Philadelphia

Type

Gunboat

Period

18th Century

Nation

United States

Overview: The gunboat Philadelphia is the oldest surviving American fighting vessel, one of eight (some sources say fifteen) hastily built gundalows (also called gundelos or gondolas) assembled for Benedict Arnold's makeshift Lake Champlain fleet in the summer of 1776. She is the only extant Continental Navy/Army gunboat built and manned by American forces during the Revolutionary War. Specifications: The vessel is a flat-bottomed, shallow-draft gondola roughly 53-54 ft long with a 15.5 ft beam and about 2 ft draft, displacing around 29 tons. Armament comprised three carriage guns (one 12-pounder and two 9-pounders) plus eight swivel guns, and while rigged with a square sail and topsail on a single mast, she relied primarily on sweeps/oars for maneuvering in the lake's narrow reaches. Service History: Built at Skenesborough (present-day Whitehall, New York) in only a few weeks during mid-1776, Philadelphia joined Arnold's flotilla defending Lake Champlain against a British force built in Canada. She fought at the Battle of Valcour Island on October 11, 1776, was badly damaged, and sank roughly an hour after the engagement, coming to rest upright on the lake bottom. Notable Facts: In 1935 the Philadelphia, remarkably well preserved by the cold water, was identified and salvaged from the sandy lake bottom near the mid-channel of Valcour Bay, along with hundreds of relics including utensils, tools, buttons, buckles, and human bones. Salvager Lorenzo Hagglund exhibited the wreck around the Lake Champlain region for years before it came to the Smithsonian; it was recovered with much of its equipment intact and came to the Museum in 1964, complete with the 24-pound ball that sent the gunboat to the bottom. As of the mid-2020s the Smithsonian has undertaken a major conservation project on the hull and ironwork, visible to museum visitors, ahead of the U.S. 250th anniversary; a separate scale model of the Philadelphia is also displayed at the National Museum of the U.S. Navy.