Original Revolutionary War Relic Iron Nail Recovered from the Debris Field of the Gunboat Philadelphia by Colonel Lorenzo F. Hagglund and Bill Resler, Lake Champlain, 1935, the Philadelphia was Sunk October 11, 1776 at the Battle of Valcour Island, Under Brigadier General Benedict Arnold, Very Good.
This Iron Nail measures 5.25" in length and was recovered from the debris field surrounding the Gunboat Philadelphia, one of the eight gundalow gunboats built in the summer of 1776 as part of Brigadier General Benedict Arnold's hastily assembled Continental Navy fleet on Lake Champlain. The Philadelphia met her end on October 11, 1776, during the Battle of Valcour Island, one of the first naval engagements of the American Revolutionary War, when she was struck by a 24-pound British cannonball, and sank within an hour, coming to rest upright on the lake bottom in roughly 60 feet of water, where she would remain undisturbed for nearly 160 years.

This Nail retains its original form, the surface throughout showing the heavy encrustation and oxidation consistent with nearly 160 years of submersion in Lake Champlain followed by decades above ground, presenting an appropriately dark, rough textured, and archaeologically authentic surface as shown. It is a genuinely rare and evocative artifact recovered directly from the wreck site of one of the most celebrated and historically consequential vessels of the American Revolutionary War, offering tangible connection to Benedict Arnold's Lake Champlain fleet and the pivotal 1776 defense that helped delay the British invasion of New York long enough for the Continental Army to regroup and ultimately triumph at Saratoga. Housed in a Riker Mount.