Schooner commemorates discovery of Lake Champlain at Quebec events (AP)

From The Associated Press through USA Today:

By Wilson Ring, Associated Press Writer

The Lake Champlain shoreline creeps by from the deck of the Lois McClure. The vessel wasn't built for speed, it was built to commemorate the commercial heritage that linked New York City, Buffalo, and Montreal to the Champlain Valley.

The 19th-century Lake Champlain schooners it's based on would sail past the same rocky New York cliffs and green Vermont peninsulas. But the boat — a replica — is crewed by summer volunteers, not families that made a living moving cargo.

And now the Lois, as it's known to its crew, is playing a new role as international ambassador: The boat is the flagship of the 400th anniversary of the European discovery of Lake Champlain and the Hudson River valleys.

Last week, the Lois left its home port at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Ferrisburgh, Vt., and headed north, down the Richelieu River on its way to Quebec City, where it will take part in a week-long celebration next month of the July 3, 1608 founding of the city, the first permanent French settlement in North America.

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2008-06-26-champlain-anniversary_N.htm