High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Continental gunboat Philadelphia is the only surviving gunboat built and manned by American Forces during the Revolutionary War. Part of a hastily constructed fleet, she is one of 15 small craft with which General Benedict Arnold fought about 30 British vessels off Valcour Island in Lake Champlain in October 1776. Philadelphia was a gundalow (sometimes referred to as a gondola) constructed by General Arnold at Skenesboro, New York. Laid down early in July 1776, she was launched in mid-August, and placed in service shortly thereafter under a Capt. Rice. Arnold's flotilla was built to check the expected British invasion being launched from Montreal by the Royal Governor of Canada, Sir Guy Carleton. A thrust down the historic Lake Champlain–Hudson Valley invasion corridor was chosen to sever New England from the middle and southern American Colonies. An almost complete absence of intercolonial roads demanded that the approach be made by water.

Данное издание не является оригинальным. Книга печатается по технологии принт-он-деманд после получения заказа.