Some History:
In the spring of 1776 the British had a force of 10,000 men in place with plans to divide the American Colonies in half by taking control of Lake Champlain and driving down the Hudson River Valley thus splitting the colonies. Though the summer of 1776 American forces frantically raced to build a Naval fleet for the lake. On October 11, 1776 a squadron on fifteen hastily built American warships commanded by Benedict Arnold engaged a superior British fleet. The resulting cannon battle lasted for 5 hours with the American force loosing 2 boats, ten percent of there man power and being blockaded by the British. This battle was known as "The Battle of Valcour Island" . Desperate, Arnold and his officers planned a daring night time retreat past the British blockade.

Under the cover of darkness with oars silenced by greased rags, Arnold's fleet of gun boats slipped past the British fleet. Arnold continued to fight on for three more days before retreating to Fort Ticonderoga.

The Recovery:
Due to the invasion of Lake Champlain by the non native zebra mussel a Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM) team directed by Art Cohn and consisting of veteran lake researchers Fred Fayette and Peter Barranco, collaborating with Middlebury College geologists Patricia and Tom Manley, initiated a lake wide sonar survey In 1996.

Early in the1997 search effort the LCMM team located a sonar contact. Art Cohn took a dive to investagate the new find. Upon surfacing Art told the other team members "We have found the missing gun boat !". The team believes that one of Arnold's gun boats sank during the night time retreat.