SPITFIRE (gunboat)

About this property

USS Spitfire was a 3-gun gundalow of the Continental Navy that operated in 1776 on Lake Champlain. She was part of Benedict Arnold's small, hastily built fleet of ships whose purpose was to counter any British invasion forces passing through the lake from Canada. Her service life was brief; after only a few months patrolling the lake she was lost in the aftermath of the Battle of Valcour Island. The gunboat's wreck was located and documented in the 1990s by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. American militia under Benedict Arnold and Ethan Allen had captured Fort Ticonderoga in 1775. Later that year these forces were involved in the invasion of Canada, but poor weather and timely arrival of British reinforcements caused the Americans to fall back to Fort Ticonderoga in May 1776. There they proceeded to build a gunboat fleet to help repel an expected British invasion. The British, under the command of General Guy Carleton, realized that they needed to control Lake Champlain in order to conduct a successful campaign in New York. Since area roads were usually poor quality (if they existed at all), lakes and rivers were important transport routes for both sides. By controlling Lake Champlain, British forces in Canada could potentially link up with forces in New York City and crush the rebellion in America.(Nelson 2006:39ff) Spitfire was one of eight gundalows built in Skenesborough (later renamed Whitehall). These gundalows, outfitted as gunboats, were built without plans though the shipwrights followed basic dimensions and instructions written by Benedict Arnold. The design of the American gunboats shows a balance between the need for rapid construction and effectiveness for their intended purpose. The gunboats all followed a common pattern. They were mostly decked over, with the middle third of the hull being open down to the bilge, thus dividing the deck into three sections. The low middle platform abaft the mast held the two broadside cannon (usually 9-pounders) and a fireplace. The guns were not opposite of each other in order to give more room to work them. The bow platform held the bow gun, usually a 9 or 12-pounder. Cannons were in short supply, so in the case of the gunboat Philadelphia the bow gun was of Swedish origin cast about 100 years earlier. The stern platform held the helmsman and officers. This platform also held two arms chests. The rail caps had sockets for oarlocks, pivot guns and stanchions for awnings. Later on, fascines were added to the rail caps for protection against small arms fire. The gunboats carried positions for 12 oars, 6 per side. The rigging consisted of a single mast with a square mainsail and a topsail. To counteract the weight of the bow gun, the stern area held stones for ballast. Due to their square sails and flat, shallow bottoms the gunboats could only sail in wind blowing from astern.(Chapelle 1949:110f; Delgado 2001:97f; Nelson 2006:235ff, 250f)

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Property data from the National Register of Historic Places, National Park Service (public domain).

Description adapted from Wikipedia under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

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