Clinton County Historical Association
'Accident reconstruction 1776'
PLATTSBURGH | Ink on the Declaration of Independence was barely three months dry when muskets blared, and cannons boomed off Valcour Island's rocky shore. Remnants of the first Revolutionary War naval battle fought on Lake Champlain almost 250 years ago scattered into Valcour Bay waters. The Battle of Valcour on Oct. 11, 1776, saw fierce fire that continued down the lake to Crown Point until Oct. 13, when the British turned back north.
The engagement on Lake Champlain was the earliest fought by a newly supplied U.S. Navy. A total 120 sailors -- 40 British and 80 American patriots -- were killed in the three-day clash. When it was over, bits and pieces of wartime life and death settled into thick silt. Hundreds of fiery artifacts from the Revolution have cooled in murky silence for centuries.
The burned hull of the Royal Savage, an American prize-of-war, lingered over 150 years near an island point before it was raised. The gondola gunboat Philadelphia was recovered from the lake in 1935. But the lake kept other stories hidden until a chance dive, and a hand pressed into a mucky cannon barrel in 1999.
Over 25 years of archaeological diving and historic research since have brought a richly human view of America's fight for independence into focus.
VALCOUR BAY RESEARCH PROJECT
New York State Police Diver Edwin Scollon, now retired, was practicing underwater skills on July 15, 1999.
"I was very much into diving and becoming proficient," he said in a recent interview. "Our dive team would recover things for evidence in ongoing investigations, and we would train on our own time with the equipment. That's what I was doing. I had been personally diving in the area and interacting with divers for a number of years and became aware of the possibility of running into something of historic value.
"Then I came across this cannon. It was deep. It was deep in the mud. I was barely able to get my hands on it," he said.
Scollon had unknowingly located a large fragment of U.S. history, the biggest piece of a cannon from the gondola gunboat New York. Flat boats powered by sail, gondolas were loaded with a large cannon at the bow and two smaller cannons midships on either side.
"In reaching down into it, I made an obvious sign it was there," Scollon said of his signals to fellow divers.
He didn't know yet, but he uncovered a major piece of evidence from an explosion in 1776 that killed the gunboat's Lt. Thomas Rogers and injured Sgt. Jonas Holden.
The discovery sparked the Valcour Bay Research Project, coordinated by Scollon and Arthur Cohn, co-founder and now director emeritus of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum (LCMM). Scollon went directly to Cohn for advice on artifact recovery, and within six weeks, they began mapping.
The ensuing seven years of underwater exploration, documentation and recovery followed guidance from the U.S. Navy with LCMM archaeological divers, a distinguished team of North Country volunteer divers, the U.S. Coast Guard and the New York State Museum. LCMM archaeologists developed conservation plans to raise some of the artifacts. They found all but one piece of New York's shattered cannon. Military artifacts on American battlefields are technically still property of the U.S. Armed Services.
DIVE PROJECT REUNION
A reunion of divers this winter brought Valcour Bay Research Co-Principals Scollon and Cohn to the Clinton County Historical Society. The express goal was a group photo of some of the team that measured grids, sifted muck, documented artifacts and recovered evidence from Valcour Bay's historic underwater battleground.
The photo will be part of a new Battle of Valcour Bay exhibits and includes Roger Harwood, Jerry Forkey, Greg DuRocher, Dan Rock, Matt Booth, Bill Leege, Steve Nye, Tony Tyrell and Danny Carpenter.
Begun in August 1999, Valcour Bay Research continues uncovering historic details to this day.
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ACCIDENT RECONSTRUCTION 1776
Diver and historian Ed Scollon presented some of his ongoing research to his peers at the Clinton County Historical Association Valcour Bay Research gathering. A recent summary he's titled "Accident Reconstruction, 1776" builds from data and maps made in the grid search. He viewed the gunboat New York's calamity in Valcour Bay as an accident scene.
Scollon shared underwater footage of the cannon barrel, a six-pound length found intact.
"When I got a hold of this thing, the first thing I did was panic, because I made a big hole," he said. His hand slipped into the cannon.
Working in precise grid search methods, Scollon and the team created a survey map to mark where cannon pieces and other debris landed in the lake.
"We knew we were working on the site of a gondola," he said. "Like in an accident reconstruction, you look for the same model (vessel). And we had the Philadelphia, a whole boat brought up in 1935 from Valcour Bay."
The Philadelphia has been studied in great detail, he said, "so we could put this boat into scale with our map."
Military records show the New York had one nine-pounder cannon at the bow and two six-pounders on its side: Scollon knew the six-pound cannon blew up broadside.
Based on the location of fragments and other debris recovered, Scollon assessed how the New York turned for cover.
"What they're doing is they're throwing out the stuff (heavy materiel) that's to the left of the gun," he said, pointing to a map showing the New York's retreat. Debris is scattered around the path. "They're clearing the deck so they can use the sweeps (oars)."
A Hessian captain by the name of George Pausch, Scollon said, described how "gondolas would come out of a small bay at the island, firing rapidly and effectively, and every now and then they would disappear to catch a breath by going back to the bay."
It appears, Scollon said, that's what the New York did after the cannon blew up.
"There was also a lot of injured people on this boat," Scollon said. "The Enterprise was a hospital boat that was back behind them. So they could have been going there to take care of their wounded."
The gondola New York itself survived the blast. "The New York was the only gondola that made it back to Ticonderoga," Scollon said. "And I think the reason that it did, Arnold had said (at Schuyler Island) that all of the officers with the exception of the caption were dead. They didn't have a fighting command on board. And I think that accident happened early, pulling the New York out of action, saving it a lot of additional stress that other gondolas went through."
CANNON CRACK
Scollon shared images indicating how well the cannon pieces they recovered still fit together.
"The only thing that we're missing is the trunnion, the pivot that the gun sat on," he said.
That missing part may have been spotted last summer as Chris Dostal with a team from the Texas A&M Nautical Archaeology Program were in Valcour Bay searching for artifacts still missing from the Philadelphia. Scollon joined the dive expedition last year to assist with an eye for further Valcour Bay research. He told dive colleagues at CCHA that they didn't bring the trunnion up because it was just outside of the archaeological permit area.
Scollon consulted with a Swedish cannon historian Nico Brinck, who readily identified the New York cannon's brand and era. Discussion with Brinck was in 2023, well into things, Scollon said.
"When they forged these things, they forged them with the muzzle up."
The emblem on the recovered cannon displays a backwards D and a B.
"It's for the name Gillis DeBesche, from Navekvern, Sweden. Most of the guns made from 1630 on were from the Netherlands and Sweden."
The Navekvern, Sweden foundry was one of many smaller sites built to fill demand, Scollon learned.
"This particular marking on this gun put it between 1694 and 1708," he said. The gun was 70 years old when placed on the gunboat in Lake Champlain.
Scollon also noticed a bracket designed to hold the cannon on its mount was modified to put a six-pound gun on a nine-pound carriage.
"They constructed this bracket and sandwiched a piece of lead to hold it in place. It's called a cap square," he said. "What you have is a Frankenstein carriage."
Guns are built proportionately to their bore, he said, explaining how the barrel sustains pressure in recoil as the carriage presses up on its trunnions.
"Of all the pieces that we had found, we didn't have cracks," Scollon said. "But when we were conserving the muzzle -- right there's the crack," he said, pointing to a photo of the defect that likely caused the explosion.
"And it's right at the base, the shoulder of that trunnion. So probably (the crack) was out of sight and they didn't see it."
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'KEY TO LIBERTY'
Over seven years, Valcour Bay Research Project divers covered 5.6 acres of Valcour Bay bottom with 43 participating divers logging 1,317 dives. A total 51 people participated in the survey.
The largest piece of the historic cannon was raised on June 30, 2001. In its 2001 survey report to the U.S. Naval Historical Center and the New York State Museum, LCMM credited recovery to "the extraordinary support of numerous partners." An event held to raise the cannon coincided with the 225th year of the Battle of Valcour.
"The formal raising brought (former) Senators Patrick Leahy and Hillary Clinton together to celebrate the extraordinary historical legacy contained under Lake Champlain. Partners in the recovery effort included the U.S. Coast Guard, Burlington Station and the Lake Champlain Transportation Company."
The historic collection with hundreds of Valcour Bay Research artifacts is held at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Basin Harbor. For many years, materiel has been displayed in an exhibit called "Rediscovering a Moment in Time."
But LCMM is reinterpreting Revolutionary War materials as a new exhibit to open in May. LCMM Director of Collections Patricia Reid said the new exhibit is "Key to Liberty," and thanked the divers and historians so vital to Valcour Bay Research.
Historic pieces of the exploded cannon from the gunboat New York, analysis of the explosion, dive stories and a virtual reality view of dives on the Spitfire are part of LCMM's new exhibit, which Reid said will focus solely on the three-day battle begun at Valcour Bay.
To view documents from Valcour Bay Research and remain apprised of opening dates: lcmm.org
A 3D printed replica of the New York gunboat's shattered cannon will be on display this summer at the Clinton County Historical Association Museum on Ohio Avenue. Visit the website for events and hours: clintoncountyhistorical.org
