Editing New London, Connecticut (section)

===19th century===

After the [[War of 1812]] began, the [[Royal Navy]] established a blockade of the [[East Coast of the United States]], including New London. During the war, American forces unsuccessfully attempted to destroy the British ship of the line [[HMS Ramillies (1785)|HMS ''Ramillies'']] while it was lying at anchor in New London's harbor with [[torpedo]]es launched from small boats. This prompted the captain of ''Ramillies'', [[Sir Thomas Hardy, 1st Baronet]], to warn the Americans to cease using this "cruel and unheard-of warfare" or he would "order every house near the shore to be destroyed". The fact that Hardy had been previously so lenient and considerate to the Americans caused them to abandon such attempts with immediate effect.<ref name="Lossing">{{Cite book |last=Lossing |first=Benson |url=https://archive.org/details/fieldbookswar181200lossrich |title=The Pictorial Field-Book of the War of 1812 |publisher=Harper & Brothers, Publishers |year=1868 |page=692 |oclc=1045378323}}</ref>

For several decades beginning in the early 19th century, New London was one of the three busiest [[whaling]] ports in the world, along with [[Nantucket]] and [[New Bedford, Massachusetts]].{{citation needed|date=January 2025}} The wealth that whaling brought into the city furnished the capital to fund much of the city's present architecture. The [[New Haven and New London Railroad]] connected New London by rail to New Haven and points beyond by the 1850s. The [[Springfield and New London Railroad]] connected New London to [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], by the 1870s.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Many distinctive structures built in the 19th century remain, but the [[First Church of Christ (New London, Connecticut)|First Church]] built in 1853 collapsed in January 2024.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Jacobs |first=Kenneth Franklin |date=2005 |title=Leopold Eidlitz: Becoming an American architect |url=http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1178 |access-date=June 2, 2024 |website=University of Pennsylvania Scholarly Commons |pages=153–155}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last1=Gendreau |first1=LeAnne |last2=Fortuna |first2=Angela |date=2024-01-26 |title=Historic New London church to be completely demolished after steeple collapse |url=https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/historic-new-london-church-will-need-to-be-demolished-after-steeple-collapse/3203459/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240920172330/https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/local/historic-new-london-church-will-need-to-be-demolished-after-steeple-collapse/3203459/ |archive-date=2024-09-20 |access-date=2024-06-02 |website=[[WVIT|NBC Connecticut]] |publisher=[[NBC Owned Television Stations|NBC]] |language=en-US}}</ref>