Mystic Seaport was first settled in the mid-1700s.
It is situated on the Mystic River halfway between New York and Boston. By the 1800s it was a thriving ship building center,launching hundreds of ships into the Mystic river.

Some of these ships became famous.

Hero
A 47-foot sloop carried Stonington native Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer to his discovery of Antarctica in 1820.

David Crockett
A Clipper Ship whose average speed around Cape Horn to San Francisco was never equaled.

Mystic Seaport was instrumental in the North winning the Civil War.
Mystic produced a greater number of ships than any other port of her size in the U.S. during that time.

As shipbuilding waned in the late 1800s textile mills took over as the areas main industry.

Founding of the Museum and Preservation Society
In 1929, a group of men interested in preserving the maritime past of the region founded the Marine Historical Association to preserve examples of New England's maritime heritage. It acquired its first historic vessel in 1931. By the 1970s most of the Museum's infrastructure was in place and was renamed Mystic Seaport in 1978.

The Charles W. Morgan is an 1841 whaling ship.
She is the world's last surviving wooden whaler.

Charles W. Morgan is a National Historic Landmark and has appeared in several Movies and Television shows.

The Morgan sailed the seas for 80 years before being retired in 1921.
Luckily she was preserved and never fell into serious disrepair.

In 1941 she was moved to Mystic Seaport were she remains today.

She is open to the public daily and you can even go below decks to see how sailors once lived.
The museum does living reenactments of what it was like to live and work on a whaling ship.
These demonstrations change often so you are likely to see something different every time you visit.