — the story told in the 1996 movie "White Squall."

These are just some of the 470 small boats in the museum's collection that typically are stored in its vast Collections Research Center, which is not open to the public.

Beginning Saturday, 18 of these boats and their stories will be on display in the Thompson Exhibition Building and across the museum's campus as the Seaport unveils a major new exhibit called "Story Boats: The Tales They Tell." It runs through Aug. 14.

During a tour of the exhibit Wednesday morning, Krystal Rose, the museum's curator of collections, said that being a summer show, the exhibit is "all about being on the water and the amazing stories tied to these boats."

Rose explained the museum is developing a plan to establish a watercraft hall open to the public in the Collections Research Center.

"So these stories (in Story Boats) give people a sampling of the great stories and boats in that collection," she said. "We wanted to do something that reflects the future of the watercraft hall."

Accompanying each of the boats are not only panels that tell their stories, but artifacts, photographs and video connected to each of them.

Ten of the boats are in the Thompson building and eight on the grounds. Also in the Thompson building is a rack with 10 more small boats. Scanning a QR code will allow visitors to read their stories.  

Among the boats on display are:

The Vireo, which Roosevelt used to teach his children how to sail at the family summer home on Campobello Island, New Brunswick, Canada. It was after a day of sailing aboard the Vireo in 1921 that Roosevelt contracted polio. He never sailed Vireo again. Also on display is a wheelchair Roosevelt had used. 

Patsy Green, a canoe that couple Henry and Elizabeth Wood used to paddle 900 miles from New York City to Nova Scotia in 1908. Artifacts include the camping gear they brought along for the trip.

A six-man Avon life raft like the one used by Steve Callahan who in 1982 survived for 76 days after his boat in the Mini Transat yacht race sank in the Atlantic. Artifacts on display include the diary he kept in a Tupperware container, the sextant he made out of pencils to chart his location, his watch and a large recreation of the map he made charting his voyage, which ended when he was found by three fishermen off Marie-Galante in the Caribbean. There's also photos of him with the three fishermen and the blue pants he was given when he was found. He lost a third of his body weight during the 76 days and he recounted his journey in a bestselling book, “Adrift: 76 Days Lost at Sea.”

The 20-foot-long Analuisa, which in 1994 left Cuba with 19 family members and a small dog aboard on their way to Florida. After about 18 hours at sea they were picked up by the crew of the Carnival cruise ship Ecstasy and brought to Key West. Abandoned at sea, four other men fleeing Cuba miraculously came upon the drifting Analuisa after the engine on their small boat failed. They then made their way to Key West. The Day traveled to Florida in 2000 to chronicle the story of the people aboard the Analuisa.

Among the artifacts are a shirt worn by a man on the boat, a drinking cup used during the voyage, a life jacket given to them by the cruise ship and a religious statue the family gave to the museum when they came years later to see the Analuisa. There are also photographs of the rescue by a family who was aboard the cruise ship.

Gerda III, a Danish lighthouse supply ship that smuggled Jews out of Denmark to Sweden after Nazis invaded during World War II.

One of the two lifeboats that 13 teenagers and crew members used in 1961 after the sail training vessel Albatross, which had embarked from Mystic Seaport, was struck by a downburst west of the Dry Tortugas in the Gulf of Mexico and quickly sank.  Two crew members and four teens were lost. One of the teens who survived was Tod Johnstone of Stonington. 

Acadia, the 21-foot sailboat that Clay Burkhalter of Stonington raced 4,000 miles solo from France to Brazil during the 2007 Mini Transat race. He became only the fifth American at the time to finish the dangerous race.

Tango, a 24-foot pedal boat that Dwight Collins of Darien powered across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to England in 40 days in 1992.

j.wojtas@theday.com