Raising the Spitfire

Nautical Archeologist Art Cohn recommends in a new book a plan that would raise Benedict Arnold’s Revolutionary War gunboat, Spitfire, from the bottom of Lake Champlain. The multi-year, multi-million dollar recommendation would preserve the historic gunboat over several years at a Lake Champlain Maritime Museum conservation lab with plans to then make the gunboat the centerpiece of a new exhibition or museum on the New York side of the lake. Cohn believes it could take as many as 20-years and cost more than 40-million dollars to make the plan reality. The next step will be to send the proposal on to the U.S. Navy for approval.
Watch our interview with author Nat Philbrick who has written a new book on the Battle of Valcour and Arnold’s heroics in what historians say was one of the greatest naval battles in the history of the United States: https://youtu.be/tDsmGzfJr4o