Wreck of 1776 gunboat to be salvaged from Lake Champlain

Only a handful of people know where it's at. The boat is in one of the deepest parts of the lake, beyond the depths of most divers.

It fell as if it was still sailing," said Art Cohn with the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. "We see artifacts showing in some places. We know there are dozens, hundreds, thousands of artifacts contained under the mud."

"All of them were accounted for, either captured, sunk or burned, except for the Spitfire," said Rich Isenberg with the Maritime Museum.

The Spitfire's sister ship, the Philadelphia, is the only ship in the Benedict Arnold fleet to be recovered. It was removed from the lake in 1935, and is now at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. A full-sized replica is on display at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Ferrisburgh.

"The Philadelphia actually made out remarkably well," Isenberg said. "There were many other shipwrecks around the lake that did not make out as well as the Philadelphia."

Earlier this month the Spitfire was added to the National Register of Historical Places. The museum now hopes to receive a $147,000 grant to help determine the best way to preserve the ship.

"Zebra mussels will encrust this boat because it's in deep water, and that will have very negative consequences to the stability of this site," Cohn said.

Those options include removing the boat from the lake, a task that would likely cost tens of millions of dollars.