Last Updated: 11/29/04

On board Commodore Thomas Macdonough's flagship during the 1814 Battle of Lake Champlain, a fighting cock got loose and taunted British ships from her rigging, ostensibly the first "air strike" from a ship named Saratoga (the second American ship to bear the name). As the crest from the CV 60 indicates, this rooster greatly resembles a Rhode Island Red!