Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

We spent a very enjoyable day exploring the museum located at Vergennes (Basin Harbour), Vermont.
It was fascinating to learn about the area's rich history; the Revolutionary Way 1776 (War of Independence) and the War of 1812.  We also saw evidence of the 300 historic shipwrecks that still lay in the depth of the lake.
Located on the museum's dock is a working replica of the 1776 Revolutionary War gunboat "Philadelphia" alongside several other historic water-craft and replicas all of which were constructed on the museum grounds by volunteers.
We learned about how the area experienced a very prosperous commercial period in the 1800s helped substantially by the opening of the Champlain canal in 1823.  By the late 1840s goods could travel south through the Champlain canal to the Hudson River (New York city), westbound to the Great Lakes via the Erie canal and north to the St. Lawrence River via the Chambly canal.
In the museum we viewed video footage of the 1776 gunboat "Spitfire" which sits intact in 300 feet of water.  The museum has done extensive research to find a method to preserve this very significant national treasure especially now that zebra mussels have entered the lake.
The original 1776 gunboat "Philadelphia" was raised from the lake bottom and is on display in the Smithsonian while the "Spitfire" remains preserved by the cold lake water.
The museum has been instrumental in locating, cataloguing and preserving the lake's underwater history.
Seven dive sites throughout the lake have been marked as "underwater historic preserves".  These locations offer divers the opportunity to view 19th century wrecks.