MYSTIC, Conn. — Mystic Seaport is a cool nautical illusion.

Yes, the collection of sailing ships, wharves, shipyards, galleries and exhibits is real, but Mystic Seaport is a man-made creation.

There never was a port at the site of the 17-acre complex along the Mystic River that calls itself Mystic Seaport — The Museum of America and the Sea.

That's a pretty sweeping title, but Mystic Seaport produces. It is a world-class maritime museum and a major tourist attraction halfway between Boston and New York City.

It attracts more than 320,000 visitors a year and is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Connecticut, after the ultra-popular Mohegan Sun and Foxwood casinos.

Mystic Seaport, with 510 boats and ships in its collections, is the largest maritime museum in the United States.

You can tour the displays, galleries and exhibits ashore and, in season, join in on-the-water cruises from the historical complex, which has 60 authentic maritime buildings.

Mystic Seaport features a re-created 19th-century seafaring village with cobblestone streets. It is complete with the sights, sounds and smells of maritime America and how people are connected to the sea.

Visitors can meet craftspeople, coopers, shipsmiths, storytellers, woodcarvers, musicians and chanteymen in and outside the waterfront shops.

It provides visitors with a look at shipbuilding, life at sea and ashore, sailing skills, New England fishing and more.

You can learn how rope was made, see how coopers made barrels in which to transport goods, visit a sail loft in which sails are made and inspect a chandlery where items are sold for departing ships.

See how sailors used the stars to navigate, and admire ships' ornate carved figureheads and highly prized scrimshaw or whale ivory.

There is a children's museum, a planetarium, a full-service restaurant, a bookstore with serious nautical offerings and shops. There is even a 19th-century shipyard, where authentic repairs can be made to keep Mystic Seaport's flotilla afloat.

Mystic Seaport's historical collections include more than 2 million artifacts and more than 1 million vintage maritime images.

In addition, there are more than a thousand ships' registries, 600 taped oral interviews, 200 videotaped interviews and a million-and-a-half feet of maritime film footage.

Mystic Seaport's biggest attraction is the old whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, a 113-footer built in 1841.

The wooden ship is the last of its kind in the world and a National Historic Landmark. Built in New Bedford, Mass., the ship made 37 whaling voyages over her 80-year career.

It took three to five years to kill the 50 whales needed to fill its hold with whale oil.

In 1886, the Morgan moved to San Francisco and cruised the Pacific Ocean in search of whales until 1903. She then returned to New England in the waning days of the whaling industry. The ship was retired in 1921.

It has been restored to the way it looked about 1900, complete with its double-topsail bark rig. The mainmast towers 110 feet above the deck.

There are pots on deck to boil blubber to produce the oil, and harpoons and blubber cutters, among other tools.

The vessel is scheduled to be removed from the water in the fall of 2007 for a $3.5 million renovation that will take three years.

Other attractions include a model of the Mystic River.

But the vintage ships are really the centerpiece, the heart, of Mystic Seaport.

You can take 30-minute cruises aboard the wooden coal-fired steamboat Sabino. It was built in 1908 to serve as a Maine ferry. There are also 90-minute late afternoon cruises on the Sabino. Call (860) 572-5351.

The 80-foot schooner Amistad — a re-creation of the ship whose story was told in Steven Spielberg's 1997 film, "Amistad" — was built at Mystic Seaport from 1998-2000.

The film is about the 1839 rebellion by 53 captive Africans against slave traders. They stood trial for murder and piracy, and their case fueled Northern abolitionists.

The vessel is operated by Amistad America, a separate nonprofit group, but anchored at Mystic Seaport.

The tall ship L.A. Dunton, a 123-foot schooner, was built in 1921 and was used to fish for cod off the New England coast. It was one of the last unmotorized fishing vessels of its kind in the United States.

Mystic Seaport features lots of fishing boats.

You can learn to sail aboard the Brilliant, a 61-foot schooner built in 1932. It is a classic sailing yacht.

The tall ship Joseph Conrad, built in 1882 and 111 feet long, is also on exhibit.