North America's Oldest Extant Warship

"A new DVD documentary about a French & Indian War (1755-1763) shipwreck in Lake George, New York, USA has been released. The 57 minute long documentary is entitled "The Lost Radeau: North America's Oldest Intact Warship." The documentary was produced by Pepe Productions, a multi-media corporation, in conjunction with Bateaux Below, Inc., a not-for-profit educational corporation that found the shipwreck in 1990 during a Klein side scan sonar survey. The documentary examines the history, discovery, and archaeological study of a little known, but extremely historic shipwreck. The 52 ft. long by 18 ft. wide LAND TORTOISE was a British and provincial floating fun battery, literally a floating fortress. The unusually seven-sided warship was pierced for seven cannons and was deliberately sunk by the British on October 22, 1758 to keep it from falling into the hands of the French. After the 1990 discovery of the radeau, the one-of-a-kind wooden shipwreck was studied by a team of volunteer divers and underwater archaeologists under the direction of archaeologist D. K. Abbass, Ph.D. In 1994, the sunken warship became part of a State of New York-administered shipwreck preserve for visiting scuba divers. In 1998, the LAND TORTOISE was designated a National Historic Landmark. For information on the DVD documentary consult the website: http://www.thelostradeau.com"