No abstract

In the first half of the nineteenth century, Lake Champlain became increasingly famous for its magnificent passenger steamboats. Not only were residents of the Champlain Valley filled with pride over these vessels, but the steamers earned international acclaim. This article presents primary source evidence describing Lake Champlain’s Golden Age steamers from local, regional, and international travellers’ accounts which describe the appearance and operations of these lake boats from the 1820s and 1830s. Despite travel diaries including problematic biases, this evidence fills gaps in our knowledge of the build of these steamboats left by the analyses of their archaeological remains. Dans la première moitié du XIXe siècle, le lac Champlain est devenu de plus en plus connu pour ses magnifiques bateaux à vapeur à passagers. Non seulement les résidents de la vallée du lac Champlain étaient fiers de ces navires, mais les navires ont aussi acquis une renommée internationale. À partir de témoignages obtenus de sources primaires, cet article décrit les bateaux à vapeur de l’âge d’or du lac Champlain suivant les récits de voyageurs locaux, régionaux et internationaux qui traitent de l’apparence et des opérations de ces bateaux au cours des années 1820 et 1830. Malgré des carnets de voyage qui comportent des partialités problématiques, ces témoignages comblent les lacunes de nos connaissances sur la construction de ces bateaux à vapeur laissées par les analyses de leurs vestiges archéologiques.

Gaspé’s abundant maritime subsistence resources such as whales and cod drew European fishermen for centuries. Exploiting these rich fishing resources required vessels that were well-suited to the challenging geography. These challenges pushed shipwrights to develop new nautical technologies which were implemented in the ships’ construction. The Gaspé Maritime Archaeology Project (GMAP) seeks to study these developing technologies through the archaeological ship remnants in the waters around Gaspé. The 2022 field season pursued this research through a remote-sensing survey of Gaspé Bay and Malbay and by studying a shipwreck on a beach in Cap-des-Rosiers believed to be a 19th-century oceangoing ship.