18th Century Bateau

[Dudley Toelke]

I have tried the search enging for the above topic and am having trouble with it, not unusual for me. So, I am trying to take a short cut by asking if anyone on the forum has researched small 18th century French boats or bateau. Mainly, those used in North America or in common use by the naval forces of France during the 18th century.

[RonW]

John Gardner book- the dory book - the first chapter deals with the french bateau of canada , and then all dory's. He does have the lines and construction detail for a 32 ft. river bateau, which is what I think you are after.

[1stnewyorker]

I am one of many reenactors from the upstate NY area depicting life as batteauman during the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. Our group (one of several) is the Inland Mariners Society base out of the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum. We sail several dories modified to be as close to 18th century accurate as a dory can be.

http://www.1stnewyork.org/boat/IMG_0028.JPG

The museum has also built at least one large batteau and a replica of of Benendict Arnold's Gondola Philadelphia that fought at Valcour.
Gondola Philadelphia II (http://www.lcmm.org/images/img_harbor/img_exhibits_collections/philly8.jpg)

There are several other batteau that have been built in this area by reenactors including 2 built for the Maybee Farm, in Schenectady.

Quite a few have been studied by myself (I'm an archaeologist when I'm not reenacting) and many others on the bottom of Lake George and Lake Champlain, some of which were discovered just several years ago from the Battle of Plattsburgh (1814). (The remains of one batteau raised from Lake George in the 1960's is now on display at the Blue Mountain Museum in the Adirondacks). http://www.1stnewyork.org/boat/batteau.GIF

Hope this helps.

[Thorne]

1st NewYorker -

Excellent! I was hoping you'd post on this topic, tried a search but couldn't find the previous thread.

I'll email you directly regarding some of the pennons / pennents / pennants and other historical details, as I'm getting to that stage on my dory and have several non-public reenactment events out here scheduled for May and July.

[Dudley Toelke]

Thanks for the info. I'll get the dory book.

dud

[Dudley Toelke]

Sorry. Thanks to all that responded. I've gone to the websites and will keep in touch.

dud