Radeau

A Warship Older Than the United States, Sitting at the Bottom of an Adirondack Lake Recognized by the Smithsonian Institution as the oldest intact warship in North America, the Land Tortoise Radeau has been resting on the bottom of Lake George, New York, since 1758 — more than 265 years. That single fact tends to stop divers cold. Most shipwreck dives are a hunt for timber fragments and rust. This one puts you nose-to-hull with an almost fully intact colonial gunboat that was already old when the country was founded. How a French and Indian War Gunboat Ended Up in a Freshwater Lake The autumn of 1758 saw Britain and France locked in a struggle for empire. Following the loss of Fort William Henry and a devastating defeat at Fort Carillon (later named Fort Ticonderoga), the British and their allies constructed new fortifications and warships, including radeaux to serve as floating gun batteries to dislodge the French from Lake George and Lake Champlain. One of these was the Land Tortoise. Constructed in 1758 by provincial troops under the supervision of Captain Samuel Cobb, the radeau — French for "raft" — was just over 50 feet long and 16 to 18 feet wide. It has no keel and was fitted with seven cannon ports. She was built in just over a month, launched, tested, and then intentionally sunk by adding ballast, with plans to re-float her in the spring of 1759. But the radeau slipped deeper than anticipated and couldn't be retrieved. There she stayed, completely forgotten. The fate of the Land Tortoise was unknown until 1990, when its peculiar seven-sided shape appeared during a side-scan sonar survey of the lake by members of a group that later became known as Bateaux Below, Inc. The sonar detected something with seven sides. Nature doesn't make anything with seven sides, so researchers knew it had to be something man-made. In 1995, the Land Tortoise shipwreck was listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in 1998, it was listed as a National Historic Landmark — only the sixth shipwreck in the nation with that designation. What You Actually See Underwater As the 52-foot vessel comes into focus, you see the wooden, covered ship of the Land Tortoise Radeau with its openings for seven cannons — state of the art before there was a United States. The wreck is well preserved in oligotrophic waters — fresh, with low nutrients, little algae, and high oxygen. That cold, clean chemistry has done a remarkable preservation job on wood that is approaching 270 years old. There is no rigging or armament — all of the equipment was to be replaced when the ship was pulled out of the water. For divers, there is no penetration, but most are amazed at the well-preserved hull, which offers decent photographs taken at close range. A dive light is essential down here; the site is darker than many expect. Look for the iron rings on the bow, which were used for pulling the vessel by horse or boat. The Honest Diving Profile This is an advanced-level dive in water depths of 105 to 107 feet, with water temperatures ranging from 35° to 45°F. That is cold — drysuit territory for most divers, and at minimum a very well-configured wetsuit setup with gloves and hood. There are two thermoclines to pass through on the descent, and the water temperature at depth was recorded at 45°F, though it can vary. Visibility is variable and should be planned for conservatively. Visibility averages 10 to 20 feet, and although the lake waters are clear, sunlight does not penetrate well at this depth. Bottom sediments are easily disturbed, and visibility may be extremely limited if a previous dive group has stirred things up. That one-hour surface interval between dive groups is there for a reason — silt needs time to resettle. Come prepared for reduced viz and your dive will be better for it. This is a deep, cold-water dive, and a safety/decompression stop is strongly recommended. The nearest recompression chamber is more than 50 miles away, which is not something to file away as a footnote. Plan your profile conservatively. Getting In the Water: Permits, Rules, and Who This Dive Is Really For Diving the Radeau is by registration only. The Radeau Preserve is open from the second Saturday of June through Labor Day. Divers register at the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation booth at Lake George Beach, located at the south end of the lake on Beach Road (518-668-3352). A maximum of eight divers in a single party is permitted on site at any one time, with a two-hour time slot per dive followed by a one-hour site rest. Auxiliary air — a pony tank and regulator — are required, and all persons must be certified divers. The sunken vessel lies at a depth of about 105 feet in the southern basin of Lake George, about 2 miles north of Lake George Beach. The entry is from a charter boat over the mooring buoy — a fair-weather mooring only, so check conditions before you commit to the day. Lake George itself is about 50 miles from Kraken Scuba, making it a manageable early-morning drive into the Adirondacks for a morning slot on the wreck. This dive is best suited to divers who are comfortable at depth, have solid buoyancy control in cold water, and have logged some time on deep freshwater wrecks before. If you are working toward that level or are already there, the Radeau is the kind of dive that gives the sport its weight — a genuine piece of history that almost no one knows exists. Ready to Dive a Piece of Colonial History? At Kraken Scuba, we can help you put together the right configuration for a cold deep-water dive like this — whether that means stepping into a drysuit for the first time, getting your pony bottle set up correctly, or planning the rest of your Lake George day around the bateaux sites and the Forward wreck. Reach out to us before you book your DEC slot, and we will make sure you show up ready for one of the most historically significant dives in the northeastern United States.