The Land Tortoise: North America's Oldest Intact Warship

Below the surface of Lake George, in about one hundred five feet of cold fresh water, rests the oldest intact warship in North America. It is called the Land Tortoise, and it has been sitting on the bottom since the autumn of seventeen fifty-eight.

The Land Tortoise was a radeau, a flat-bottomed floating artillery battery about fifty feet long, built in a matter of weeks by provincial militia forces during the French and Indian War. It carried seven cannon ports and was designed to provide heavy fire support on the lake. That autumn, the British forces decided to sink their fleet rather than risk it falling to French raiding parties during the winter. The Land Tortoise was never raised.

More than two centuries later, in nineteen ninety, underwater archaeologists discovered it in remarkable condition. The cold, fresh, deep water had preserved its wooden hull almost perfectly. The site was designated a National Historic Landmark and a state-protected underwater preserve. Divers can visit by permit. The lake above you holds a piece of the Seven Years War exactly as it came to rest.