The Burlington Bay Horse Ferry is a shipwreck in
Lake Champlain off
Burlington, Vermont
Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...
, United States. It is the only known example of a turntable
horse ferry, a ship type that was common on United States waterways in the mid-19th century. The wreck is a
Vermont State Historic Site, and was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places in 1993.
Its location is marked by buoys in Burlington Bay between the northern end of the
Burlington Breakwater and Lone Rock Point, and it is visitable by certified divers.
Archaeological history
The remains of the horse ferry were discovered in 1983 during a side-scan sonar survey of
Burlington Bay. Through the 1980s it was subjected to several investigations, including a ''
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
'' expedition that was published in 1988. Between 1989 and 1992 divers visited the site, in which test areas were excavated in order to document the structure of the vessel and its propulsion mechanism. The forward third of the ferry is missing, although there is evidence it was still attached at the time the ferry sank or was scuttled.
[Mclaughlin, Scott (1993). NRHP nomination for Burlington Bay Horse Ferry (redacted); available by request from the National Park Service]
Based on analysis of the wreck, the ferry was long, and had a beam of . It had a maximum height of , with a hold depth of . The hull was double-ended, with a curved stempost and straight sternpost. Its propulsion mechanism followed a design patented in 1819 by Barnabas Langdon of
Whitehall, New York. A central turntable, mounted at a level below the main deck, was connected by a gearing system to a sidewheel. Horses walked on the turntable, whose resulting rotation moved the sidewheel, providing forward motion through the water.
[
]
See also
*
References
External links
Vermont Underwater Preserves official web site
{{NRHP in Chittenden County, Vermont
Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Vermont
National Register of Historic Places in Chittenden County, Vermont
Shipwrecks on the National Register of Historic Places
Buildings and structures completed in 1830
Transportation buildings and structures in Chittenden County, Vermont
History of Burlington, Vermont
Shipwrecks of Lake Champlain
Vermont State Historic Sites