At Vermont’s newest addition to the National Register of Historic Places, visitors are discouraged.
In fact, those in the know about the Revolutionary War gunboat the Spitfire won’t say exactly where it is – only that it’s on the bottom of Lake Champlain.
The Spitfire was sunk during the Battle of Valcour Island in 1776, an engagement lost by the American rebels, but which delayed by a year British plans to move from Canada down the Champlain and Hudson valleys and split the colonies in two.
The wreck was discovered in 1997 during sonar mapping of the lake. A replica of its sister ship, the Philadelphia, is on display at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Ferrisburgh.