General Butler
Sailing Canal Schooner · United States · Lost 1876 · Lake Champlain
A canal schooner with her captain's two daughters aboard lost her steering in a December gale; all five reached the breakwater alive.
Larry Bertsch
See Shipwreck on Map
The Vessel and Her Loss
General Butler was built at Essex, New York, in 1862 as a hybrid sailing canal boat able to work both the open lake and the Champlain Canal. She carried freight on Lake Champlain for fifteen years under three owners. In December 1876, carrying marble to Burlington, her steering failed in a winter gale and she was driven against the breakwater. All five aboard escaped onto the ice-covered breakwater and were rescued before she sank in forty feet of water.
Vessel
- 1862
- Hoskins & Ross shipyard
- Essex, New York
- Wood
- 88 ft
- 14 ft
- Not established
- Schooner rig, rigged for canal towing
- Not established
Loss
- December 9, 1876
- Storm
- Burlington Bay, against the Burlington breakwater
- Lake Champlain
- Isle La Motte, Vermont → Burlington, Vermont
- Marble
- 5
- 0
- William Montgomery
The Wreck Today
- 40 ft
- Virtually intact and upright on her keel.
- Not established
- 1980
- Vermont Underwater Historic Preserve; National Register of Historic Places
Position
- 44.472° N 73.228° W
- Surveyed position
- Burlington, Vermont
Position published with the National Register listing.
Evidence
Overall confidence: Well documented (95/100)
Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
History, sinking account, dimensions, site condition.
National Register of Historic Places nomination
Listing, coordinates, dimensions.
