Carlton`s Prize

Ishmael and I had been knocking about a trip to Carleton's Prize for quite a while. We had heard the tale of the Revolutionary War battle between Sir Guy Carleton and this small island in Lake Champlain and wanted to visit a piece of history. Accordingly, on Saturday of the recent 10th Annual ADK BBQ, we decided to set out from White's Beach near the South end of South Hero Island and paddle the 1.7 miles to the small chunk of rock that is also about 3.8 miles from the southwest corner of Valcour Island. It was a beautiful day and the island is clearly visible from the beach. Approaching Carlton's Prize one can make out the rust stains some have claimed to be from the iron cannon balls bouncing off the rock. The rust stains are present on about 270 degrees of the almost vertical walls of the island. The island is about 140' x 60' and about 20' high. A sign is hanging from chain on the cliff face on the Northeast corner and describes the incident. We climbed out of our kayaks onto a very slippery carpet of zebra muscles and Ishmael scampered up to the top of the island for a look around. After a trip around the island we headed over to Stave Island to inspect the North and West sides of that island. From Stave Island we headed over to the railroad cut that cordons off Malletts Bay from the rest of the lake. We took a few photos, some of them, of the Camel's Hump. Then it was back to White's Beach where we visited with a lovely paddleboarder and her two very large dogs. When I got home I decided to research Carleton's Prize a bit more and found the following Wikipedia entry: "...it has been called Carleton's Prize since the American Revolutionary War when Sir Guy Carleton brought it to notoriety in 1776, the morning after the Battle of Valcour Island. Local lore has it that it was very foggy on the lake as Benedict Arnold escaped from behind Valcour Island with what was left of his small fleet. Not believing the Americans could have slipped by in the dark (which they had), the British searched to the north and east. In the heavy fog they sighted what they thought was a ship and summarily pounded it with their cannons, smoke from the black powder adding to the lack of visibility. After up to an hour without return fire, either a breeze came up or the fog burned off, and the British realized they had not been firing on a ship. This distraction allowed Arnold to escape down the lake to Addison, Vermont, where he burned his remaining fleet to prevent capture. Local lore goes further to say that local Islanders had hoisted logs on the island to look like masts. Rust marks from fired cannon shot are still visible on the rock." I could find no reference to Carleton's Prize in: A History of the American Revolution, John R. Alden, New York, Knopf, 1969. Although the book does describe the battle of Valcour Island, Arnold's escape and the subsequent chase. I then consulted: Sails and Steam in the Mountains: A Maritime and Military History of Lake George and Lake Champlain, Russell P. Bellico, New York, Purple Mountain Press, 1992. I found the following footnote on page 155, "....the tale of "Carleton's Prize," a solitary rock island three and half miles east of Valcour, which was supposedly, mistakenly bombarded by the British fleet the next morning. The tale has no basis in fact although some have claimed to have found cannonballs there." It seems to me that one can find many examples of rust stained rock such as found on Carleton's Prize with no claims that it had received cannon fire. Also, the British were well aware that the Americans had been building their fleet at Whitehall, NY and would expect them to be escaping in that direction, certainly not North as stated in the Wikipedia entry, and not directly east toward Vermont and Carleton's Prize. Also, it has been documented that the British did capture a few of the American ships during the chase, which would have been unlikely if their CinC had been dawdling several miles off course. At any rate we had a great trip. More pictures on Webshots. http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/583287301lrSEKP