AH-WR-0298

USS Confiance

Frigate · United States · Lost 1820 · Lake Champlain

The largest warship ever to sail Lake Champlain, captured at the Battle of Plattsburgh and left to rot at her moorings.

Artistic recreation based on recorded historical documents. See the documented evidence.

Historically Reconstructed. Drawn from partial documentation of this vessel together with her known class and configuration. See the documented evidence.

The Vessel and Her Loss

Confiance was built hastily by the Royal Navy in 1814 to counter the American Champlain squadron and served as Captain George Downie's flagship at the Battle of Plattsburgh Bay. Surrendered after a fierce engagement, she was taken into U.S. Navy service and laid up at Whitehall. By 1820 she was rotten and abandoned to sink in the Poultney River; flooding later washed the hull into the main channel, where it was dynamited in 1873 as a hazard to navigation.

Vessel

Built: 1814
Builder: Ile aux Noix Naval Shipyards
Yard: Ile aux Noix, Lower Canada
Material: Wood
Length: 147 ft
Beam: 37 ft
Tonnage: 831
Propulsion: Sail
Owners: United States Navy (captured from Royal Navy)

Loss

Date: January 1, 1820
Cause: Intentional sinking
Location: Poultney River, near Whitehall, New York
Water: Lake Champlain
Voyage: Not established
Cargo: Not established
Aboard: Not established
Lives lost: Not established
Master: Not established

The Wreck Today

Depth: Not established
Condition: Largely destroyed by 1873 dynamiting during channel dredging; scattered remains only.
Orientation: Not established
Discovered: Not established
Protection: Not established

Position

Coordinates: 43.63° N 73.34° W
Accuracy: General area only
Nearest: Whitehall, New York
Region: Lake Champlain

General area only: coordinate of the Poultney River stream feature from the USGS Geographic Names Information System, marking the named river of loss recorded for this vessel, not a surveyed wreck position (the hull was later destroyed and no wreck site survives).

Evidence

Overall confidence: Documented (75/100)

Precise coordinates of surviving wreckage are not established in the sources reviewed.

Lake Champlain Maritime Museum
Service history, disposition at Whitehall, and eventual sinking and destruction.
Naval History and Heritage Command
Battle of Lake Champlain role and outcome.
USGS Geographic Names Information System — Poultney River, NY (via MyTopo USGS/GNIS data)
coordinate of the named place of loss