Lake Champlain Maritime Museum

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Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Waterfront museum with camps, boat building, rowing, underwater research, and more on Lake Champlain Visit our website and learn more!

Through our work on water, underwater, and by the water, we connect people with our region's history, archaeology, and ecology. We create opportunities for hands-on and digital learning experiences for all ages to inspire a new generation of leaders to shape a healthy future for Lake Champlain. Museum exhibits open mid-May through mid-October, programs run year-round.

It is with deep concern that we confirm that unknown individuals entered the visitor center building at Lake Champlain M...
10/12/2026

It is with deep concern that we confirm that unknown individuals entered the visitor center building at Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and took a donation box with at least $1,000 of public donations and an iPad. The robbery was discovered on the morning of Sunday, October 11, as the Museum was opening for a special day commemorating the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Valcour Bay. No individuals were hurt, and all other buildings and property are secure. There is an active investigation into the robbery being conducted by the Vermont State Police; individuals with information should contact VSP.

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is a free museum for all visitors - the Museum famously eliminated admission fees in 2021. Community support, museum membership, and donations from individuals make free admission possible. The donations in the box were all contributions from Museum visitors - individuals who chose to give what they could to support the Museum over the past month.

“This hurts the Museum, our community, and our staff,” said Chris Sabick, executive director of Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. “That box contained donations from neighbors, friends, and visitors who chose to give their money to support the Museum. It’s truly demoralizing to think that someone would take that. We’re grateful to our community for their support through this and our team is committed to keeping the doors open for all for our final week of the 2026 season. Please come visit us, connect with us, and celebrate what makes this community and Museum special.”

A seasonal museum, Lake Champlain Maritime Museum is open to visitors from May through October each year. The Museum is open from 10 am–4 pm every day through Sunday, October 18.

250 years ago today, on October 12, 1776, as the British searched for them, the remnants of Benedict Arnold’s fleet that...
10/12/2026

250 years ago today, on October 12, 1776, as the British searched for them, the remnants of Benedict Arnold’s fleet that survived the Battle of Valcour Bay regrouped and rested at Schuyler Island. At the same time they scuttled tw0 American gondolas - Providence and Jersey - that were too damaged to continue the retreat south. Laborers had spent the summer building ships to defend Lake Champlain, now after a single clash with the British many were sitting at the bottom of Lake Champlain.

They wouldn’t stay on the bottom of Lake Champlain forever. To explore the artifacts recovered from the Battle of Valcour Bay, and other shipwrecks on the lake, check out our digitized online collections here: https://hub.catalogit.app/lake-champlain-maritime-museum

Image: “Battle of Valcour Island,” V. Zveg, 1975. Naval History and Heritage Command.

250 years ago today, on October 11, 1776, the Battle of Valcour Bay began as the British and American fleets fought for ...
10/11/2026

250 years ago today, on October 11, 1776, the Battle of Valcour Bay began as the British and American fleets fought for control of Lake Champlain. Ships sank in both navies as cannonballs crashed into wooden vessels, but the British managed to slowly gain the upper hand. After sunset, the remaining American ships wrapped their oars in cloth and used the black of night to row silently past the British fleet, allowing the Americans to escape for the moment.

Lieutenant Daniel McCay, an American soldier from Massachusetts, was aboard the gunboat New York as the Battle of Valcour Bay began. During the chaos of the fight, one of the cannons onboard the boat erupted, killing one man and injuring Daniel McCay and another. Daniel would survive the battle despite his injury and go on to fight at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Daniel McCay survived the war and moved to South Carolina afterwards, eventually marrying and raising five children.

To learn more about the Battle of Valcour Bay, see the real cannon that erupted and wounded Daniel McCay, and learn about other people in the Champlain Valley during the American Revolution, plan a visit to our new exhibit, Fragments: Voices of the American Revolution on Lake Champlain. The Museum is free to visit and open every day from 10 am to 4 pm until October 18. Plan your visit today at www.lcmm.org/visit.

Image: “Cannon Exploding on Gunboat New York,” Ernest Haas, 2002. Acrylic on panel. Lake Champlain Maritime Museum Collection.

250 years ago this weekend, hundreds of Americans crewed a fleet of four captured vessels and over a dozen hastily-const...
10/10/2026

250 years ago this weekend, hundreds of Americans crewed a fleet of four captured vessels and over a dozen hastily-constructed ships, intent on defending Lake Champlain against the invading British armada in what would be known as the Battle of Valcour Bay.

As our region commemorates the anniversary of this event this weekend, we wanted to give you a closer look at the variety of ships in the Patriot fleet in 1776 - from the ship type and how they were built (or "acquired") to their fate by the end of the year. Head to our blog for a full breakdown of the American ships on Lake Champlain in 1776: https://www.lcmm.org/what-they-sailed-american-ships-on-lake-champlain-in-1776/

250 years ago today, on October 9, 1776, the British invasion of Lake Champlain began. After sailing south from their ba...
10/09/2026

250 years ago today, on October 9, 1776, the British invasion of Lake Champlain began. After sailing south from their base in Canada for a few days they arrived on the lake on October 9 and began scouting the lake for the Patriot fleet.

By this point the British had gathered a large fleet made up of a sloop, two schooners, more than two dozen gunboats as well as a variety of other ships. By contrast, the fleet the Americans had built over the summer consisted of only sixteen vessels, leaving the Patriot fleet outnumbered nearly two to one in their coming confrontation with the British.

Want to deep dive into the types of ships the Americans would soon use to defend Lake Champlain against the British? This presentation from Executive Director, Chris Sabick, is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xLSLqq0PDo

Image: “View of the Battle of Valcour Island, 1776,” Henry Gilder, circa 1776. Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour on paper. Wikimedia Commons.

Update from the boat shop!Our Middlebury Union High School Vermont boat building students continue to kick off the boat ...
10/08/2026

Update from the boat shop!

Our Middlebury Union High School Vermont boat building students continue to kick off the boat building season by getting out on the lake. This past month, they took an afternoon to sail in the museum's whaleboats (which was built by prior boat building students!).

We can’t wait to share the student boat building journey this year! What will they build? What will it be named? How many rivets will they need?! Stay tuned 😉

Rumor is the best way to celebrate Halloween is the 2026 Otter Creek Challenge Race, an annual youth open-water rowing r...
10/06/2026

Rumor is the best way to celebrate Halloween is the 2026 Otter Creek Challenge Race, an annual youth open-water rowing race hosted by Lake Champlain Maritime Museum right in the heart of Vergennes, on October 31 from 8 AM–12 PM 🎃🚣🏼‍♀️

Local high school and middle school rowing crews compete in a variety of heats, racing from the foot of the Vergennes Falls, down Otter Creek, and back... all in costume! This race is free for all to watch, cheer on the participating teams, and enjoy the costume competition. Join us!

Youth rowers register for this event through your team or as part of your fall season rowing registration. Please check with your coach if you are not sure.

We are one week away from the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Valcour Bay on Lake Champlain, a pivotal moment during ...
10/04/2026

We are one week away from the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Valcour Bay on Lake Champlain, a pivotal moment during the American Revolution.

To commemorate this important anniversary, on Sunday, October 11 we're holding a special free family-friendly day filled with hands-on activities, a dramatic account of the battle, boat building demos, a panel discussion, a screening of Ken Burns’ “The American Revolution” segment, and more. We'll also have free activities with friends from the Bixby Memorial Free Library, Ethan Allen Homestead, Chittenden County Historical Society, and Vermont Folklife.

Check out the full schedule of the day's events on our website at lcmm.org/event/battle-of-valcour-bay/

Can’t wait to see you there!

250 years ago today, on October 4, 1776, the British began sailing toward Lake Champlain. After having gathered over 30 ...
10/04/2026

250 years ago today, on October 4, 1776, the British began sailing toward Lake Champlain. After having gathered over 30 ships – twice as many vessels as the Americans had in their fleet – Guy Carleton, the commander of the British forces, ordered his ships to begin moving south from their base in Canada downriver toward Lake Champlain. No one knew at the time, but the American and British fleets were separated by a distance of less than 50 miles.

Join us on Saturday, October 11 at the Museum as we commemorate and explore what would become known as the Battle of Valcour Bay, 250 years later. There will be hands-on activities, tours of our exhibits, and a dramatic account of the events during the Battle of Valcour Bay. Learn more: https://www.lcmm.org/event/battle-of-valcour-bay/

Image: “Portrait of Guy Carleton,” Baron H. de Dirckinck Holmfeldt, 1895. Oil painting. Wikimedia Commons.

Our exhibit "Fragments: Voices of the American Revolution on Lake Champlain," includes stories of individuals living in ...
10/03/2026

Our exhibit "Fragments: Voices of the American Revolution on Lake Champlain," includes stories of individuals living in the Champlain Valley whose lives were changed by the American Revolution, like Molly Rogers.

On October 11, 1776, Molly Rogers became a widow. Her husband, Thomas Rogers, had been killed in a tragic accident on the gunboat New York. A cannon exploded, killing Thomas and injuring two others. Born in 1755 in Wesford, MA, Molly married Thomas shortly before the war began. They had two daughters, but neither lived past their first birthdays. With the accident on the gunboat, Molly lost her entire family in four years.

After Thomas’ death, Molly commissioned a cenotaph in his honor to be displayed in her hometown, next to those of his two infant daughters. Yet Molly’s life continued on after the Revolution. She remarried a tavernkeeper in Massachusetts and helped him maintain the business that hosted revolutionaries, such as George Washington and the Marquis de Lafayette. Molly lived a long life, dying in 1829.

Make sure to visit our new exhibit, "Fragments: Voices of the American Revolution on Lake Champlain," before we close for the season on October 18 to learn more about Molly and other individuals who called the Lake Champlain Valley home during the beginning of our nation.

Address

4472 Basin Harbor Road
Vergennes, VT
05491

Telephone

+18024752022

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