laststandonzombieisland

The future museum’s physical footprint is taking shape. Elevator shafts are now in place, and electrical and utility work is actively underway. These milestones represent real progress toward opening day.

When finished, the 80,000 sq. ft. museum in New London, built in the shadow of the USGCA and its training barque, “America’s Tall Ship,” USCGC Eagle, will host more than 200 galleries covering the service going back to 1790.

I think they have enough room to host the USCGC Reliance, which is set to strike in a couple of years, and has an amazing history. At 210 feet oal, she is almost pocket-sized compared to other museum ships that are out there. Plus, rather than most potential museum ships that have been in mothballs gathering rust for decades, she is still in active service and looks great, even with 61 years on her hull.

The crew of U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Reliance (WMEC 615) interdicts a low-profile vessel carrying more than $5 million in illicit narcotics in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, Feb. 15, 2024. Patrolling in support of Joint Interagency Task Force-South, the Reliance crew stopped two drug trafficking ventures, detaining six suspected traffickers and preventing nearly 4,000 pounds of cocaine and 5,400 pounds of marijuana, worth more than $57 million, from entering the United States. (U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy of Reliance)

The location has a lot of potential, being just a half-mile from I-95, inside Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor route, which brings 11 million passengers a year through the city, and near the ferry to Orient Point, New York that has some 1.3 million passengers annually.

Here’s to its success!