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Archiver > GenConnecticut > 1997-07 > 0867883331


From: len bitetti< >
Subject: Revolutionary War Battle of Valcour Island
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 1997 14:42:11 -0800


In case any of you missed it, the following Associated Press article was
published in the Bakersfield Californian newspaper on Tuesday, July 1,
1997.

"Revolutionary War boat discovered largely intact

>Vessel was part of fleet led by Benedict Arnold before he betrayed the nation.

Ferrisburgh, Vt. (AP) - A Revolutionary War gunboat that was part of a
fleet commanded by Benedict Arnold before he turned traitor has been found
sitting upright at the bottom of Lake Champlain, astonishingly
well-preserved by the cold, deep water for the past 230 years.
The wooded vessel, which was either abandoned or scuttled by
retreating American forces after a losing 1776 battle against the British,
was found by a team scanning the lake for wrecks before they become
encrusted by a new invader, the tiny zebra mussel.
The 54-foot vessel, whose name is not yet known, is largely intact,
its mast still standing over 50 feet high and its large bow cannon still in
place, said Art Cohn, director of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum.
'This could prove to be the most significant maritime discovery in
American history in the last half-century,' said Philip Lundeberg, curator
emeritus of naval history at the Smithsonian Institution's American History
Museum. 'The apparently excellent condition of the gunboat is highly
unusual for an artifact this old and is one of the reasons the discovery is
so significant.'
No decision has been made yet on whether to raise the ship. Its exact
location and depth in the 115-mile-long lake between New York and Vermont
were not released.
The lake's cold water, up to 409 feet deep, is credited with
preserving a number of wrecks that have been found there in recent years.
Only four of the 15 boats commanded by Arnold survived the Battle of
Valcour Island on the lake and its aftermath in October 1776. One other
member of the fleet, the Philadelphia, was raised in 1935 and now sits in
the Smithsonian in Washington.
Cohn, lake historian Peter Barranco and others were scanning a section
of the lake in early June when a long-sought image appeared on the sonar
screen.
There was a mast, intact but for a small piece broken off the top.
There was a nearly two-ton bow gun. And it was a nearly exact copy of the
Philadelphia.
Cohn said that when he went down on the first dive to the ship, 'there
was a voice screaming in my head, 'Oh my God, this is the gunboat! Benedict
Arnold probably walked on this deck!''
While the Philadelphia was damaged and sunk during the battle, this
vessel apparently escaped.
It may have been hit during the engagement and then allowed to sink
after the crew stopped bailing. Or the Americans may have punched a hole in
it. The boat is sitting in mud, which obscures the hull.
Although the tiny fleet was defeated, it slowed the British advance
from Canada. When the British finally made it to the Hudson Valley south of
the lake the following spring, the Americans had been able to amass enough
troops to win what many historians have called the decisive battles of the
war.
Three years later, in 1780, newly married and strapped for cash to
maintain an extravagant lifestyle, Arnold began providing information to
the British and eventually joined British forces as a brigadier general.
A team headed by Cohn has been using sonar to scan for artifacts,
including ships sunk in storms and battles in the 18th and 19th centuries .
. . "

This story is going to be interesting to follow, particularly so to those
who have ancestors who served in the fledgling American Navy; this fleet;
and this gunboat in particular when it comes to light just which gunboat it
was.

If anyone finds more information, please let me know.

Len in Tehachapi, CA

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