On the whole, the American fleet mounted eighty-eight guns to the eighty-nine of the British fleet, but they were inferior in weight of metal thrown, the largest being eighteen-pounders to the British twenty-four-pounders, while they needed 811 men for a full complement, but had only 700. And these were, from a man-o’-warman’s point of view, “a miserable set; indeed, the men on board the fleet in general are not equal to half their number of good men.” It was not that they lacked good will or bravery; it was that they were landsmen and untrained in the work before them. On the other hand, Sir Guy Carleton’s fleet was manned by a thousand men, among whom were “eight officers, nineteen petty officers and 670 picked seamen” from the British warships in the St. Lawrence, besides the soldiers of the expedition. The quotation is from Schomberg’s “History of the British Navy.” In addition to the regular crews, the British fleet was supported by a host of Iroquois Indians. Just south of the present site of Plattsburg lies Valcour Island. The bay on the west side of which Plattsburg stands is enclosed by a long cape called Cumberland Head. At daybreak on the morning of Wednesday, October 11, 1776, Benedict Arnold’s little fleet lay at anchor in a line across the north end of the strait between Valcour Island and the mainland. It was a clear, cold morning. A strong northerly wind was sweeping through this narrow valley between the Green Mountains and the ever-beautiful Adirondacks. It was just the kind of a day that Sir Guy Carleton wanted for his passage over the lake, and, soon after sunrise, his fleet came snoring along under full sail past Cumberland Head. [Illustration: THE BATTLE OF LAKE CHAMPLAIN.] Because Arnold’s little fleet lay well behind the forest on Valcour Island, Sir Guy and his fleet drove past without discovering that any one was there; but when they had opened out the view from the south between Valcour Island and the mainland, they saw that they were exposing their rear to the Americans. At this it was down helm and haul their tacks and get out oars on the smaller vessels, but the wind was so strong that it was not until after ten o’clock that the head of the fleet, which included the schooner _Carleton_ and the gunboats, arrived within the channel where the American fleet lay. [Illustration: The Action of October 11, 1776. A. Plan of action. B. _Congress_ galley and five gondolas.] In the meantime Arnold had taken the gondola _Congress_ as his flagship--no doubt because she was furnished with oars, and, as a double-ender, could be easily handled--and with two other gondolas and the schooner _Royal Savage_, went down wind to meet the enemy. He reached them at eleven o’clock, and the battle opened with a broadside from the British schooner _Carleton_. [Illustration: Fight on Lake Champlain, 1776: