The Collier Betsy

The Collier Betsy. York River Maritime Heritage. , The Betsy was a collier, a unique style cargo ship with a rounded bow and a shallow draft , Yorktown was the primary port for Virginia through the 1760's. The Chesapeake Bay and its rivers were vital to the colonial cause for moving supplies and troops to the Continental Army. A part of the British army, led by General Benedict Arnold, invaded Virginia in December 1780. General Cornwallis arrived with his forces from the Carolinas in June 1781 and after a successful campaign throughout the colony, brought his forces to Yorktown in August 1781 to wait for the British navy to pick up some of his forces and take them to New York., The two masted brig Betsy was built in the port of Whitehaven in 1772 for use in the coal trade. In 1780 the British navy pressed the Betsy as a transport in a convoy bound for North America, where it joined Cornwallis's fleet at Yorktown. When the French fleet occupied the Bay after the Battle of the Capes on September 5-9, the British began sinking ships in a line along the shore to impede the French from attacking. The Betsy, one of these ships, was scuttled on September 18, 1781 about ½ mile east of the museum., A team of underwater archeologists from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources led by John D. Broadwater, excavated the Betsy in the late 1970's and early 1980's. The ship's hull still lies in place, filled with sand to protect it from further deterioration. The original model was built by Jim Rindfleisch. It took three years to build and was made completely out of recycled metal materials. , (caption)© John Broadwater