There’s an old Pequot legend About the day the Wamauraugnog became angry with a Pequot maiden named Grotonoawig because she refused to give up her human form and become his concubine. In venting his anger the Wamauraugnog thrashed about with such violence that the Thames River was created — although back then the Pequots named it Wamauraugnogisoakay, which means Holy Snapperblue in Pequot, but was shortened to Thames 200 years later by English settlers who were very lost and didn’t know they were no longer in England.
 
But to continue, Wamauraugnog’s anger also included a curse that has lasted to this day. It was explained in Pequot lore that on the day a non-Pequot attempted to settle on the east bank of the Wamauraugnogisoakay the curse would cause those living on the west bank and the east bank to become confused often, and in their confusion they would forget on which side of the Wamauraugnogisoakay they happened to be.
 
It is this curse that is believed to be the cause of the United States Naval Base at New London to actually be on the east bank in Groton.