hall for the retu rn trip. By the 1870s, the crew and an army of volunteers . Working schooner's effectiveness as a platform to towboat system had become so well es- seasonally from May until November, our stimulate an interest in history exceeded tablished that the advantage of the sailing shipyard was a dynamic, publicly-accessi- our every expectation. It was magic. It is rig no longer justified its extra costs and ble facility. By the end of 2003 we hosted the most effective program of historical they were no longer built. The canal it- more than 60,000 visitors, and the new interpretation that the Lake Champlain self proved remarkably successful and was canal schooner, modeled after two sub- Maritime Museum has ever produced. twice expanded before the turn of the cen- merged originals, was almost completed. In 2005, Lois McClure and her comtury. Each enlargement of the locks and In early July 2004, the new canal boat panion tugboat CL. Churchill will emcanal prism permitted a related canal boat was moved to its launching site. Engineered bark on a "Grand Journey" retracing the size expansion. By the twentieth century, to be a component of the City of Burling- traditional route of a Lake Champlain the advent of railroads and canal boat. She will travel changing patterns of trade through the Champlain eventually caused canal Canal to the Hudson Rivtraffic to decline. In a last er and New York City and gasp effort to return trade return. In their day, canal to the canal, the present boats moved the produce day New York State Barge of the farm to market, and Canal system was built this expedition is being between 1905-1915. Unappropriately sponsored fortunately for the canal by the farm families that proponents, the expanded own Cabot Creameries. system never met expecWe invite the public and Lois McClure, ambling along with Camel's Hump as a backdrop, schools to visit Lois Mctations. The automobile recreates a typical view ofthe region from over a century ago. would sound the death Clure during her Grand knell for the region's canal PHOTO BY BENJAMIN BREWSTER Journey and experience boats. the days when wooden Over the past three decades, dozens ton's Independence Day celebrations, the canal boats and their families provided a of canal boats have been fo und on the launch attracted more than 10,000 people connection to our communities. .t bottom of Lake Champlain. That schoo- to witness and share the event. The weathner located in 1980, General Butler, was er was perfect, the speeches short, and the Arthur B. Cohn is the cojounder and studied extensively, as have several of the schooner's transition to the water flaw- Executive Director of LCMM. He is an adother fourteen sailing canal boats which less. With the assembled crowd clapping junct professor of nautical archaeology at the have been located in the lake. Derailed and cheering, Lois McClure, the fi rst canal Univeristy of Vermont and the Institute of construction information taken from schooner launched into Lake Champlain Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M. He these wrecks allowed nautical archaeolo- in more than a century, was guided to its has been the coordinator ofthe Lake Champgists to create accurate plans of these hy- new homeport at historic Perkins Pier for lain Underwater Preserve since its inception brid vessels. When Mac McClure, one of its final fitting out. in 1985. The plan for the rest of 2004 was to Vermont's leading philanthropists, offered LCMM the opportunity "to do something complete the fitting out and then put the For more information, check out Lake dynamic on the Burlington waterfront schooner through its "lake" trials. Ballast- Champlain's Sailing Canal Boats (ISBN: that also honors Lois's [his wife] livelong ed with marble blocks and inspected by 0-9641856-2-8). Contact the museum for love of Lake Champlain" we thought we the US Coast Guard, we embarked on a dates and port stops for this summer's "Grand had the perfect project: build a full-sized two-month long "Inaugural Tour" visiting journey" with Lois McClure (contact inforcanal schooner and name it for Lois. The more than a dozen h istoric harbors around mation for LCMM on page 20). McClures loved the idea, and the Burling- the lake. After four years of dedicated efton Schooner Project became a reality. fort by an army of project supporters, two Lake Champlain's A project this ambitious required the questions remained unanswered as we got Sailing Canal Boats community to embrace it, and we have closer to our date of embarkation: would An ntustrated Journey From had extraordinary support along the way. the schooner function well as a watercraft Burlington Bay to the Hudson River Early on, the Lake Champlain Transpor- and would the public come to visit and tation Company, an integral part of lake find its history of interest? history since 1826, offered us a facility on The Inaugural Tour was poetry. Not h istoric King Street Dock to establish a only did the schooner outperform our shipyard. The construction effort began in hopes as a watercraft, bur the outpouring 2001 with the gathering of a professional of public interest was overwhelming. The '-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~---'
SEA HISTORY 111, SUMMER 2005
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