Submarine Force Museum

Stopped in on a rainy afternoon. Glad we did. Very interesting. As stated in other reviews, it’s a self-​guided tour so you can set your own pace. There are employees to answer your questions and they were all very polite and informative. Touring the sub was the highlight of the visit. I would recommend this museum to anyone who has even the slightest interest in submarines. And, a big thank you to all our servicemen and women who keep us safe!

Someone at Groton told me to check this place out. It’s a small museum but with a lot to see! I didn’t know submarines could be so interesting. It’s also free, but donations are Welcomed! Definitely Should check out this place if in the area.

I can’t get enough of this place. Museum, and all of its displays and artifacts are topnotch. And to actually tour and be inside a real submarine is a treat for both the young and old. And most importantly, an excellent tribute to all of our submariners, past and present.

Amazing place. Lots of information. Actually walk thorough a submarine. I’m a little claustrophobic but it was not too bad. You can walk through the submarine in less than 10 mins or take 40 mins looking at the details.

Touring an active submarine is always fun! You can’t push any buttons or touch any controls but you do learn a lot walking through walkways that submariners once ran through while underway. Walking through the museum is also enlightening. So much history is flowing through those halls. Don’t forget your camera! You can take pictures from atop the submarine too! The sailors and volunteers are very pleasant and can answer your questions.

My husband and I were in CT for ten days with no real plan. We saw an ad for this and decided to go. We are so glad we did. This is worth a stop if in the area. First it is free. It is great for the value. They do take donations. We spent four hours here reading all the displays and watching the films. The highlight is walking through the sub which has an audio tour with it. The sub has some very tight quarter and not good for those with mobility issues. Everything is well done. I learned so much and my husband loved it. Gift shop has some cute items for sale as well. I can not recommend this place enough.

This is a fantastic museum! It is fairly large and holds a lot of exhibits. The museum and tour of the Nautilus is also FREE! That is a plus! My husband is starting off his career as a submariner and it was awesome to get a glimpse of life on a submarine. The actually tour on the Nautilus is self-​guided with headphones that give you a detailed description of each «room» you see. If you cannot handle small spaces, do not tour the Nautilus. It is tight, and can be crowded on a busy day.

This museum is great. It is very detailed and easy to get around. Also, it is free which is really nice and especially helpful on a vacation which can get costly. I chose not to go on the submarine itself because it was a little tight in there but there was enough to see in the museum that I was not disappointed. Also, there is a really pretty dock to wait on outside of the submarine that has a really nice breeze. My husband really enjoyed going on the submarine and seeing what the daily life is like. Overall, a great experience.

It was a fantastic informative museum. The information and the staff were so helpful that the trip was more informative than i thought that it could be. The exhibits and artifacts available for viewing was great.

The museum itself is well done and interesting/​informative, but the sub tour was a bad time — and it didn’t even seem to be a busy day! If you have the slightest anxiety about being in tight spaces don’t take this tour because you may find yourself jammed in with people pressing on you from the front and behind.
The wild unsupervised children climbing on all the exhibits didn’t help either.

The museum is large and contains 3 parts. You can see submarine replicas on the outside of museum. The scenery outside is beautiful, even on a rainy day.
Inside the museum, there are exhibits that you can scan and run an audio tour on your own smart phone. There is a movie that runs every hour on the hour and the exhibits include a second floor.
The third part of the museum was my favorite. You walk outside from the side the museum and into a real submarine. You pick up an audio tour device and walk throughout the various parts of the submarine on your own. I learned that the seamen in the submarine have the best food and coffee 24 hours a day!
The museum gift shop has enough for you to peruse and purchase something big or small.
Did I mention this entire place is free? Drop by and enjoy a leisure afternoon at this wonderful place.

If you’re a fan of Tom Clancy’s cold war era novels and you know what boomers and hunter-​killers** are, then you need to visit the Submarine Force Museum. You’ll learn about the technology behind «Hunt For Red October» and «Red Storm Rising» for real and about the special kind of sailors that willingly submerge themselves underwater inside a tube of steel. Just remember that submarines are called boats, not ships (Don’t ask me why, it’s a long story, so hit up Google for some FYI).
Connecticut has always been a patron of the Silent Service. Whether constructing nuclear boats at nearby General Dynamics Electric Boat or based at the USN Submarine Base, subs have been a part of the state since before WWI. So it is fitting that the museum was placed here in Groton, right on the eastern bank of the Thames River between the base and the shipyard. If you’re lucky, you might even spy a USN submarine heading out to sea for a months long patrol.
The history of the submarine is as long as the history of the USA. From the wooden Turtle of the 1770’s, to the Hunley of the Civil War era, to the modern day leviathans of the Ohio class missile subs, their history and artifacts are chronicled and stored here. Many underwater launched missiles, torpedoes, mines, depth charges and anything else that can be shot out of a sub are on display. They even have a full-​sized Polaris ballistic missile on display, split into its booster stages and multiple warhead bus. Moored outside on the river, is the treasure of their displays, the USS Nautilus, first nuclear powered submarine and first to travel under the North Pole ice cap. The self-​guided tour through the Nautilus transports you back to the 50’s, when she was built.
So if you’re roadtripping during the summer, this is a great stop just off of I-​95 on your way to Mystic, Providence, Cape Cod or Maine. And this doesn’t cost you a single penny to stimulate your brain cells.
Fun Fact: President Jimmy Carter is an ex-​USN submariner and the 3^rd (& final) boat of the Seawolf class (built at Electric Boat) was named in his honor.
**Boomer — SSBN, Nuclear Ballistic Missile Submarine
Hunter-​Killer — SSN, Nuclear Attack Submarine

My 6-​year old son was fascinated (rated a «best day ever»…but many do in one’s first 2,500 days), but this really is as good as it gets: a blend of tech, history, detailed models (several room-​size cutaways), and touchable «real things» (like periscopes that let you look around).

Really 4 ½ stars. We thoroughly enjoyed our fairly brief visit and could have spent more time. The amazing thing is this museum is no charge and staffed with pleasant retired navy personnel as well as current (at the Nautilus check in). The history is really amazing with lots of descriptive displays and interactive displays — using a periscope for instance. The tour of the Nautilus was the best part for me, being able to see the actual inside of a sub. Definitely visit if you are in the area.

My first time on a Submarine. It was a great museum and a great tour.

We visited the Submarine Force Museum last weekend, and it was a bit of a highlight of our trip. There is no charge to enter the museum, and we were greeted by James Mosley at the front desk, who, interestingly, is the first African-​American Medical Corpsman to graduate from the Naval Nuclear Power Engineering School and wrote a book about his life. He was so conversational and informative, I really could have just listened to his stories all day.
Then, we walked over to the USS Nautilus, because it was closing soon. As you walk towards the submarine, you realize what an impressive size, and an impressive sight, it is. We were greeted by a very friendly Navy officer, who handed us audio tour speakers. This next part is important: I went into the submarine for approximately 3 minutes, decided, somewhere around #2 on the audio tour, that I was too claustrophobic for this endeavor and started to panic (there’s also the matter of being in a cramped submarine with my in-​laws… I kid…), and climbed my way over people and a barrier to go back up the stairs. My husband and his parents toughed it out, and the entire thing lasted only 10 minutes. I was able to speak with the very friendly Navy officer, who was on his «shore duty» and was very knowledgable about the Nautilus.
After our submarine adventure, we walked through the museum. There are cool periscopes and models and a lot of neat things to look at. There is also a free audio tour inside, which was really cool to listen to.
There are full-​time active duty Navy officers throughout the museum who are very much up to a chat, which I found lovely.
We all really enjoyed the trip, and would recommend a visit here!

Let me just say that the Men of the Silent Service are truly heroic. I doubt that most of us would be able to handle living in the conditions that they do/​did. Absolutely crazy to say the least.
Pro Tip #1: Run Silent, Run Deep — The USSF motto
This museum illustrates to a T how absolutely special these men are. Just imagine living in a a tube about half to a full football field long (50 – 100 yds)! That is what these guys do daily. Literally there is very little room in these vessels. Its absolutely insane. The cramped enclosed quarters are completely foreign to any experience I bet you have ever had.
Pro Tip #2: You exit through the gift shop
The museum houses a number of actual and mock up displays showing various parts of submarines including the con, sonar, diving bells, rescue equipment, artillery, machine guns, torpedoes, etc. There are even rings to show the bulkhead sizes from the oldest to the newest subs. They have multiple floors in some cases but are still super cramped out of necessity.
Pro Tip #3: The artillery pieces that are out front actually allow you to track the barrels up and down and things like that. This was great fun for both the munchkin and I.
They also had a number of old mini subs outside showing how they progressed throughout history. However the star of the show is USN-​571, the Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine. You get to stroll through both decks and most of this submarine giving you a real appreciation for how cramped and crazy the inside of a sub really is. Let alone even though it seemed super tiny, when compared to older subs, this was as spacious a difference as going from a mini cooper to an escalade. This was definitely an eye opening history lesson for the munchkin and I. The self guided tour with the headset doohickey’s are very helpful and informative.
Pro Tip #4: The best for last, FREE PARKING, FREE ENTERENCE FEE, FREE TOUR, and ummm yeah everything was FREE except for things in the gift store and you couldn’t haul off any of the displays. Totes Awesome!
Overall this was a fantastic experience that both the munchkin and I absolutely loved. They also had penny smashers that had the penny included and took dollar bills in lieu of quarters and a penny.
Get your butt over here if you are anywhere nearby. It is a fantastic free adventure just waiting to happen!

It was Labor Day weekend and I am glad I got here early and did not make the wrong turn into the main gate as May A. did!
They opened at 9:00 A.M. And I noticed a bag piper warming up in the parking lot and then a lot of submarine veterans showing up. I later gathered that a memorial service complete with 21 gun salute was being held next to the Nautilus. I was surprised when I went into the Museum that it is staffed by full time active duty Navy personnel.
It is a 27,000 square foot facility and has the official responsibility as the official repository for both the records and history of the United States Submarine Force from it’s humble beginnings in the colonial days with Bushnell’s ‘Turtle’ to todays nuclear powered modern Navy global force.
Hanging in front of the museum are two rings suspended to show the cross section of the H-​1 Holland which was the US Navy’s first submarine to the present day Ohio submarine. They also have some interesting out door displays of the screws from the Nautilus tot he sail from the USS George Washington and a Polaris missile the USS George Washington carried in the background. There are three mini submarines in the front of the museum with the captured Japanese one lacking any type of placard or description of what it is. Inside there is a mock up of the first crude submarine the ‘turtle,’ various torpedo’s, a Polaris missile, as displays from WWI showing the development of the US Submarine Force over the many years.
I found the tour of the Nautilus very informative as you are given a wand audio and complete a U-​turn by going down the stairs into the torpedo room, the enlisted and officers wardrooms. There you will find a framed copy of the Jules Vern’s 20,000 Leagues under the sea presented to the ship on behalf of the French government on the accomplishment of the first nuclear submarine in 1955. I can only imagine how submarines have improved since then.
The nearby naval base is the home to the Atlantic’s «fast attack» submarines with the Nautilus and many others being built down the river at General Dynamics Electric Boat facility.
I completed my tour of the Nautilus before the memorial service got underway and touring the whole facility can be done in about two hours. As I departed the parking lot was close to full.
It is open Wednesday’s through Monday 9:00 A.M. To 5:00 P.M. And closed on Tuesday’s.

Sooo cool!
Great experience inside the USS Nautilus… gives you a real experience on how military life was inside the sub. Not a lot of room to do anything… everything was small including the sleeping quarters. The exhibits inside the museum were interactive, fun and educational. The best part is this museum is free! Had a scary experience on our way to the USS Nautilus in CT… entered the Naval Submarine Base New London by mistake and I took a picture of the name of the base and we were told to drive in and was asked for our ID’s :(
… after 5 min we were cleared and the military officer made me erase the pics that I took (I took ONE pic of the name of the base and it didn’t even turn out good). The USS Nautilus and Museum was next door. I’m just a tourist here who loves taking pictures, how was I supposed to know :-/

Very cool small museum with the history of the Naval submarines and those that served on them. They have replicas as well as actual submarines from the past and many models of all of the types. I really had no idea that the Navy has had so many subs or as long as they have.
They have one submarine, The Nautilus, that is sitting in the water that you can tour too.
It is located next to the Naval Submarine Base’s Main Entrance.
[Proud mom of a Navy Submariner]