USS Philadelphia (1776)
Model of Philadelphia as built
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| History | |
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| Name: | Philadelphia |
| Namesake: | City of Philadelphia |
| Builder: | Hermanus Schuyler |
| Laid down: | July 1776 |
| Launched: | August 1776 |
| Completed: | August 1776 |
| Fate: |
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| Status: | On public display |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Gundalow |
| Displacement: | 29 long tons (29 t) |
| Length: | 53 ft (16 m) |
| Beam: | 15 ft (4.6 m) |
| Draft: | 2 ft (0.61 m) |
| Depth: | 4 ft (1.2 m) |
| Complement: | 45 |
| Armament: |
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PHILADELPHIA (Gundalow)
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Philadelphia on display at the National Museum of American History
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| Location | 14th St. and Constitution Ave., NW Washington, D.C. |
| Built | 1776 |
| Architect | Hermanus Schuyler |
| Architectural style | Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000852 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | 15 October 1966 |
| Designated NHL | 20 January 1961 |
USS Philadelphia is a gunboat (referred to in contemporary documents as a gundalow or gondola) of the Continental Navy. Manned by Continental Army soldiers, she was part of a fleet under the command of General Benedict Arnold that fought the 11 October 1776 Battle of Valcour Island against a larger Royal Navy fleet on Lake Champlain. Although many of the American boats in the battle were damaged in the battle, Philadelphia was one of the few actually sunk that day. On the days following the main battle, most of the other boats in the American fleet were sunk, burned, or captured. She is one of a few such vessels used during the American Revolutionary War to be raised.
In 1935, amateur military marine archaeologist Lorenzo Hagglund located her remains standing upright at the bottom of Lake Champlain, and had her raised. Bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution in 1961, Philadelphia and associated artifacts are part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History, in Washington, D.C., where curator Philip K. Lundeberg was responsible for arranging her initial display. The vessel is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a National Historic Landmark.
The American Revolutionary War, which began in April 1775 with the Battles of Lexington and Concord, widened in September 1775 when the Continental Army embarked on an invasion of the British Province of Quebec. The province was viewed by the Second Continental Congress as a potential avenue for British forces to attack and divide the rebellious colonies, and was at the time lightly defended. The invasion reached a peak on December 31, 1775, when the Battle of Quebec ended in disaster for the Americans. In the spring of 1776, 10,000 British and German troops arrived in Quebec, and General Guy Carleton, the provincial governor, drove the Continental Army out of Quebec and back to Fort Ticonderoga.
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