Its proximity to the ocean will always be the most significant part of Groton's history. The 19th-century shipyards along the Mystic River produced some of the country's finest clipper ships. Land along the Thames River today remains home to the country's oldest submarine base and to the General Dynamics Electric Boat corporation, where the world's first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus, was built and first set sail. Today Nautilus is permanently berthed along the Thames in Groton at the Submarine Force Library and Museum. But Groton is a typical New England town as well. Within this volume, the town's evolution is traced from its agrarian roots in Center Groton and along the plains of Poquonnock to the devastation wrought by the Great Hurricane of 1938. It recalls some of Groton's great citizens, including two Civil War Medal of Honor winners and two Boston Marathon champions.
