The Gondola Philadelphia and the Battle of Lake Champlain

A veteran of the American Revolutionary War, the Philadelphia is the oldest intact warship on display in North America. After its recovery from the bottom of Lake Champlain in 1935, the fifty-four foot long vessel, armed with three cannon and eight swivel guns, was moved to the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution. The Philadelphia testifies to the heroic struggle between a hastily built fleet of American warships and an overwhelmingly superior British fleet on Lake Champlain in 1776. Although the Americans were defeated and the Philadelphia was sunk, the shipbuilding race and naval contest of which the gondola was a part delayed the British invasion, giving the Americans time to muster a defense that resulted in the British defeat at Saratoga in 1777. In this work, John R. Bratten details the gunboat’s history, construction, armament, tools, utensils, personal items, and rigging elements. Through his careful analysis, Bratten offers modern readers a glimpse of the naval battles that ultimately helped to win the independence of our democratic nation.