mckcrbockcr 
 
The person charging this material is re- 
 sponsible for its return on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books 
 are reasons for disciplinary action and may 
 result in dismissal from the University. 
 
 University of Illinois Library 
 
 APR 1 8 1977 
 
 MAY 21 m 
 
 MAY 9 
 
 977 
 
 L161— O-1096 
 
Frontisp'ufH 
 
 Robert Fulton. 
 
THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 ROBERT FULTON 
 
 AND A 
 
 History of Steam ^^avigation 
 
 BY 
 
 THOMAS W. KNOX 
 
 author of 
 
 " The Travels of Marco Polo," The Boy Travellers in South America," 
 " The Boy Travellers in the Far East," Five Vols. ; The Young 
 NiMRODS," Two Vols. ; The Voyage of the Vivian," Over- 
 land through Asia," Backsheesh," '''' Underground," 
 *'JoHN," "Camp-Fire and Cotton-Field," How 
 TO Travel," " The Pocket Guide Around 
 THE World," etc., etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 
 NEW YORK LONDON 
 
 27 west twenty-third street 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND 
 
 ^nicktrboclur l^xm 
 1900 
 
COPYRIGHT 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS 
 1886 
 
 Ubc Tftnfcftevbochec pvcss, Iftcw i?orl? 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 IN the belief that a history of steam navigation, 
 combined with a biography of the man who 
 ^ designed and built the first successful steamboat, 
 would be of general interest, the author has pre- 
 pared this volume. He has avoided the use of 
 / technical terms wherever possible, in order that 
 the work might prove acceptable to youthful, or 
 ; non-scientific readers, as well as to those with whom 
 steam navigation is a special study. 
 
 The materials for the life of the inventor have 
 l/> been drawn from many sources. The author ac- 
 " knowledges his indebtness to the biographies of 
 Fulton, by Golden, Renwick, and Reigart, to Life 
 and Letters of Joel Barlow," by Charles Burr Todd, 
 and also to the officers of the New York Historical 
 Society, for the use of records in their possession. 
 \K In the history of steam navigation, he has been 
 greatly aided by the work of Admiral Preble upon 
 the same subject; by Professor Thurston's His- 
 , tory of the growth of the steam engine, " Bourne's 
 Catechism," King's ''Practical notes for Stu- 
 2, dents and Engineers," and by other books of 
 
 iii 
 
iv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 similar nature. The illustrations referring es- 
 pecially to Robert Fulton, are mainly reproduced 
 from Mr. Reigart's biography ; they were made 
 originally from drawings by Fulton and now in the 
 possession of his descendants. The other illustra- 
 tions are from sources which are a guaranty for 
 their accuracy. 
 
 Hoping for a favorable reception by press and 
 public the author submits the result of his efforts 
 for their examination. 
 
 T. W K. 
 
 New York, 1886. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Fulton Family — Robert's birth and birthplace — Incidents of his 
 boyhood — Making a paddle-boat — Choice of an occupation — Buys 
 a home for his mother ........ 1-14 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Fulton goes to England — West's patronage and friendship — Duke of 
 Bridgewater and Earl Stanhope — West and his works — Fulton on 
 canal navigation — His engineering work in England — His inven- 
 tions — The Erie Canal ........ 15-34 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Fulton in Paris — Joel Barlow — Experiments with torpedoes — Diving- 
 boats — Proposals to the French Government — The reply — Official 
 report of experiments — Holland and England — Blowing up the 
 Dorothea 35-55 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Fulton returns to America — Plans for torpedo warfare — An amusing inci- 
 dent at a lecture — Blowing up a brig at anchor — Attack upon the 
 sloop-of-war Argus — Submarine guns and their execution — Devel- 
 opment of torpedo warfare from Fulton's time to the present 56-71 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Fulton's experiments with steam navigation —Correspondence with the 
 Earl of Stanhope — Attempts of inventors previous to Fulton's 
 time — Chancellor Livingston — Association of Livingston and Ful- 
 ton — Experiment on the vSeine in 1803 — Engine of the Clermont 
 oVdered .......... 72-99 
 
vi 
 
 CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 P'inancial troubles of Fulton and Livingston — Launch and trial trip of 
 the Clermont — Fulton's account of the first voyage to Albany — 
 Consternation along the river — Dr. Perry's narrative — Improve- 
 ments in the boat — Hostility of river men — Opposition and ex- 
 pensive litigation — " Pendulum boats " .... 100-126 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The successors of the Clermont — Increase of speed — East River ferry- 
 boats — The "horse-ferry" — Boat on Long Island Sound — Boats 
 on the Mississippi — Plans for a war steamer — The first war steamer 
 in the world — Her description, performance, and fate — The death 
 of Fulton 127-154 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Fulton's plan for a submarine boat — Description of "The Mute" — 
 Fulton's last illness ; his death and funeral — Fulton's family and 
 estate — The ingratitude of republics — Tardy and niggardly action 
 of Congress — Fulton and the "perpetual-motion " machine — Ful- 
 ton's personal appearance and peculiarities — His grave in Trinity 
 churchyard 155-169 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 First ocean voyage of a steamer — The Stevens family and their work 
 in steam navigation — The Stevens Battery — Commodore Vander- 
 bilt — LLis opposition boats and his steamship enterprises — The 
 Chancellor Livingston — Modern steamboats on the Hudson — 
 Incidents and anecdotes of steamboating — The fastest boats 170-189 
 
 CHAPTER X.. 
 
 The first steamboat on Western waters — Oliver Evans and his boat — 
 Exploration of the Ohio and the Mississippi by Nicholas J. Roose- 
 velt — Building the first steamboat at Pittsburgh — The pioneer 
 voyage — Exciting adventures — Passing the falls of the Ohio — The 
 Comet and earthquakes of 181 1 — Indians — Arrival at New Or- 
 leans — A wedding at the end of the voyage .... 190-212 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Early navigation of the Mississippi — Keel-boats, flat-boats, and rafts — 
 Their peculiarities — Reminiscences of the keel-boatmen — Mike 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 vii 
 
 Fink and his tragic death — The New Orleans and her successors — 
 First steamboat from New Orleans to Pittsburgh — Racing on the 
 Mississippi — The last great race — Snags, sawyers, and the Red 
 River raft — First ascent of the Mississippi by steam — What the 
 first steam-whistle did ........ 213-234 
 
 ^ CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Introduction of steamboats on the great lakes — The * * Walk-in-the- 
 Water " — Growth of the northern lake fleet — First steamers on the 
 Pacific — Early steamers to and in California — The Senator and 
 the Golden Age — Steam , lines across the Pacific — Chinese steamer 
 at San Francisco — First steamships around the world . . 235-255 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Early navigation of Long Island Sound — Prohibitory laws against 
 Fulton and Livingston — First steamboat to Providence and New- 
 port — Description of early boats — Contrast with those of to-day — 
 The old sailing packets — Steamboats at Boston and along the coast 
 of Maine .......... 256-274 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Early steamboats on the Clyde, Thantes, Humber, and in other British 
 waters — The Comet and Enterprise — First steamboat at London — 
 Opposition of the watermen — Oldest steamboat in existence — 
 Steamboats in Canada and Java in 1809 and 1810 . . . 275-289 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Further history of steam navigation in foreign waters — Steamers in 
 Russia, France, and other countries — First steamer in Lake Baikal, 
 Siberia — Inauguration of steam-towing — Description of a steam- 
 collier — Steam navigation to Belfast, Dublin, and Havre — New 
 steamers between Holyhead and Dublin — David Napier — Present 
 steam fleet of Great Britain ....... 290-308 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 First steamboat in India — An eventful career of sixty years — Steamers 
 in Chinese waters — The " Fo-Shune " — The mails to India — 
 Steam navigation in Japan and China — Early steamers on the At- 
 lantic — The log-book of the Savannah — The Sirius, Great Western, 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 and British Queen — Prospectus of the British and American Steam 
 Navigation Company ........ 309-336 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 How the Great Western Steamship Company was organized — Samuel 
 Cunard and his enterprises — The Cunard Company — Cutting out 
 the Britannia — Iron taking the place of wood for ship-building — 
 Adoption of the screw — Growth of steamers — Umbria and Etruria 
 compared v/ith Britannia — Steamers never heard from — American 
 steamship lines , . . 337-365 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 History of the Collins line — Loss of the Pacific and Arctic — Fate of 
 the other Collins steamers — Other American steam lines — Cause 
 of their present inactivity — The United States and Brazil line — 
 English and French aid to steamers — American coasting lines, 369-383 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 How the Inman line was founded — First steamers for carrying emi- 
 grants — Steady increase in the size of ships — The City of Rome — 
 Hamburg and Bremen lines and their origin — The Anchor line 
 and its latest steamship — The ''French Mail" — Notes on the 
 compound marine engine and the lengthening of ships . . 384-414 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Guion Steamship line — The Greyhound of the Atlantic — The 
 White and Red Star lines — The Monarch line and its largest 
 passenger — Other Transatlantic lines — Origin of the '* P. and 
 O." Company — Its growth and extent of its service — The 
 Messageries Maritimes — German line to Asia and Australia — 
 Other great lines — The ocean tramp — Ocean steam-tonnage 
 of the world 415-433 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Great Eastern : her history, achievements, and failures — A 
 ghost-story — The cable steamers Faraday, Hooper, and Minia — 
 The Anthracite and her peculiarities — Winans' "cigar-ship" — 
 Captain Lundborg's invention — The Castalia, Calais-Douvres, and 
 Bessemer — A steamer ** nearly all wheel " — The doomed steamer 
 Meteor — The Stiletto 434-457 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 ix 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 First steam vessels of war in England, France, and other countries — 
 Revolution in naval architecture — The first iron-clad — Battle 
 between Monitor and Merrimac — Turreted war-ships — Present 
 thickness of plating on armored ships — Strength of the navies 
 of the world — Torpedoes and torpedo-boats — Different systems 
 in use — The battle on the Min River — The Nordenfeldt, 
 Goubet, Tuck, and other systems — Present work of the great 
 naval powers 458-497 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Portrait of Robert Fulton Frontispiece 
 
 Birthplace OF Fulton xiv 
 
 Fulton's First Experiment with Paddle-Wheels ... 7 
 
 Fulton Farm 13 
 
 Fulton's Double Inclined Plane 21 
 
 Fulton's Cast-Iron Aqueduct 31 
 
 Fulton's Submarine Boats, the Nautilus and Mute, 39 
 
 Fulton Blowing UP THE Dorothea 51 
 
 Modern War Steamer Attacked by a Torpedo-Boat, 53 
 
 V) Fulton's Torpedo Syst em 59 
 
 British Iron-Clad Protected by Torpedo Netting . . 69 
 
 Jonathan Hull's Tow-Boat, 1736 75 
 
 John Fitch's Steamboat at Philadelphia 79 
 
 John Fitch, 1796, Collect Pond, New York 80 
 
 Miller, Taylor, and Symington, 1788 85 
 
 The Charlotte Dundas, 1801 87 
 
 Stevens' Sectional Boiler, 1804 87 
 
 Stevens' Screw Steamer, 1804 88 
 
 Fulton's First Steamboat 95 
 
 Engine of the Clermont, 1807 loi 
 
 -0 Departure of the Clermont on her First Voyage. . 105 
 
 V Clermont, 1807 127 
 
 Car of Neptune, 1808 129 
 
 Paragon, 1811 130 
 
 Raritan, 1808 131 
 
 York (Ferry-Boat), 181 i 133 
 
xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Fire-Fly (Ferry-Boat), 1812 133 
 
 Camden, 1812 , 136 
 
 Richmond, 1813 136 
 
 Washington, 1813 137 
 
 Nassau, 1813 137 
 
 Vesuvius, 1813 139 
 
 Fulton, 1814 141 
 
 Olive Branch, 1815 142 
 
 Emperor of Russia, 1815 143 
 
 Original Plan of the Demologos 144 
 
 Launch of the Fulton the First, 1814 145 
 
 The Fulton the First (Fulton's Drawings) 149 
 
 (^Fulton's Nautilus 156 
 
 The Mute 157 
 
 Stevens' Return Tubular Boiler 171 
 
 Engine, Boilers, and Screw Propellers Used by 
 
 Stevens 173 
 
 Chancellor Livingston, 1815 179 
 
 The North America and Albany, 1827-1839 181 
 
 Evans' Oruktor Amphibolis," 1804 191 
 
 The Pittsburgh ; Light Draught Steamer of Present 
 
 DAY 201 
 
 The Ozark ; Light Draught Gunboat 234 
 
 The Side-Lever Engine 237 
 
 City OF Peking 241 
 
 The Solano ; the Largest Ferry-Boat in the World, 247 
 
 Peruvian Iron-Clad 253 
 
 The Two Rhode Islands, 1836, 1876 257 
 
 The Pilgrim 265 
 
 Walking-Beam of the Pilgrim 267 
 
 The Comet, 1812 279 
 
 City of Dublin Steam-Packet Company's New Mail 
 
 Steamer Ireland , 301 
 
 The Earliest Tow-Boat 308 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS, xiii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Stonewall , . „ . 317 
 
 The Savannah 319 
 
 Four-Bladed Screw 365 
 
 The Steamship Atlantic 368 
 
 Sectional View of North German Lloyd Steamship, 395 
 
 Oscillating Marine Engine 406 
 
 The Feathering Paddle-wheel 413 
 
 Vertical Longitudinal Section of One of the Nine 
 
 Boilers of the Alaska 416 
 
 Engines of Steamer Alaska , 417 
 
 Section of One of the Boilers of the Alaska 419 
 
 The Great Eastern at Sea 435 
 
 Plan of the Great Eastern 436 
 
 Boiler of the Steamer Great Eastern 439 
 
 Cast ALIA, the Twin Steamer. 449 
 
 Oscillating Cabin, Steamer Bessemer 450 
 
 Steam Pleasure Boat 457 
 
 The Monitor Attacking the Merrimac 465 
 
 Modern Iron-Clads 467 
 
 New Russian Torpedo-Boat 475 
 
 NoRDENFELDT*s Submarine Boat 477 
 
 Interior of Nordenfeldt's Boat 479 
 
 Goubet's Submarine Boat 481 
 
 Tuck's Torpedo Directly beneath the Vessel 483 
 
 Tuck's Torpedo Leaving Vessel 485 
 
 Engine of Modern Steam-Launch 497 
 
ROBERT FULTON 
 
 AND THE 
 
 HISTORY OF STEAM NAVIGATION. 
 
 The Fulton Family — Robert's birth and birthplace — Incidents of his boyhood 
 — Making a paddle-boat — Choice of an occupation — Buys a home for his 
 
 OME time in the first half of the eighteenth 
 
 v^J/ century a young man named Robert Fulton 
 emigrated from Kilkenny, Ireland, to America. He 
 lived first in Philadelphia, where he married Mary 
 Smith, a native of that city, and afterwards moved 
 to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. For the first few years 
 after his arrival in America he engaged in the tailor- 
 ing business, but subsequently became a farmer. In 
 1759 he bought a house in Lancaster, which he 
 owned until February 8, 1765, when he sold it to 
 Edward Shippen. On the same day he bought a 
 farm in Little Britain township (now called Fulton), 
 and shortly afterwards moved to it. On this farm, 
 Robert Fulton, the subject of this biography, was 
 born some time in i 765. The exact date of his 
 birth is not positively known. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 mother. 
 
2 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Robert Fulton, senior, had three daughters and 
 two sons ; Robert, junior, was the eldest son and 
 third child. The father sold the farm in Little 
 Britain in i 766 and returned to Lancaster, where 
 he died two years later. His wife survived him 
 nearly a third of a century ; she died in 1799, on 
 a small farm in Washington County, Pennsylvania, 
 which had been bought by her son Robert thirteen 
 years earlier. 
 
 Down to his eighth year Robert was educated at 
 home. His mother taught him to read and write, 
 but his accomplishments in chirography were 
 limited to little more than pot-hooks and tram- 
 mels." He had also a slight knowledge of arith- 
 metic, and very early in life he showed an aptness 
 for drawing. In 1773 he was sent to school in 
 Lancaster, where he was taught by Caleb Johnson, a 
 dignified Quaker, who soon pronounced young 
 Fulton a dull pupil. He was backward with his 
 lessons and frequently reproved, but it was soon 
 ascertained that he was by no means idle. He 
 cared less for books than for his pencil, and during 
 the time allotted to recreation he often spent hours 
 ov^r drawings. 
 
 He had a fondness for the shops of the mechan- 
 ics, where he was heartily welcomed ; with his taste 
 for drawing and his quickness in mechanical work, 
 he often rendered practical aid to persons much 
 older than himself. 
 
BO YHOOD. 
 
 3 
 
 A few anecdotes of his school-days are preserved 
 in the histories and traditions of Lancaster. One 
 day his teacher reproved him for neglecting his 
 books, and the reproof was administered after the 
 manner of the old masters," — with a ferule on the 
 knuckle. Robert straightened himself, folded his 
 arms, and then said to Mr. Johnson : ''Sir, I came 
 here to have something beat into my head and not 
 into my hand." 
 
 On another occasion he came late, and when the 
 teacher asked the reason, Robert answered that he 
 had been at Mr. Miller s shop pounding out lead 
 to make a pencil. In proof of his statement he 
 exhibited the pencil and said it was the best he ever 
 had in his life ; Mr. Johnson approved it and gave 
 the youth some words of encouragement, and in a 
 few days nearly all the other pupils were supplied 
 with pencils of the same kind. It is said that when 
 Mr. Johnson once urged him to give more atten- 
 tion to his studies, the boy answered that his head 
 was so full of original notions that there was no 
 room to store away the contents of dusty books." 
 As he did not spend his time in idleness there is no 
 doubt of the sincerity of his statement, and his 
 devotion to mechanical works shows what was the 
 natural bent of his mind. 
 
 In 1778, when Robert was thirteen years old, 
 the following notice was published in Lancaster : 
 
 '' The excessive heat of the weather, the present 
 
4 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, [ 
 
 scarcity of candles, and other considerations, in- 
 duce the council to recommend to the inhabitants 
 to forbear illuminating the city on Saturday eve- 
 ning next, July 4th. 
 
 By order, 
 (Signed) Timothy Matlack, Sec/' 
 
 Like other patriotic youths, Robert had prepared 
 for the illumination, and had a quantity of candles 
 ready. As soon as the notice appeared he went to 
 the shop of Mr. Fisher and asked to exchange his 
 candles for powder. Mr. Fisher asked why he 
 wished to part with the candles, which were scarce 
 and dear. The youth answered that he was a good 
 citizen and wanted to respect the request of the 
 authorities, who did not wish the streets and win- 
 dows illuminated. He would not use the candles 
 for the purpose they were originally intended, but 
 preferred illuminating the heavens with sky-rockets. 
 
 After obtaining the powder, he bought some 
 sheets of pasteboard at another shop (kept by Mr. 
 Cossart), and asked that the sheets might be left 
 open as he wished to roll them in his own way. In 
 answer to a question by Mr. Cossart, as to what 
 he intended doing with the pasteboard, he made 
 the same explanation that he had already given to 
 Mr. Fisher. 
 
 The pasteboard-dealer laughed, and said it was 
 an impossibility to shoot candles through the air 
 in the way he proposed. 
 
BO YHOOD. 
 
 5 
 
 No, sir," Robert answered, there is nothing 
 impossible." 
 
 He made the rockets, which were fairly success- 
 ful, and succeeded in astonishing some of the good 
 people of Lancaster, who had never seen any thing 
 of the kind. 
 
 Mr. Reigart, one of his biographers, tells the 
 following : 
 
 Robert was known to purchase small quantities of 
 quicksilver from Dr. Adam Simon Kuhn, druggist, re- 
 siding opposite the market-house. He was trying some 
 experiments that he did not wish to make public, and 
 which the workmen in Mr. Fenno's and Mr. Christian 
 Isch's shops were anxious to find out, but could not. He 
 was in the almost daily habit of visiting those shops (Mr. 
 Isch's smithshop was then located on the northeast cor- 
 ner of West King and Prince streets), and was a favorite 
 among the workmen, who took advantage of his talent 
 for drawling by getting him to make ornamental designs 
 for guns, and sketches of the size and shapes of guns, and 
 then giving the calculations of the force, size of the bore 
 and balls, and the distance they would fire ; and he 
 would accompany them to the open commons near by 
 Potter's Field, to prove his calculation by shooting at a 
 mark. On account of his expertness in his calculations, 
 and on account of their ineffectual efforts to discover the 
 use he was making of quicksilver, the shop-hands nick- 
 named him ' Quicksilver Bob.* 
 
 Mr. Mcssersmith and Mr. Christian Isch were em- 
 ployed by the government to make and repair the arms 
 for the troops, and on several occasions guards were 
 stationed at their shops to watch and see that workmen 
 
6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 were constantly employed during whole nights and on 
 Sunday, to prevent any delay. The workmen had so 
 much reliance and confidence in ' Quicksilver Bob's ' 
 judgment and mechanical skill, that every suggestion he 
 would make as to the alteration of a gun, or any addi- 
 tional ornament that he would design, were invariably 
 adopted by common consent. 
 
 " In the summer of 1779, Robert Fulton evinced an ex- 
 traordinary fondness for inventions. He was a frequent 
 visitor at Mr. Messersmith's and Fenno's gunsmith shops 
 almost daily, and endeavored to manufacture a small air- 
 gun. One of Mr. Jacob Messersmith's apprentices, Mr. 
 Christopher Gumpf, who was at the time eighteen years 
 of age, used frequently to accompany his father. Deter 
 Gumph, to the Conestoga on fishing excursions, Mr. ^ 
 Deter Gumpf being an experienced angler, and very fond 
 of fishing, and he was pleased to have the company of 
 Christopher and Robert. The old gentleman had a small 
 flat-boat, which he had kept secured to the trunk of a tree 
 by a chain and padlock, for his own accommodation. He 
 generally required the boys to pole the boat to differ- 
 ent parts of the creek in the neighborhood of Rockford, 
 the country-seat of General Hand, which at that time was 
 the most secluded, deeply shaded, and quiet neighborhood 
 along the Conestoga. Returning homeward one evening, 
 Fulton observed to Christopher that he was very tired 
 using that pole, and Christopher coincided with him that 
 the labor was too severe. 
 
 Robert absented himself a week, having gone to Little 
 Britain township to spend a few days at his aunt's ; and 
 while there he planned and completed a small working 
 model of a fishing-boat with paddle-wheels. On leaving 
 his aunt's, he placed the model in the garret with the 
 request that it should not be destroyed. Many years 
 
8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 afterwards, that simple model was the attraction of 
 friends, and became, instead of lumber in the garret, an 
 ornament in the aunt's parlor, who prized it highly. That 
 model was the result of Robert's fishing excursions with 
 . Christopher Gumpf ; and when he returned from his 
 aunt's he told Christopher that he must make a set of 
 paddles to work at the sides of the boat, to be operated 
 by a double crank, and then they could propel the old 
 gentleman's fishing-boat with greater ease. Two arms or 
 pieces of timber were then fastened together at right 
 angles, with a paddle at each end, and the crank was at- 
 tached to the boat across it near the stern, with a paddle 
 operating on a pivot as a rudder ; and Fulton's first in- 
 vention was tried on the Conestoga River opposite Rock- 
 ford, in the presence of Deter and Christopher Gumpf. 
 The boys were so pleased with the experiment, that they 
 hid the paddles in the bushes on the shore, lest others 
 might use and break them, and attached them to the boat 
 whenever they chose ; and thus did they enjoy very many 
 fishing excursions." 
 
 Other anecdotes show^ that the old adage, the 
 boy is father of the man," was illustrated in young 
 Fulton's case. He w^as constantly occupied with 
 mechanical projects, some of them quite visionary 
 in their character and others of practical value, 
 while his skill in drawing kept his pencil in active 
 use. His boyhood was in the time of the Revolu- 
 tionary war, and, according to the tradition, Fulton 
 was a most ardent American. He had a genius 
 for caricature, and employed it in making gro- 
 tesque sketches of the Hessian soldiers, who were 
 
BO YHOOD. 
 
 9 
 
 stationed in Lancaster for the protection of the 
 Tory inhabitants and the suppression of the patriots. 
 In the neighborhood of the camping ground there 
 was generally quite an assemblage of the towns- 
 people. Daily about sunset, and very often, there 
 were fights between the Whig and Tory boys. 
 These collisions became so frequent that a rope 
 was stretched across the street as a sort of neutral 
 line, and if either party ventured beyond the boun- 
 dary there was sure to be trouble. 
 
 Robert made a sketch of the spot and drew upon 
 his imagination sufficiently to represent the rebel 
 boys crossing the rope and thrashing the Tories. 
 When his picture was complete he showed it in 
 the workshops, where it attracted much attention. 
 It did more, as it gave a hint to the rebels which 
 they proceeded to act upon. The very next eve- 
 ning after the exhibition of the sketch, they jumped 
 the rope and brought on a fight of such a serious 
 character that the town authorities interfered and 
 prohibited all gatherings of the same kind in 
 future. The instigator of the performance did not 
 have an active hand in it — not from any personal 
 reluctance, but because he had promised his mother 
 he would not. A few of his sketches at this period 
 are still in existence, but the most of them fell into 
 Tory hands and were destroyed. - 
 
 As he advanced in years it became necessary 
 for young Fulton to choose a permanent occupa- 
 
10 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 tion. He was more fond of the pencil and brush 
 than of any thing else, and his ambition turned him 
 in the direction of art. The celebrated American 
 painter, Benjamin West, was a native of the county 
 adjoining the one in which Fulton was born, and 
 his father was an intimate friend of Robert Fulton, 
 senior. At the time of which we write West had 
 become famous, and there is little doubt that his 
 success had much to do with the bent of young 
 Fulton's mind. 
 
 He too determined to be an artist, and at the age 
 of seventeen he left Lancaster for Philadelphia, 
 where he hoped to perfect himself in the technical 
 knowledge requisite for success, as he had the good 
 sense to understand that he could not depend en- 
 tirely upon his natural abilities. He was industri- 
 ous and painstaking, and his industry was rewarded. 
 He made many friends, among them Benjamin 
 Franklin and other men of prominence, and 
 through these friends his occupation became remu- 
 nerative in the first year of his stay in the Quaker 
 City. He painted portraits and landscapes, made 
 drawings of machinery, buildings, carriages, and 
 performed, in fact, pretty nearly all artistic work 
 that came to him. 
 
 In the four years between his seventeenth and 
 his twenty-first birthday he not only supported 
 himself, but sent occasional remittances to his 
 mother and sisters, and at their urgent invitation 
 
BO YHOOD. 
 
 II 
 
 decided to spend the date of his majority at home. 
 How much money he had saved from his earnings 
 is not known, but he certainly had accumulated 
 enough for the purchase of a farm in Washington 
 County, for which he paid eighty pounds (four 
 hundred dollars), a considerable amount for those 
 days. The document by which this property was 
 conveyed is still in existence, and reads as follows : 
 
 Know all men by these presents, that I, 
 Thomas Pollock, and Margaret, his wife, of the township 
 of Hopewell, county of Washington, and State of Penn- 
 sylvania, for and in consideration of the sum of eighty 
 pounds, lawful money of the State aforesaid, to me in 
 hand paid by Robert Fulton, miniature painter, of the 
 city of Philadelphia, and State aforesaid, yeoman, before 
 the sealing and delivery of these presents, the receipt 
 whereof we do hereby acknowledge, and ourselves there- 
 with fully satisfied, contented, and paid, have granted, 
 bargained, sold, and confirmed, and by these presents do 
 grant, bargain, sell, make over, and confirm unto the 
 aforesaid Robert Fulton, to his heirs and assigns — 
 
 A certain parcel of land on the waters of Cross creek, 
 it being part of a tract of land granted by the Common- 
 wealth of Pennsylvania, the I2th day of December, A.D. 
 1785, to the Rev. Joseph Smith, his heirs and assigns, 
 called Wiliome, situated on the waters aforesaid, in the 
 county aforesaid, BEGINNING at a corner white-oak, thence 
 by other lands of the said Joseph Smith south eighty-five 
 degrees, west forty-six perches to a white-oak on the 
 Wheeling path, thence north thirty-two degrees, west 
 eighteen perches to a post, thence south sixty-eight de- 
 grees, west one hundred and thirty-seven perches to a 
 
12 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 dogwood tree, thence north thirty degrees, west one hun- 
 dred and fifty perches to a stump and hickory tree, thence 
 south thirty degrees, west two hundred perches to the 
 place of Beginning — CONTAINING eighty-four (84) acres 
 and three-fourths of an acre — 
 
 With the appurtenances (which said land was formerly 
 surveyed and platted by a certain John Hale for a certain 
 Thomas Gardner, afterwards surveyed with a tract of land 
 in pursuance of a warrant granted to the said Joseph 
 Smith, dated the 30th day of September, 1785, and con- 
 veyed by said Joseph Smith and Esther his wife to 
 Thomas Pollock) — To have and to hold the tract or par- 
 cel of land, with the appurtenances, unto the said Robert 
 Fulton and his heirs, to the use of him, the said Robert 
 Fulton, his heirs and assigns, for ever, free and clear of all 
 restrictions and reservations as to mines, royalties, quit- 
 rents, or otherwise, excepting and reserving only the fifth 
 part of all gold and silver ore for the use of this Common- 
 wealth, to be delivered at the pit's mouth clear of all 
 charges. 
 
 In witness whereof we have here set our hands and 
 caused our seals to be affixed, the 6th day of May, A.D. 
 1786. 
 
 Thomas Pollock, [l.s.] 
 Margaret Pollock, [l.s.] 
 Signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of 
 
 J. Marshal, 
 Mary Marshal, 
 ''Thomas Marques." 
 
 A copy of this paper can be seen in the Record- 
 er's office in and for the county of Washington, in 
 Record Book C, vol. i., page 56, May 8, 1786. 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Mrs. Fulton resided on the farm until her death. 
 The property remained in the name of Robert 
 Fulton, but he never lived there. His sister, Mrs. 
 Elizabeth Scott, occupied the place and received it 
 by will from her brother, together with all the live 
 stock and portable property appertaining to it. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Fulton goes to England — West's patronage and friendship — Duke of Bridge- 
 water and Earl Stanhope — West and his works — Fulton on canal navi- 
 gation — His engineering work in England — His inventions — The Erie 
 Canal. 
 
 IN the preceding chapter we have brought the his- 
 tory of Robert Fulton down to the time when 
 he attained his majority and commemorated the 
 event by giving a home to his mother. Immedi- 
 ately after buying the farm in Washington County, 
 he moved the family to it and after seeing them 
 comfortably settled returned to Philadelphia. On 
 his way there he stopped a short time at a mineral 
 spring for the benefit of his health, which was some- 
 what broken in consequence of pulmonary troubles, 
 which his friends attributed to his close application 
 to his profession. 
 
 Partly with a view to the restoration of his health 
 and partly because of his ambition to make a name 
 in the artistic world, he decided upon a voyage to 
 Europe, a momentous undertaking for those times. 
 He had already corresponded with Benjamin West, 
 who promised to aid him with patronage and 
 advice, and he carried letters to several prominent 
 Americans then in London and Paris. West was 
 
i6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 as good as his promise ; he was so well pleased 
 with his compatriot that he introduced him into 
 society, and took him into his own family where, 
 according to his biographer, he remained several 
 years," but the exact period is not stated. 
 
 West painted Fulton's portrait, which is now in 
 possession of his family, but is not considered one 
 of the best works of the famous artist. Through 
 the introductions obtained by his countryman, and 
 the advantage of his instruction, Fulton had plenty 
 of employment. Portraits and landscapes painted 
 by him at this period are to be found in several of 
 
 the stately homes of England," and he counted 
 among his friends the Duke of Bridgewater, Lord 
 Stanhope, and other titled personages. Through 
 all his artistic studies and work, he never lost his 
 taste for mechanics and engineering, and his time 
 was divided between painting and engineering dur- 
 ing a large part of his stay abroad. His friendship 
 for the noblemen named above was in consequence 
 of his engineering abilities rather than his skill 
 with the brush. 
 
 Francis Egerton Bridgewater, second and last 
 duke of that name, was the owner of extensive 
 coal mines at Worsley, and his fame rests upon his 
 achievements in causing the construction of a navi- 
 gable canal from Worsley to Manchester, which 
 was afterwards extended to connect the rivers 
 Trent and Mersey. Charles Earl Stanhope, (the 
 
THE KARL OF BRIDGEWATER. 
 
 17 
 
 third of that title) was the inventor of the Stanhope 
 printing-press, and devoted much time to the study 
 of mechanics and engineering. 
 
 He suggested several improvements in canal locks, 
 and it was in connection with canals and their im- 
 provement that he became intimate with Fulton. 
 They kept up a steady correspondence after Fulton 
 left England, and frequently exchanged ideas on 
 the subject in which both were greatly interested. It 
 must be remembered that the railway had not then 
 been invented, or at any rate was practically 
 unknown, and the canal was regarded as the cheap- 
 est route of transportation. Canals or artificial 
 waterways had been in use in Europe and Asia for 
 hundreds of years, but they probably received their 
 greatest development in the century immediately 
 preceding the invention of the steam railway. 
 
 During his residence in England Mr. Fulton, 
 possibly at the suggestion of Mr. West and cer- 
 tainly with his approval, suggested that the citizens 
 of Philadelphia should purchase the paintings of 
 the latter and found an institute of fine arts to en- 
 courage the study of painting and sculpture. Ac- 
 companying the letter containing the proposal, 
 Mr. Fulton sent a list of all of Mr. West's paintings, 
 portraits excepted, and said they could be bought for 
 fifteen thousand pounds sterling. Considering the 
 prices subsequently obtained by Mr. West for 
 single pictures in the collection, the offer was ex- 
 
i8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 ceedingly liberal, and the investment would have 
 been a very profitable one for the City of Brotherly 
 Love. Fulton suggested measures for raising the 
 necessary funds for the purchase, but no attempt 
 was made to carry out his plans. 
 
 In view of the intimacy between Fulton and 
 West, a few words concerning the latter will be of 
 interest. 
 
 Benjamin West was born in Springfield, Penn- 
 sylvania, in 1738, and died in London in 1820. In 
 his seventh year he began to make colored draw- 
 ings from nature and when he was nine years old 
 he painted a picture which he regarded sixty-seven 
 years later as unsurpassed in certain particulars by 
 any of his subsequent works. He went to Europe 
 in 1760, and in 1768 took up his residence in Lon- 
 don, where he passed the rest of his life. He soon 
 became famous, and, during his artistic career, 
 painted or sketched about four hundred pictures, 
 besides leaving more than two hundred drawings 
 at the time of his death. Battle, historical, and 
 religious pieces were his specialties. Some of his 
 most remarkable works were, The Death of Gen- 
 eral Wolfe," ''Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of 
 Germanicus,'' Christ Healing the Sick,'* Death on 
 the Pale Horse," and ''The Battle of La Hague." 
 
 The ''Death of Wolfe" was painted in the cos- 
 tumes of the period, contrary to the advice of all 
 the eminent artists of the day. Down to that time 
 
BENJA MIN WES T, 
 
 19 
 
 British artists had not dared to abandon classical 
 garments in painting their great pictures, and the 
 experiment of West was considered hazardous in 
 the extreme. Sir Joshua Reynolds advised against 
 it, but afterwards came to West and complimented 
 him on his success. In 1792 West succeeded Sir 
 Joshua Reynolds as President of the Royal Acad- 
 emy, and declined the honor of knighthood. He 
 held the position ten years and then retired, but 
 was reelected in 1803 and retained the honor until 
 his death. 
 
 Mr. West was noted for the advice, patronage, 
 and friendly aid which he gave to young artists, and 
 his treatment of Fulton was no exception to his 
 general course. It is possible that his struggles at 
 the beginning of his career may have caused 
 him to regard aspirants for honors with a kindly 
 eye. He made his first brushes out of hair taken 
 from a cat's tail, and his colors were made from 
 leaves, berries, soot, and any thing else that was 
 attainable. His earliest picture was drawn with 
 red and black ink, and represented his sister's child 
 sleeping in a cradle, and his first instruction in mix- 
 ing colors was obtained from some Indians who 
 made a yearly visit to his native town. At the age of 
 sixteen he was painting portraits in the towns and 
 villages around Philadelphia, and, at the suggest- 
 ion of a gunsmith, he composed and painted 
 ''The Death of Socrates." 
 
20 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 West's parents were Quakers, and the Society of 
 " Friends did not take kindly to the idea of his be- 
 coming a painter. They held a public meeting to 
 discuss the matter, and finally gave their consent. 
 One of his first pictures after this event was '*The 
 Treaty of William Penn with the Indians," and it 
 probably more than repaid his Quaker relatives and 
 friends for the condescension. From the age of 
 sixteen until he went abroad, he painted portraits 
 in Philadelphia and New York, and, in the latter 
 city, he received the encouragement which sent him 
 to Italy. 
 
 During his residence in England Mr. Fulton pub- 
 lished a treatise on canal navigation, and as early as 
 I 793 he had conceived the idea of propelling ves- 
 sels by steam, which is repeatedly mentioned in his 
 manuscripts of that time. In the following year he 
 obtained a patent from the British Government for 
 a double inclined-plane for raising and lowering 
 boats from one level to another on a system of 
 small canals which he had planned. The object of 
 his treatise on canal navigation was to show that 
 small canals without expensive locks, and navigated 
 by boats of limited dimensions, were preferable to 
 large canals, and could be made through many sec- 
 tions of country where extensive works would be 
 unremunerative. 
 
 By means of the double inclined-plane he pro- 
 posed to raise or lower a boat without disturbing 
 
Details 
 
 of Double 
 
 Inclined-Plane. 
 
22 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 its cargo. To accomplish this, he made use of 
 water introduced into coffers from the higher 
 levels, so that the weight of the laden boat 
 would be more than counterbalanced, in much the 
 sarne way that elevators are now operated in many 
 buildings in New York and other cities. 
 
 He also applied the power of water to turbine and 
 other wheels connecting with a revolving drum 
 around which the cable attached to the boat was car- 
 ried. By the power of the wheel a laden boat could be 
 carried up while an empty one was descending the 
 other. He did not claim that the entire idea was 
 a novel one, but his patent was obtained on certain 
 parts of the machinery, and especially on the coffer, 
 which was made to move in a perpendicular shaft 
 or well. 
 
 His book was not restricted to canals, but included 
 improvements in bridges and aqueducts. Before 
 publishing it Mr. Fulton submitted his plans and 
 the models of the machines to Sir John Sinclair, 
 President of the British Board of Agriculture, by 
 whom it was laid before that honorable body. The 
 board passed a resolution endorsing the publication 
 in complimentary terms, and the treatise is said to 
 have been favorably received by engineers and 
 others interested in public works. His patent for 
 double inclined-planes was issued May 8, i 794. 
 
 Immediately on the publication of his book he 
 sent copies to the President of the United States, 
 
CANALS. 
 
 23 
 
 the Secretary of the Treasury, and to the Governor 
 of the State of New York, and accompanying each 
 copy was a letter setthig forth the advantages of 
 canals to the prosperity of the United States. In 
 his letter to the governor he advocated the system 
 of canals in preference to turnpike-roads for in- 
 terior communications, and he recommended his 
 own system of small canals and inclined planes. 
 The books and letters were acknowledged by their 
 recipients, but they do not seem to have attracted 
 much attention in the United States until more 
 than ten years later, when Fulton had returned to 
 his native land and was busy with his projects 
 of steam navigation. In 1807, Mr. Gallatin, who 
 was then Secretary of the Treasury, wrote to Mr. 
 Fulton, asking for information which he desired to 
 embody in his report to Congress on public roads 
 and canals. In response to the Secretary's inquiry 
 Mr. Fulton set forth his views at considerable length, 
 and his letter was made a part of the official report. 
 
 After giving an estimate of the cost of a canal 
 constructed upon his system, its carrying capacities, 
 the cost of transportation, the rate of speed, the 
 advantages to people living near it, etc., etc., Mr. 
 Fulton wrote as follows : 
 
 Having thus, in some degree, considered the advan- 
 tages which canals will produce in point of wealth to 
 individuals and the nation, I will nov/ consider their im- 
 portance to the Union, and their political consequences. 
 
24 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 First, their effect on raising the value of the pubHc 
 lands, and thereby augmenting the revenue. 
 
 In all cases where canals shall pass through the lands 
 of the United States, and open a cheap communication to 
 a good market, such lands will lise in value for twenty 
 miles on each side of the canal. The farmer who will re- 
 side twenty miles from the canal can, in one day, carry a 
 load of produce to its borders ; and were the lands six 
 hundred miles from one of our seaport towns, his barrel 
 of flour, in weight two hundred pounds, could be carried 
 that distance for sixty cents, the price which is now paid 
 to carry a barrel fifty miles on the Lancaster turnpike. 
 Consequently, as relates to cheapness of carriage and easy 
 access to market, the new lands, which lie six hundred 
 miles from the seaports, would be of equal value with 
 lands of equal fertility, which are fifty miles from the sea- 
 ports. But, not to insist on their being of so great a 
 value, until population is as great, it is evident that they 
 must rise in value in a three or fourfold degree ; every 
 lineal mile of canal would accommodate 25,600 acres ; the 
 lands sold by the United States in 1806 averaged about 
 two dollars arr acre, and certainly every acre accom- 
 modated with a canal would produce six dollars ; thus, 
 only twenty miles of canal, each year, running through 
 national lands, would raise the value of 512,000 acres 
 of land at least four dollars an acre, giving two million 
 and forty-three dollars to the treasury, — a sum sufficient 
 to make one hundred and thirty-six miles of canal. Had 
 an individual such a property, and funds to construct 
 canals to its centre, he certainly would do it for his own 
 interest. The nation has the property. And the nation 
 possesses ample funds for such undertakings. 
 
 ^' Second, on their effect in cementing the Union, and 
 
CANALS, 
 
 25 
 
 extending the principles of confederated republican govern- 
 ment, numerous have been the speculations on the dura- 
 tion of our Union, and intrigues have been practised to 
 sever the Western from the Eastern States. The opinion 
 endeavored to be inculcated was, that the inhabitants 
 behind the mountains were cut off from the market of the 
 Atlantic States ; that, consequently, they had a separate 
 interest, and should use their resources to open a com- 
 munication to a market of their own ; that, remote from 
 the seat of government, they could not enjoy their por- 
 tion of advantages arising from the Union, and that, 
 sooner or later, they must separate and govern for them- 
 selves. 
 
 Others, by drawing their examples from European 
 governments, and the monarchies which have grown out 
 of the feudal habits of nations of warriors, whose minds 
 were bent to the absolute power of the few, and the ser- 
 vile obedience of the many, have conceived these States 
 of too great an extent to continue united under a republi- 
 can form of government, and that the time is not distant 
 when they will divide into little kingdoms, retrograding 
 form common-sense to ignorance, adopting all the follies 
 and barbarities which are every day practised in the king- 
 doms and petty states of Europe. But those who have 
 reasoned in this way have not reflected that men are the 
 creatures of habit, and that their habits as well as their 
 interests may be so combined as to make it impossible to 
 separate them without falling back into a state of barbar- 
 ism. Although in ancient times some specks of civiliza- 
 tion have been efl'aced by hordes of uncultivated men, 
 yet it is remarkable that since the invention of printing, 
 and general diffusion of knowledge, no nation has retro- 
 graded in science or improvements ; nor is it reasonable 
 
26 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 to suppose that the Americans, who have as much if not 
 more information in general than any other people, will 
 ever abandon an advantage which they have once gained. 
 England, which at one time was seven petty kingdoms, 
 has, by habit, long been united into one. Scotland, by 
 succession, became united to England, and is now bound 
 to her by habit, by turnpike-roads, canals, and reciprocal 
 interests. In like manner all the counties of England, or 
 departments of France, are bound to each other ; and 
 when the United States shall be bound together by 
 canals, by cheap and easy access to markets in all direc- 
 tions, by a sense of mutual interest arising from mutual 
 intercourse and mingled commerce, it will be no more 
 possible to split them into independent and separate gov- 
 ernments, each lining its frontiers with fortifications and 
 troops, to shackle their own exports and imports to and 
 form the neighboring States, than it is now possible for 
 the government of England to divide and form again into 
 seven kingdoms. But it is necessary to bind the States 
 together by the people's interest, one of which is to en- 
 able every man to sell the produce of his labor at the best 
 market, and purchase at the cheapest. This accords with 
 the idea of Hume, ^ that the government of a wise people 
 would be little more than a system of civil police ; for the 
 best interest of man is industry, and a free exchange of 
 the products of his labor for the things which he may 
 require.' 
 
 On this humane principle, what stronger bonds of union 
 can be invented, than those which enable each individual 
 to transport the produce of his industry i,200 miles for 
 sixty cents the cwt. ? Here, then, is a certain method of 
 securing the union of the States, and of rendering it as 
 lasting as the continent we inhabit. 
 
CANALS. 
 
 27 
 
 It is now eleven years that I have had this plan in 
 contemplation for the good of our country. At the con- 
 clusion of my work on small canals, there is a letter to 
 Thomas Mifflin, then Governor of the State of Pennsyl- 
 vania, on a system of canals for America. In it I con- 
 templated the time when * canals should pass through 
 every vale, wind around every hill, and bind the whole 
 country together in the bonds of social intercourse,' and 
 I am happy to find that, through the good management 
 of a wise administration, a period has arrived when an 
 overflowing treasury exhibits abundant resources, and 
 points the mind to works of such immense importance. 
 Hoping speedily to see them become favorite objects with 
 the whole American people, 
 
 I have the honor to be. 
 
 Your most obedient servant, 
 
 Robert Fulton." 
 
 It is claimed for Mr. Fulton that he never made 
 a model until he had first completed a careful 
 drawing in which every part was shown in detail 
 and projected on the proper scale. In every thing 
 relating to canals and roads his specifications w^ere 
 voluminous and covered all the features of the pro- 
 posed work. It is quite likely that his enthusiasm 
 sometimes carried him into theories that were not 
 altogether borne out by facts as subsequently de- 
 veloped, but in this respect he was not unlike cer- 
 tain engineers of later days. 
 
 Mr, Reigart, his biographer, claims that the 
 
28 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 earliest notice of the desirability of opening a com- 
 munication between the Hudson River and Lake 
 Erie was in a letter which Mr. Fulton sent to the 
 government in 1807 in answer to an inquiry con- 
 cerning a projected canal between the Mississippi 
 River and Lake Pontchartrain. It is hardly prob- 
 able, however, that Fulton was the originator of 
 the Erie Canal project, though there can be little 
 doubt that his advocacy of the enterprise may have 
 advanced it. 
 
 In the spring of 18 10 the Legislature of New 
 York appointed commissioners to examine the 
 route and report upon the feasibility of the work. 
 They reported in the following year, when Mr. 
 Fulton was added to the commission, and in 181 2 
 a second report was made. 
 
 In 18 14 he addressed a long letter to the presi- 
 dent of the commission, in which he set forth the 
 advantages of the proposed canal and the great dif- 
 ference between the cost of transportation in boats 
 and that of the old method by wagons. He esti- 
 mates that on a canal goods can be carried one 
 hundred miles for one dollar a ton, while the usual 
 cost of wagoning was one dollar and sixty cents per 
 hundredweight for one hundred miles, or thirty-two 
 dollars a ton. It consequently follows," said he, 
 ''that on a canal a ton weight could be boated 
 three thousand two hundred miles for the sum now 
 paid to wagon it one hundred miles, and the per- 
 
CANALS. 
 
 29 
 
 sons at three thousand two hundred miles from a 
 good seaport would have all the advantages of 
 trade, or of bringing their produce to market, 
 which those who reside only one hundred miles 
 from market now enjoy, provided the canal were 
 toll free." 
 
 Fulton advocated the construction of the Erie 
 Canal, either as a private enterprise by a company 
 of stockholders, to whom he thought it would make 
 a handsome return for their investment, or as a 
 public enterprise to be paid for by the State. In 
 the latter case he favored a system of tolls suffi- 
 ciently large to pay the cost of the canal and also 
 make a surplus which should be expended in 
 other canals, bridges, roads, and improvements.'' 
 He made a careful computation of the revenue that 
 might be derived from the canal, and thought it 
 should pay for itself in five years from its comple- 
 tion. 
 
 He estimated the cost at $10,000,000. The 
 canal was begun in 1817 and finished in 1825, and 
 the total cost was $6,700,000. It is not often that 
 the estimate of the engineer falls below the actual 
 cost, or even remains within it, as many a capitalist 
 knows to his sorrow. 
 
 As originally constructed the canal was forty 
 feet wide at the surface and twenty-eight feet at 
 bottom, with a depth of four feet. It has since been 
 enlarged to seventy feet at surface and fifty-six at 
 
30 
 
 ROBERT FULTON'. 
 
 bottom, with a depth of seven feet. In their re- 
 port of 1811 the commissioners advocated an in- 
 cHned plane from Lake Erie to a reservoir near the 
 Hudson, with a descent of six inches to the mile 
 for three hundred miles, by making mounds and 
 aqueducts over the valleys along the route. From 
 the reservoir to the Hudson they proposed to have 
 a series of locks, so that all the lockage on the 
 route would be in a single place. After Mr. Ful- 
 ton joined the commission this project was aban- 
 doned, probably through his advice, though this is 
 not positively known. 
 
 Where the Shrewsbury Canal at Long, England, 
 passes over the Tern valley upon an aqueduct 
 nearly two hundred feet in length, serious damage 
 was caused by a flood in the spring of 1795. Mr. 
 Fulton was at Long at the time of the calamity, 
 and after studying the canal and the conditions of 
 its construction, he prepared drawings and plans 
 for building canal aqueducts of cast-iron instead of 
 stone. These were submitted to the British Board 
 of Agriculture early in i 796, together with plans, 
 drawings, and models of bridges. 
 
 His plans were approved and adopted. A cast- 
 iron aqueduct upon the Fulton system was erected 
 across the river Dee in Scotland, and one of his 
 bridges was built at Wandsworth. The dimensions 
 of the bridge are not given, but the aqueduct is 
 thus described : 
 
32 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Nineteen massive conical pillars of stone, at fifty- 
 two feet from each other, the middlemost of which is no 
 less than one hundred and twenty-six feet in height, sup- 
 port between the top of every pair a number of elliptical 
 cast-iron ribs, which, by means of upright and horizontal 
 bars, support a cast-iron aqueduct about three hundred 
 and twenty-nine yards long, twenty feet wide, and six in 
 depth, composed of massive sheets of cast-iron, cemented 
 and riveted together, having on its south side an iron plat- 
 form and railing for the towing-path. 
 
 It was foretold that the effects of heat and cold would 
 destroy it, but no expansion and contraction of the metal 
 is as yet visible ; and notwithstanding the summer's heat, 
 the winter's ice, and numerous floods, this cast-iron aque- 
 duct still remains an evidence of Fulton's practical engi- 
 neering." — Reigart, p. 95. 
 
 Other inventions, for some of which Robert 
 Fulton obtained letters-patent in England, v^ere as 
 follovirs : 
 
 A mill for sav^ing marble. The British Society 
 for the Promotion of Arts and Commerce " passed 
 a resolution of thanks to the inventor of this mill 
 and awarded him an honorary medal. 
 
 A machine for spinning flax. 
 
 A dredging machine for scooping out the earth 
 to form channels or aqueducts, which was afterwards 
 much used in England. 
 
 A MARKET or PASSAGE boat, intended for canal 
 navigation. 
 
AN AMPHIBIOUS BOAT, 
 
 33 
 
 A DESPATCH boat, intended for similar uses, but of 
 greater speed than the preceding. 
 
 A TRADEP or amphibious boat, which was to 
 be used on canals or rivers, and was capable of be- 
 ing moved for short distances on land. According 
 to his plans it was twenty feet long, four wide, and 
 two feet ten inches deep in the clear. It was flat at 
 bottom and square at the ends, bolted and stayed at 
 the corners, and had two ribs or knees about five 
 feet from the ends. Two timbers running the 
 length of the boat gave it strength to prevent 
 breaking when on land ; it was supported on 
 wheels about ten inches in diameter, and two feet 
 from the ends of the boat, and each pair of wheels 
 and its axle were cast in one piece. The wheels 
 were supported in brass sockets and fastened so as 
 to remain in place when the boat was in the water. 
 The wheels w^ere not unlike those in use upon rail- 
 way trucks in the feature of being fastened firmly 
 to the axle or forming a part of it. 
 
 It is impossible to give a full account of Mr. 
 Fulton's movements and occupations during the 
 latter part of his stay in England. Just previous to 
 his return to America he sent home a box contain- 
 ing many of his manuscripts and drawings ; the 
 vessel that brought it was wrecked, and though the 
 box was afterwards recovered, many of the papers 
 it contained were wholly illegible, while the few 
 
34 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 that could be deciphered were read with great 
 difficulty. But from all that can be learned it 
 is evident that from the time he became actively en- 
 gaged in mechanical enterprises he gave little atten- 
 tion to painting ; by far the greater number of the 
 works of his brush, of which any trace can be found, 
 belong to the early period of his life. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 Fulton in Paris — Joel Barlow — Experiments with torpedoes — Diving-boats 
 — Proposals to the French Government — The reply — Official report of 
 experiments — Holland and England — Blowing up the Dorothea. 
 
 IN 1/97 Fulton went to Paris and took lodgings 
 in the hotel occupied by Joel Barlow. A warm 
 friendship sprang up between these gentlemen ; 
 Mr. Fulton resided for several years in Mr. Bar- 
 low's family, and the two seem to have been the 
 closest of companions. They were associated in 
 many projects and enterprises in which poesy, 
 painting, and mechanics were indiscriminately 
 mingled. Mr. Barlow dedicated his Columbiad," 
 a national and historical poem, to his Friend, 
 Robert Fulton," and the latter made a series of 
 illustrations for the book, which was published at 
 great expense. In December of 1797, Fulton and 
 Barlow made an experiment on the Seine with a 
 machine constructed by the former ; its object was 
 to impart motion to cases of gunpowder under 
 water to certain designated points where they were 
 to be exploded. They had high hopes concerning 
 the invention, but were doomed to disappointment, 
 as the machine failed to do what was expected of it. 
 
36 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Joel Barlow was famous in his time as a poet and 
 politician ; he was born in Connecticut in 1755, 
 died near Cracow, Poland, in 1812. From 1788 
 till 1805 he resided abroad, most of the time in 
 France, where the greater part of his literary work 
 was performed. He is best known by his humorous 
 poem, Hasty Pudding," which was written at 
 Chambery, while he was a member of a French 
 commission to organize the newly acquired territory 
 of Savoy. His more pretentious but less popular 
 works were the ''Vision of Columbus," ''Conspir- 
 acy of Kings," and the " Columbiad " already men- 
 tioned. From 1805 till 181 1 he lived at Washing- 
 ton, whence he was sent as Minister of the United 
 States to France. He had a high reputation for 
 diplomatic ability, and his death occurred while he 
 was on a journey to meet the Emperor Napoleon 
 at Wilna, by express invitation of the great soldier. 
 On his deathbed he dictated a poem which assailed 
 Napoleon for the course he had followed, in disap- 
 pointing the hopes of men and spreading the horrors 
 of war through Europe.*^ 
 
 While residing with Mr. Barlow, Fulton learned 
 French, and acquired some knowledge of German 
 and Italian ; he also studied the high mathematics, 
 chemistry, and other branches of science to which 
 his attention had been directed in his mechanical 
 
 * See "Life and Letters of Joel Barlow," by Charles Burr Todd, pub- 
 lished by G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York. 
 
SUBMITS PLANS TO THE FRENCH DIRECTORY. 37 
 
 pui'suits. His study of chemistry was no doubt 
 brought about through his interest in torpedoes, to 
 which he seems to have given a great deal of time. 
 In spite of his occupation in these matters, he had 
 sufficient leisure to paint a panorama, the first ever 
 shown in Paris. Mr. Barlow was his partner in 
 this enterprise, and it is said they made a snug sum 
 of money by its exhibition. 
 
 Though disappointed with the experiment on 
 the waters of the Seine with the machine mentioned, 
 Mr. Fulton was not disheartened. With the per- 
 severance which characterized him, he continued 
 his studies and perfected his plans to his entire 
 satisfaction. But boats cannot be built without 
 money, and the inventor did not possess the neces- 
 sary funds for the work he proposed. He addressed 
 a letter to the French Directory, in which he set 
 forth the usefulness of his invention in enabling the 
 Republic to rid itself of oppressors, and when the 
 letter was presented, it was received with words of 
 encouragement. Day after day he went to the 
 government offices to learn the decision upon his 
 project, and finally was informed that the whole 
 scheme was rejected by the Directory. 
 
 What followed is best told in the words of Mr. 
 Colden : 
 
 Mr. Fulton was never to be discouraged. He thought 
 that the Directory might be induced to change their 
 opinions, or that there might be, as there had been, a 
 
38 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 change in the executive. With these hopes he executed 
 a handsome model of his machine, and a change having 
 taken place as to one of the members of the Directory, he 
 again presented his plan, and a commission was appointed 
 to examine his pretensions. This commission made a 
 very favorable report, but after another three months' 
 attendance on the Minister of the Marine, Mr. Fulton was 
 greatly disappointed to learn that his plan was entirely 
 rejected. 
 
 Not yet discouraged, he offered his project to the 
 Dutch Government, through Mr. Schemelpenick, who was 
 then at Paris as ambassador from Holland. A commis- 
 sioner was in consequence appointed by the executive 
 directory of the Batavian Republic, to examine his modles ; 
 but he met with another disappointment. The commis- 
 sioners spoke so lukewarmly of his propositions, that the 
 Dutch Government would not give him sufficient encour- 
 agement. An individual, however, of that nation, Mr. 
 Vanstaphast, furnished him with the necessary funds, and 
 he proceeded to construct his machine. When it was 
 nearly complete, he ag^in addressed the Dutch minister, 
 who appears to have been personally friendly to his plan. 
 Mr. Fulton pressed upon him the advantages which his 
 nation might derive from adopting submarine navigation. 
 Neither these letters, however, nor others, which he ad- 
 dressed at the same time to the Batavian Executive, ap- 
 pear to have had any success. 
 
 But the French Government changed. Bonaparte 
 placed himself at the head of it, with the title of First 
 Consul. 
 
 Mr. Fulton soon presented an address to him, solicit- 
 ing him to patronize the project for submarine navigation, 
 and praying him to appoint a commission, with sufficient 
 funds and powers to give the necessary assistance. This 
 
I. 7ulton*s Submarine Boat, the Nautilus, in the Harbor of Brest. 
 2. Fulton's Submarine Boat, the Mute. 
 
40 
 
 ROBER T J^ UL TON, 
 
 request was immediately granted, and the citizens Volney 
 La Place, and Monge were named the commissioners. 
 
 In the spring of 1801, Mr. Fulton repaired to Brest 
 to make experiments with the plunging-boat he had con- 
 structed the preceding winter. This, as he says, had many 
 imperfections natural to a first machine of such compli- 
 cated combinations. Added to this, it had suffered much 
 injury from rust, in consequence of his having been 
 obliged to use iron instead of brass or copper for bolts 
 and arbors. 
 
 Notwithstanding these disadvantages, he engaged in 
 a course of experiments with the machine, which required 
 no less courage than energy and perseverance. Of his 
 proceedings, he made a report to the committee appointed 
 by the French Executive, from which report we learn the 
 following interesting facts : 
 
 On the 3d of July, 1801, he embarked with three com- 
 panies on board his plunging-boat, in the harbor of Brest, 
 and descended in it to the depth of five, ten, fifteen, and 
 so to twenty-five feet, but he did not attempt to go 
 lower, because he found that his imperfect machine would 
 not bear the pressure of a greater depth. He remained 
 below the surface one hour. During this time they were 
 in utter darkness. Afterwards he descended with candles, 
 but finding a great disadvantage from their consumption 
 of vital air, he caused, previously to his next experiment, 
 a small window of thick glass to be made near the bow of 
 his boat, and he again descended with her on the 24th of 
 July, 1801. He found that he received from this window, 
 or rather aperture covered with glass, for it was no more 
 than an inch and a half in diameter, sufficient light to 
 enable him to count the minutes on his watch. Having 
 satisfied himself that he could have sufficient light when 
 under water; that he could do without a supply of fresh 
 
THE PLUNGING-BOAT. 
 
 41 
 
 air for a considerable time ; that he could descend to any 
 depth, and rise to the surface with facility, his next object 
 was to try her movements as well on the surface as be- 
 neath it. On the 26th of July, he weighed his anchor 
 and hoisted his sails ; his boat had one mast, a mainsail, 
 and jib. There was only a light breeze, and therefore she 
 did not move on the surface at more than the rate of two 
 miles an hour ; but it was found that she would tack and 
 steer, and sail on a wind or before it, as well as any com- 
 mon sailing-boat. He then struck her masts and sails, to 
 do which, and perfectly prepare the boat for plunging, re- 
 quired about two minutes. Having plunged to a certain 
 depth, he placed two men at the engine, which was in- 
 tended to give her progressive motion, and one at the 
 helm, while he, with a barometer before him, gov- 
 erned the machine, which kept her balanced between the 
 upper and lower waters. He found that with the exertion 
 of one hand only, he could keep her at any depth he 
 pleased. The propelling engine was then put in motion, 
 and he found, upon coming to the surface, that he had, in 
 about seven minutes^ made a progress of four hundred 
 metres, or about five hundred yards. He then again 
 plunged, turned her round while under water, and re- 
 turned to near the place he began to move from. He 
 repeated his experiment several days successively, until 
 he became familiar with the operation of the machinery 
 and the movements of the boat. He found that she was 
 as obedient to her helm under water as any boat could be 
 on the surface, and that the magnetic needle traversed as 
 well in the one situation as the other. 
 
 On the seventh of August, Mr. Fulton again descended 
 with a store of atmospheric air compressed into a copper 
 globe of a cubic foot capacity, into which two hundred 
 atmospheres were forced. Thus prepared he descended 
 
42 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 with three companions to the depth of about five feet. At 
 the expiration of an hour and forty minutes, he began 
 to take small supplies of pure air from his reservoir, and 
 did so as he found occasion, for four hours and twenty 
 minutes. At the expiration of this time he came to the 
 surface, without having experienced any inconvenience 
 from having been so long under water. 
 
 Mr. Fulton was highly satisfied with the success of 
 these experiments ; it determined him to attempt to try 
 the effects of these inventions on the English ships, which 
 were then blockading the coast of France, and were daily 
 near the harbor of Brest. 
 
 His boat at this time he called the submarine boat, or 
 the plunging-boat ; he afterwards gave it the name of 
 the Nautilus. Connected with this machine were what he 
 then called submarine bombs, to which he has since given 
 the name of torpedoes. This invention preceded the 
 Nautilus. It was, indeed, his desire of discovering the 
 means of applying his torpedoes that turned his thoughts 
 to a submarine boat. Satisfied with the performance of his 
 boat, his next object was to make some experiments with 
 the torpedoes. A small shallop was anchored in the roads 
 with a bomb containing about twenty pounds of powder ; 
 he approached to within about two hundred yards of the 
 anchored vessel, struck her -with the torpedo, and blew her 
 into atoms. A column of water and fragments was blown 
 from eighty to one hundred feet in the air. This experi- 
 ment was made in the presence of the prefect of the 
 department, Admiral Villaret, and a multitude of spec- 
 tators." 
 
 Mr. Fulton planned another and larger boat for 
 submarine purposes, but it was never constructed, 
 owing to the lack of funds and the unwillingness of 
 
THE PLUNGING-BOAT, 
 
 43 
 
 the French Government to appropriate the amount 
 needed. Some of the French officers were enthu- 
 siastic over his plans. One of them, St. Aubin, 
 wrote as follows concerning the proposed craft : 
 
 " The diving-boat will be capacious enough to contain 
 eight men and provision for twenty days, and will be 
 of sufificient strength and power to enable him to plunge 
 one hundred feet under water, if necessary. He has con- 
 trived a reservoir of air, which will enable eight men to re- 
 main under water eight hours. When the boat is above 
 water, it has two sails, and looks just Hke a common boat ; 
 when it is to dive, the mast and sails are struck. 
 
 In making his experiments, Mr. Fulton not only re- 
 mained a whole hour under w^ater, w^ith three of his com- 
 panions, but had the boat parallel to the horizon at any 
 given distance. He proved that the compass points as 
 correctly under water as on the surface, and that, while 
 under water, the boat made way at the rate of half a 
 league an hour, by means contrived for that purpose. 
 
 It is not twenty years since all Europe was astonished 
 at the first ascension of men in balloons : perhaps, in a few 
 years, they will not be less surprised to see a flotilla of 
 diving-boats, which, on a given signal, shall, to avoid the 
 pursuit of an enemy, plunge under water, and rise again 
 several leagues from the place where they descended ! 
 
 But if we have not succeeded in steering the balloon, 
 and even were it impossible to attain that object the 
 case is different with the diving-boat, which can be con- 
 ducted under water in the same manner as upon the sur- 
 face. It has the advantage of sailing like the common 
 boat, and also of diving when it is pursued. With these 
 qualities, it is fit for carrying secret orders, to succor a 
 blockaded fort, and to examine the force and position of 
 
44 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 an enemy in their harbors. These are sure and evident 
 benefits which the diving-boat at present promises. But 
 who can see all the consequences of this discovery, or the 
 improvements of which it is susceptible ? Mr. Fulton has 
 already added to his boat a machine by means of which he 
 blew up a large boat in the port of Brest ; and if, by 
 future experiments, the same effect could be produced in 
 frigates or ships of the line, what will become of maritime 
 wars, and where will sailors be found to man ships of war, 
 when it is a physical certainty that they may at any 
 moment be blown into air by means of diving-boats, 
 against which no human foresight can guard them ? " 
 
 The diving-boat was really an adjunct of the 
 torpedo, as its principal object was to furnish a 
 means whereby submarine explosions could be 
 managed for the destruction of an enemy's ships. 
 This system of warfare had its beginning in 1585 
 at Antwerp, when powder-vessels were set afloat 
 on the Scheldt, with the object of destroying 
 the ships of the besiegers. For nearly tw^o hun- 
 dred years after that time very little seems to have 
 been done in the way of experiment in this direc- 
 tion. During the American Revolution, David 
 Bushnell, a native of Connecticut and a captain of 
 engineers, conceived the idea of a submarine boat 
 which should be used to place a case containing 
 one hundred and fifty pounds of gunpowder be- 
 neath a ship and explode it by means of clock- 
 work. His models worked to satisfaction, but such 
 was not the result with the actual machine. 
 
DIVING-BOA T. 
 
 45 
 
 The boat was constructed under Bushnell's super- 
 vision, and the case, with its powder and clock-work, 
 was made ready. Bushnell wished to direct the af- 
 fair in person, but General Washington would not 
 consent to risk the life of the captain on an expe- 
 dition that was perilous in the extreme. Sergeant 
 Ezra Lee, also a native of Connecticut, volunteered 
 for the enterprise, and on a dark night in August, 
 1776, the attempt was made to blow up the British 
 ship Eagle, then lying in New York harbor and 
 carrying the flag of Lord Howe. The plan was to 
 attach the case of powder to the bottom of the 
 Eagle by means of a screw, and when it was prop- 
 erly attached the clock-work was to be set in motion. 
 It was made to run half an hour before exploding, 
 and this half hour would be ample to enable the 
 operator to get to a safe distance. 
 
 Lee had no difficulty in getting where he wished 
 to go — beneath the bottom of the ship. But he 
 found the copper sheathing of the Eagle was so 
 thick that he could not attach the screw, and after 
 working at the job for two hours he gave it up in 
 despair. Then he tried other vessels with a like 
 result, and, as morning approached, he came to the 
 surface not far from some barges belonging to the 
 British forces. Then he descended again, started 
 the clock-work, and pulled to the shore, where he 
 was received and congratulated by General Wash- 
 ington for his bravery. The powder exploded close 
 
46 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 to the flag-ship, and threw a great column of water 
 far into the air. 
 
 The Eagle and other vessels of the British fleet 
 cut their cables and drifted with the tide towards 
 Staten Island. None of them were injured, but 
 the attempt of the Yankees made their officers ex- 
 ceedingly cautious during the rest of the war. For 
 the remainder of their stay in New York they were 
 very prudent in their movements and chary about 
 their anchorage. 
 
 Fulton was probably well acquainted with the 
 exploit of Bushnell, as he seems to have started 
 with his own experiments at the point where his 
 predecessor stopped. He was the first to apply 
 the name ''torpedo" to this particular instrument 
 of warfare, and since his time the name has ad- 
 hered to it. 
 
 It is a curious circumstance that Fulton was a 
 believer in universal peace, and he seems to have 
 been animated by a desire to see the day when 
 armies and navies would be no more needed. To 
 this end he proposed to invent the means of de- 
 stroying ships of war so that navies would be no 
 longer possible, and by so doing he hoped to secure 
 the free navigation of the ocean for all nations of 
 the globe. In 1810 he published a book entitled 
 ''Torpedo War." It bore on its title-page the 
 motto " The liberty of the seas will be the happi- 
 ness of the earth." In his arguments before the 
 
DIVING-BOAT, 
 
 47 
 
 officials of France, England, and the United States 
 he invariably pressed his point that the seas would 
 be made free by the adoption of his invention. 
 
 The English Government heard of the experi- 
 ments which Fulton was making in France with his 
 diving-boat and torpedoes, and there was great 
 uneasiness in consequence. The British ministry 
 held several consultations on the subject and de- 
 termined to induce this dangerous inventor to 
 leave France and take up his residence in England. 
 Lord Sidmouth communicated with Fulton in 
 Paris, and arranged for him to meet a British Gov- 
 ernment agent at Amsterdam. Accordingly Mr. 
 Fulton went to the Dutch capital in October, 1803, 
 and after waiting vainly three months for the 
 British agent, returned to Paris. While in Hol- 
 land he occupied his time in making improvments 
 in his plans, and sketching the Hollanders and 
 their quaint costumes. Many of his sketches are 
 in the nature of caricatures, and show that he was 
 not lacking in humor. 
 
 The agent who had failed to meet him in Am- 
 sterdam came to Paris, bringing a letter from Lord 
 Hawkesbury to Mr. Fulton, in which the invitation 
 to visit London was made in the most flattering 
 terms. Fulton reached the British capital in May, 
 1804, and found that Lord Sidmouth had retired 
 from office and the ministry was in the hands of 
 Mr. Pitt. Though the new ministry was not par- 
 
48 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 ticularly friendly with the old, it approved all that 
 had been done in negotiation with Mr. Fulton, and 
 it was not long before he was called to a personal 
 audience with Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville. Fulton 
 displayed his drawings and explained their mean- 
 ing, and the ministers listened very attentively- 
 When he was through, Mr. Pitt remarked that if 
 the torpedo was introduced into practice it could 
 not fail to annihilate all military marines." 
 
 Pitt and other statesmen were disposed to en- 
 courage the invention, which would give England 
 the supremacy of the seas if she could keep the in- 
 vention in her own hands, but this view was not 
 shared by all. The Lord High Admiral denounced 
 Mr. Pitt for encouraging a mode of warfare which 
 those who commanded the seas did not want, and 
 which, if successful, would wrest the trident from 
 those who then claimed to bear it as the sceptre of 
 supremacy on the ocean.'' 
 
 The British ministry appointed a commission to 
 examine the invention and report. The commis- 
 sioners were Sir Joseph Banks, Mr. Cavendish, Sir 
 Home Popham, Major Congreve, and Mr. John 
 Rennie. They took plenty of time for their delib- 
 erations, and finally reported that the submarine 
 boat was impracticable. 
 
 The torpedo without the submarine boat was 
 worthy of consideration, and Mr. Fulton was au- 
 thorized to blow up the French fleet in Boulogne 
 
DIVING-BOA T, 
 
 49 
 
 harbor. He made the attempt, but the torpedoes 
 exploded harmlessly at the side of the French ves- 
 sels. The inventor was able to explain, as are 
 most inventors under similar circumstances, why 
 the experiment did not succeed. But the inci- 
 dent could not fail to damage his prospects mate- 
 rially. 
 
 In October, )8o5, he blew up the Danish brig 
 Dorothea, a vessel of two hundred tons, that had been 
 provided by the British Government for the experi- 
 ment. It was anchored in Walmar Roads, near 
 Deal, and not far from Walmar Castle, the resi- 
 dence of Mr. Pitt. The Prime Minister and a large 
 number of naval officers were present, and the af- 
 fair, in theatrical parlance, was a complete success. 
 
 The Dorothea was anchored in a tide-way. She 
 drew twelve feet of water, and the current flowing 
 beneath her was quite strong. Fulton prepared 
 two cylindrical cases connected by a line eighty 
 feet long. One of the cases contained sand and 
 the other was filled with one hundred and seventy 
 pounds of powder, which was to be exploded by 
 clock-work similar to that of Bushnell's torpedo, 
 already described. The cases were thrown simul- 
 taneously from two boats seventy-five feet apart in 
 such a way that they drifted across the hawser by 
 which the Dorothea was anchored. When the line 
 struck the hawser, the torpedoes, which had been 
 balanced to float at a depth of fifteen feet, were 
 
so 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 swung around and carried by the tide directly be- 
 neath the ship. The explosion occurred exactly as 
 Fulton had planned. In a letter to Lord Castle- 
 reagh, dated October i6, i8o5, the inventor gives 
 the following account of the affair : 
 
 '^Yesterday about four o'clock I made the intended ex- 
 periment on the brig with* a carcass of one hundred and 
 seventy pounds of powder, and I have the pleasure to in- 
 form you that it succeeded beyond my most sanguine ex- 
 pectations. Exactly in fifteen minutes from the time of 
 drawing the peg and throwing the carcass in the water the 
 explosion took place. It lifted the brig almost bodily and 
 broke her completely in two. The ends sank imme- 
 diately, and in one minute nothing was to be seen of her 
 but floating fragments. Her mainmast and pumps were 
 thrown into the sea, her foremast was broken in three pieces, 
 her beams and knees were thrown from her deck and sides, 
 and her deck-planks were rent in fibres. In fact, her anni- 
 hilation was complete, and the effect was most extraordi- 
 nary. The power, as I had calculated, passed in a right 
 line through her body — that being the line of least resist- 
 ance — and carried all before it. At the time of her going 
 up, she did not appear to make more resistance than a bag 
 of feathers, and went to pieces like a shattered egg-shell." 
 
 The ministry was a long while in deciding upon 
 Fulton's invention, and the inventor waited some- 
 what impatiently for the result. It was finally de- 
 termined that it would be impolitic for the greatest 
 maritime power in the world to introduce into naval 
 warfare a system that would place her on a level with 
 weaker nations, and, consequently, the proposals of 
 
52 
 
 ROLERT FULTON. 
 
 Fulton were declined. A commission suggested that 
 he should receive an ample reward for his trouble 
 and expense, on condition that his torpedo system 
 should be suppressed, and neither England nor 
 any other country be allowed to adopt it. In re- 
 ply, Mr. Fulton declared that he could not accept 
 the proposal on any terms. His answer contained 
 the following paragraph : 
 
 *' At all events, whatever may be your award, I never 
 will consent to let these inventions lie dormant should my 
 country at any time have need of them. Were you to 
 grant me the annuity of twenty thousand pounds a year, 
 I would sacrifice all to the safety and independence of my 
 cou ntry." 
 
 A letter to Lord Granville on the same subject 
 concluded with these emphatic words : 
 
 " It never has been my intention to hide these inven- 
 tions from the world, on any consideration. On the con- 
 trary, it has ever been my intention to make them public 
 as soon as may be consistent with strict justice to all 
 with whom I am concerned. For myself, I have ever 
 considered the interest of America, free commerce, the 
 interest of mankind, the magnitude of the object in view, 
 and the rational reputation connected with it, superior to 
 all calculations of a pecuniary nature." 
 
 In September, 1806, Fulton wrote as follows 
 to Mr. , Barlow, who was then in America, supervis- 
 ing the publication of the Columbiad." 
 
 My arbitration is finished, and I have been allowed 
 the i^io,ooo which I had received, with £^^,000 salary, 
 
54 
 
 ROBERT FULTON-, 
 
 total 1 5,000, though i^i,6oo which I have received on 
 settHng accounts will just square all old debts and expenses 
 in London, and leave me about i^200. My situation now 
 is, my hands are free to burn, sink, and destroy whom I 
 please, and I shall now seriously set about giving liberty 
 to the seas by publishing my system of attack. I have, or 
 will have, when Mr. Parker sends my two thousand pounds, 
 500 sterling a year, with a steam-engine and pictures worth 
 two thousand pounds. Therefore I am not in a state to 
 be pitied. I am now busy winding up every thing, and 
 will leave London about the 23d inst. for Falmouth, from 
 whence I shall sail in the packet the first week in October, 
 and be with you, I hope, in November, perhaps about the 
 14th, my birthday, so you must have a roast goose ready. 
 Do not write me again after receiving this. The packet, 
 being well manned and provided, will be more commodious 
 and safe for an autumn passage, and I think there will be 
 little or no risk ; at least, I prefer taking all the risk there 
 is to idling here a winter. But although there is not 
 much risk, yet accidents may happen, and that the produce 
 of my studies and experience may not be lost to my coun- 
 try, 1 have made out a complete set of drawings and 
 descriptions of my whole system of submarine attack, and 
 another set of drawings with description of the steamboat. 
 These, with my will, I shall put in a tin cylinder, sealed, 
 and leave them in the care of General Lyman, not to be 
 opened unless I am lost. Should such an event happen, 
 I have left you the means to publish these works, with en- 
 gravings, in a handsome manner, and to which you will 
 add your ow^n ideas — showing how the liberty of the seas 
 may be gained by such means, and with such liberty, the 
 immense advantages to America and civilization ; you will 
 also show the necessity of perfecting and establishing the 
 steamboat and canals on the inclined-plane principle. I 
 
DIVING-BOAT. 
 
 55 
 
 have sent you three hundred complete sets of prints for 
 the ' Columbiad ' by the Orb, directed to Mr. Tolman, 
 New York, value ^^"30. As the transport by land to Phila- 
 delphia will not be much, I have sent them by this oppor- 
 tunity, that they may arrive before the law for prohibiting 
 such things is in force, and that the shipment and risk 
 may not approach too near to winter. All my pictures, 
 prints, and other things, I mean to leave here, to be 
 shipped in spring vessels, about April next, when the risk 
 will be inconsiderable. How shall we manage this winter, 
 as you must be in Philadelphia for the printing, and 
 I want to be at New York to build my boat ? I am in ex- 
 cellent health, never better, and good spirits. You know 
 I cannot exist without a project or projects, and I have 
 two or three of the first order of sublimity. As all your 
 prints are soldered up I do not see how I can leave the 
 number you desire with Phillips (the English publisher), 
 but as I leave the plates with Mr. West the necessary 
 number can be struck off when the sheets arrive. We will 
 talk of this in America. Mr. West has been retouching 
 my pictures : they are charming." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Fulton returns to America — Plans for torpedo warfare — An amusing inci- 
 dent at a lecture — Blowing up a brig at anchor — Attack upon the sloop- 
 of-war, Argus — Submarine guns and their execution — Development of 
 torpedo warfare from Fulton's time to the present. 
 
 IN October, 1806, Fulton embarked at Falmouth 
 by way of Halifax for New York, where he 
 arrived on the 13th of December. He soon after 
 went to Washington and laid his plans for torpedo 
 warfare before the administration ; they were favor- 
 ably received, and a small appropriation was made 
 to enable him to try experiments with his novel 
 machines. He returned to New York, and while 
 preparing his materials he announced a lecture 
 upon torpedoes, to which the Mayor and many 
 prominent citizens were invited. His audience 
 was deeply interested as he exhibited the copper 
 cylinders which were to contain the powder, and 
 the clockwork to cause the explosions. At length 
 he turned to a case to which one of the locks was 
 attached, and drawing out a peg said : Gentlemen, 
 this is a charged torpedo with which, precisely in 
 its present state, I intend to blow up a vessel. It 
 contains one hundred and seventy pounds of pow- 
 
BLOWING UP A BRIG, 
 
 57 
 
 der, and if I were to allow the clockwork to run 
 fifteen minutes, it would blow us all to atoms." 
 
 His audience drew back very quickly, and within 
 five minutes Fulton was standing alone. He calmly 
 replaced the peg and stopped the clockwork, but he 
 could not reassemble his auditors until they were 
 assured that the dangerous case had been returned 
 to the magazine, and even then some of them de- 
 clined to listen further. It is not surprising that they 
 acted as they did, and the coolness of the inventor 
 under the circumstances is an indication of his con- 
 fidence that every thing was under perfect control. 
 
 On the 20th of July, 1807, he made the first 
 of the experiments authorized by the United States 
 Government and blew up the hulk of a brig that 
 had been given to him for that purpose. The 
 machinery failed to operate to his satisfaction, and 
 the explosion did not take place until after repeated 
 efforts, and some hours later than the time ap- 
 pointed for it. A large crowd had assembled to 
 witness the explosion, and when it did come off, 
 the greater part of the spectators had retired disap- 
 pointed. The failure was due to the following 
 circumstance which Fulton explained in his book 
 upon torpedo warfare : 
 
 He had tried his torpedoes in a tub of water till 
 they were properly balanced for floating in the 
 desired position, but he had done this without the 
 locks, which were by no means light. When the 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 locks were attached, and the torpedoes were thrown 
 into the water preparatory to floating against the 
 hulk, the additional weight caused them to turn 
 over. The consequence was that when the hammer 
 of the lock drove up the pan the priming powder 
 fell out, and the spark from the flint failed to per- 
 form its work. Percussion locks had not then 
 been invented, and were practically unknown for 
 more than a quarter of a century afterwards. Of 
 course it was necessary to readjust the machines, 
 and the readjustment required considerable time. 
 
 Fulton's experiments with torpedoes were con- 
 tinued at different times for several years, but their 
 success was not sufficient to induce the govern- 
 ment to make large expenditures for the adoption 
 of the system. His plans included four kinds of 
 torpedoes, of which one may be considered defen- 
 sive and three off'ensive. The defensive torpedo 
 was intended for anchoring in a harbor or river in 
 such a position that an enemy's vessel striking 
 against it would cause an explosion. The offen- 
 sive torpedoes were drifting machines like that 
 used in the destruction of the Dorothea ; harpoon- 
 torpedoes which were to be attached to harpoons 
 and thrown from small cannon, so that they would 
 attach themselves to the enemy's vessels where they 
 would be exploded by clockwork ; and spar torpe- 
 does, attached to spars carried by vessels of pecul- 
 iar construction, and projected against the ships 
 doomed to be destroyed. 
 
Fulton's Torpedo System. 
 
6o 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 The government authorities arranged for a trial 
 of the offensive torpedoes upon the sloop-of-war 
 Argus, under command of Captain Lawrence. Mr. 
 Fulton explained to that officer his mode of attack, 
 and the Argus was at once put in trim to make 
 proper defence. A strong netting was attached to 
 the sprit-sail yard and anchored at the bottom, and 
 the ship was enclosed in a pen made by lashing 
 spars together. No boat could reach the side of 
 the ship without entering this pen, and the defen- 
 ders were provided with grappling irons with which 
 to seize and detain an assailing craft. They had 
 pieces of iron suspended from the rigging and 
 ready to be dropped into any boat coming beneath 
 them, and they had scythes fastened to the ends of 
 poles by which the heads of a boat's crew could be 
 cut off. Then there were muskets, and the other 
 small-arms of the day, and altogether it was evident 
 that Fulton and his eight oarsmen would fare 
 badly in case of real warfare of this sort. He ac- 
 knowledged his inability to make any impression 
 upon the Argus under such circumstances, but con- 
 tended that an invention which compelled every 
 hostile vessel entering our ports to make such 
 elaborate preparations for defence could not fail to 
 be of great importance. In this view several of 
 the gentlemen who had been appointed to witness 
 the experiment heartily concurred. 
 
 No attack was made upon the Argus at the time 
 
SUBMARINE GUNS, 
 
 6i 
 
 appointed beyond an attempt to use the harpoon- 
 torpedo and a trial of a new invention which Mr. 
 Fulton called a cable-cutter. The harpoon-torpedo 
 was fired from a small canon, but it was found to 
 be of less range than had been expected, and be- 
 sides it did not attach itself to the side of the 
 vessel as its inventor had hoped. The cable-cutter 
 was a floating torpedo intended to attach itself to 
 the cable of an anchored vessel and cut it by means 
 of an explosion. Anchor chains, such as we have 
 at the present day, were not then in use, the hem- 
 pen cable being almost universally employed for 
 anchoring ships of whatever tonnage. After re- 
 peated experiments, Fulton succeeded in cutting 
 off* a cable fourteen inches in diameter underwater, 
 but the assailants were so much exposed during the 
 performance that it was deemed of no use in actual 
 warfare. The commission did not report favorably 
 upon it, and the Government declined to adopt the 
 apparatus. 
 
 The result of these experiments gave Fulton the 
 idea of firing guns under water, and he made elab- 
 orate calculations to ascertain the resistance of a 
 ball of given dimensions with a given initial veloci- 
 ty. As the basis of his calculations he assumed 
 that a body passing through water would meet the 
 same resistance as the force required for a column 
 of water of the same diameter moving with the 
 same velocity. Then following the rules of hy- 
 
62 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 draulics, he prepared his estimates, and found by 
 actual experiment he was not far out of the way. 
 
 He tried a four-pound cannon having the breech 
 and half its length enclosed in a water-tight box, 
 from which the muzzle, carefully stopped with a 
 tompion, projected. The box was then placed in 
 the water so that the cannon was three feet below 
 the surface, and the gun was fired by dropping a 
 coal of fire into a tin tube that terminated at the 
 vent. The ball struck the sand at the bottom of 
 the river forty-one feet from the muzzle, and the 
 gun was not injured in the least. He next tried 
 the same cannon charged with a pound and a half 
 of powder and fired by one of his water-tight locks 
 at a distance of three feet below the surface.' The 
 ball penetrated to a depth of eleven and a half 
 inches in a wooden target twelve feet from the 
 muzzle, and, as in the previous instance, the gun 
 suffered no damage. 
 
 At his next experiment he fired a one-hundred- 
 pound ball from a columbiad at the same target, 
 which was quite knocked to pieces, while the gun 
 escaped injury. 
 
 In 1813 he took out a patent ''for several im- 
 provements in the art of maritime warfare, and 
 means of injuring and destroying ships and vessels 
 of war by igniting gunpowder under water, or by 
 igniting gunpowder below a line horizontal to the 
 surface of the water, or so igniting gunpowder that 
 
TORPEDO WARFARE. 
 
 63 
 
 the explosion which causes injury to the vessel at- 
 tacked shall be under water." His plan was to 
 place guns in a ship below her water-line, with the 
 breech on the inside of the ship and the muzzle 
 under water, and he claimed there would be no 
 more danger that the guns would burst than when 
 fired in the air. He proposed that the muzzle of 
 the gun should recoil through a stuffing-box, and 
 that a valve should instantly close the orifice after 
 the discharge, so that water could not be admitted. 
 
 Fulton's idea of submarine guns does not seem 
 to have been favorably received by the govern- 
 ment, or, at any rate, it was not adopted. Within 
 the last few years Mr. John Ericsson, the celebrated 
 inventor, has developed a plan for a boat with sub- 
 marine guns. He is confident that the Destroyer," 
 as he calls his craft, will create a new era in naval 
 warfare as soon as the principle is adopted. 
 
 Before dismissing the machines which destroyed 
 the Dorothea but failed to injure the Argus, a few 
 words upon the progress of torpedo warfare will 
 not be without interest. 
 
 Just before the close of the war of 1812-15 the 
 government decided upon a general system of de- 
 fensive torpedoes for the principal Atlantic ports, 
 but the measure was dropped upon the declaration 
 of peace, as the country could not afford the needed 
 expenditure. During the war several private at- 
 tempts were made to inflict damage upon British 
 
64 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 ships on our coast, and though none of the hostile 
 craft were seriously harmed, the dread of the ter- 
 rible torpedoes kept the enemy at a distance and 
 saved many of our ports from invasion. Boats on 
 the Bushnell system were sent against the blockad- 
 ing squadron near London, but they did not suc- 
 ceed, and an immense torpedo sent against the 
 man-of-war Plantagenet, seventy-four guns, off 
 Cape Henry, Virginia, exploded a few minutes 
 too soon. It flooded the Plantagenet's deck with 
 water, and nearly upset the vessel, but she righted 
 herself and escaped injury. 
 
 From that time until the Crimean war little was 
 heard of torpedoes ; attention was then drawn to 
 them by their use in the waters of the Baltic and 
 Black seas where several explosions occurred be- 
 neath British ships but without serious results. In 
 the American civil war torpedoes were freely 
 used in defending the Southern ports, and several 
 ships (some fifteen in all) were destroyed by them ; 
 in a few instances, notably that of the destruction 
 of the ram Albemarle at Plymouth, N. C, the tor- 
 pedo performed effective offensive work. The 
 principal destruction caused by torpedoes was in 
 the last two years of the war. In writing of these 
 weapons a gallant naval officer. Captain Chandler, 
 used the following words : 
 
 The torpedo is destined to be the least expensive but 
 most terrible engine of defence yet invented. No vessel 
 
rOKPEDO WARFARE. 
 
 65 
 
 can be so constructed as to resist its power ; and the un- 
 certainty of its locality would prevent the hostile fleet 
 from approaching the supposed positions. In all collisions 
 between hostile powers, whether army against army, ship 
 against ship, or ship against fort, more or less bravery has 
 been and is destined to be displayed ; but the uncertainty 
 of the locality of the foe — the knowledge that a single 
 touch will lay our ship a helpless, sinking wreck upon the 
 water, without even the satisfaction of firing one shot in 
 return — calls for more courage than can be expressed, and 
 a short cruise among torpedoes will sober the most in- 
 trepid disposition." 
 
 Beginning about 1830 Colonel Samuel Colt, the 
 inventor of the revolving pistol which bears his 
 name, experimented with electricity in discharging 
 torpedoes. He blew up several ships at anchor 
 during experiments covering nearly fourteen years ; 
 on April 13, 1843, he destroyed a brig under full 
 sail in the Potomac River, by means of a torpedo 
 fired from a battery at Alexandria, five miles away. 
 He devised a system of torpedoes which should be 
 planted at different points in a harbor and con- 
 nected with the shore by means of insulated wires. 
 Reflectors would show when a hostile ship was 
 above one of these torpedoes, and the operator at 
 his station could blow her into fragmencs simply by 
 depressing a key. After his death the details of 
 this project were found among his papers, bearing 
 the date 1836. Captain Hennebert, a French en- 
 gineer officer, prepared an elaborate system of sub- 
 
66 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 marine mines soon after Colonel Colt's experiments, 
 but it does not seem to have been adopted by his 
 government, though it was favorably received by 
 military men. 
 
 During the past twenty years all the principal 
 nations have given much attention to torpedoes 
 both for offence and defence, and large amounts of 
 money have been expended on experiments and in 
 the construction of torpedo boats. Space will not 
 permit a detailed account of the progress that has 
 been made in torpedo warfare since the days of 
 Bushnell and Fulton, but it is proper to say at the 
 outset that the plan on which much of their hope 
 was based, that of submarine boats operated by 
 men, has been very generally discarded. Sub- 
 marine boats are used under several systems, but 
 they are propelled by electricity, compressed air, or 
 some other inanimate power that does not involve 
 risk to the life of the operator. A few submarine 
 boats which carry men in their interiors have been 
 constructed, but at present none of them have been 
 tried in actual warfare. Further reference to these 
 boats will be made in a later chapter. 
 
 Offensive torpedoes are of two general kinds — 
 those which are carried upon spars by swiftly-mov- 
 ing boats and those which are launched from boats 
 or from the shore and move under the water or just 
 upon its surface. The first are known as ''spar" 
 and the second as ''fish" torpedoes, and there are 
 
TORPEDO WARFARE, 
 
 67 
 
 several varieties of each kind. With the spar tor- 
 pedo the assailant must approach very near the 
 ship he wishes to destroy and thus be subjected to 
 its fire. The ram Albemarle was destroyed by a 
 spar torpedo, but the explosion came near causing 
 the loss of the entire attacking party, consisting of 
 Lieutenant Gushing and thirteen men. The tor- 
 pedo boat was overturned, and only the lieutenant 
 and one man escaped death or capture. Torpedo 
 boats of this class were used in the late war be- 
 tween Russia and Turkey, and also in the difficul- 
 ties between France and China. They were less 
 successful in the former than in the latter instance. 
 
 The fish torpedo is designed to go beneath the 
 surface of the water. It consists of a cylindrical 
 boat pointed at the ends, carrying a torpedo in its 
 bow, and having its propelling and steering appa- 
 ratus at the stern. It is started from a ship or boat 
 or from the shore, and is expected to explode its 
 torpedo when it comes in contact with the ship 
 against which it is directed. Those which are pro- 
 pelled by electricity carry a coil of insulated wire, 
 which is reeled off as the boat proceeds. The op- 
 erator can send positive or negative currents of 
 electricity through the wire at pleasure, and can 
 control the motion of the boat by means of these 
 currents. 
 
 In one variety of fish torpedo the boat is a few 
 feet below the surface of the water. Two guide- 
 
68 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 rods extend above the surface and enable the op- 
 erator to know the position and direction of the 
 craft. He can make it move to the right or left, 
 or can even require it to describe a circle and return 
 to the starting-point. Another fish torpedo is pro- 
 pelled by compressed air supplied through a flexi- 
 ble tube, which is drawn after the boat as it pro- 
 ceeds. In this class of boat the power remains 
 with the operator, and it is claimed to be a more 
 simple device than the electric boat. 
 
 The great difficulty in the use of offensive tor- 
 pedoes arises from the unwillingness of naval com- 
 manders to keep their vessels in the positions de- 
 sired by their assailants. In a trial of a torpedo in 
 a peaceful locality, a scow or hulk, anchored in a 
 tide-way or floating with a current, may be blown 
 up with ease, as the operator can calculate the force 
 and direction required for reaching the object. But 
 in actual warfare, the captain of a ship does not in 
 his sober moments anchor within torpedo range of 
 his enemy, or, if occasion requires him to do so, he 
 surrounds his vessel with defences similar to those 
 which foiled Mr. Fulton in his essay upon the Ar- 
 gus. 
 
 Every maritime nation manages to become ac- 
 quainted with the assailing devices possessed by its 
 enemy, and up to the present time no human skill 
 has been able to construct an offensive torpedo 
 which could not be successfully resisted or avoided 
 
TORPEDO WARFARE. 
 
 69 
 
 by other human skill. In the last war between 
 Russia and Turkey offensive torpedoes were 
 largely used, but they succeeded in only two in- 
 stances, and both of these were of minor conse- 
 quence. Two Turkish gunboats on the Danube 
 were blown up, but no sea-going vessels were de- 
 stroyed, though the Russians made many attempts 
 upon the Turkish fleet. 
 
 British Iron-clad Protected by Torpedo Netting. 
 
 But in defensive warfare the torpedo is playing 
 an important part, and is destined to greater prom- 
 inence as time goes on. Recent improvements in 
 naval architecture have led to the construction of 
 ships capable of passing the strongest fortifications 
 with comparatively little risk, and demonstrated the 
 necessity of other means of defence than batteries 
 of artillery. In all the great nations a careful dis- 
 tinction is made between offensive and defensive 
 
70 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 torpedoes. In the United States the naval school 
 for offensive torpedoes is at Newport, Rhode Isl- 
 and, while the defensive torpedo school is at Wil- 
 lett's Point, New York. 
 
 After the American civil war the first conspicu- 
 ous use of torpedoes in defence was in the Schles- 
 wig-Holstein war, when the Danes protected their 
 rivers and harbors with ingenious submarine mines 
 which destroyed one of the attacking ship and caused 
 the others to be very wary in their movements. In 
 the South-American wars a few years later the riv- 
 ers and harbors were protected by torpedoes, and 
 the same was the case with the harbors of France 
 and Germany in their war of 1870-71. In fact, 
 nearly every nation that has had hostilities with an- 
 other in the past twenty years has resorted to the 
 torpedo as a most important means of defence. 
 
 In protecting a seaport with torpedoes the mod- 
 dern system has rendered an attack by a fleet a 
 matter of great risk to the invader. Mines may be 
 planted all over a harbor and in its channels, so that 
 a vessel cannot move in any direction without pass- 
 ing over some of them. They can be fired by elec- 
 tricity, either by contact with a buoy or by a current 
 sent from the shore, and by means of reflectors and 
 cameras the position of an enemy's ship may be 
 shown to the operator safely lodged in a casemate 
 of a fortress. He has only to depress a button 
 at the proper moment to blow the ship into frag- 
 
TORPEDO WARFARE, 
 
 71 
 
 ments. By throwing off the electric current the 
 torpedoes may be rendered perfectly harmless to 
 friendly ships, while a restoration of the current 
 instantly puts the mine again in effective condition. 
 Any attempt of an enemy to grapple the torpedoes 
 and remove them at night, will be revealed by the 
 electric current, and it may even be so arranged 
 that the guns of a fort aimed at a given torpedo 
 will be discharged automatically by electricity 
 the moment the torpedo is disturbed. Light- 
 draft torpedo boats are an important adjunct to the 
 defence of a harbor, and nearly all the leading 
 nations of the world are provided with them. 
 
 But while talking about torpedoes, we have not 
 forgotten Fulton. When he left England in 1806, 
 he had other objects in view besides warfare by 
 means of explosives, as we shall learn in the next 
 chapter. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Fulton's experiments with steanx navigation — Correspondence with the Earl 
 of Stanhope — Attempts of inventors previous to Fulton's time — Chan- 
 cellor Livingston — Association of Livingston and Fulton — Experiment 
 on the Seine in 1803 — Engine of the Clermont ordered. 
 
 HE date at which Fulton's attention was called 
 
 jL to the propulsion of boats by steam is not ex- 
 actly known, but his friends have claimed that it was 
 as early as i 790. The first record concerning it is in 
 his letter to the Earl of Stanhope, dated Septem- 
 ber 30, 1793, which was answered on the 7th of the 
 following month in these words : 
 
 Sir : I have received yours of the 30th of September, 
 in which you propose to communicate to me the principles 
 of an invention which you say you have discovered, re- 
 specting the moving of ships by means of steam. It is a 
 subject on which I have made important discoveries. I 
 shall be glad to receive the communication which you in- 
 tend, as I have made the principles of mechanics my par- 
 ticular study." ^ "J^- ^ 
 
 Fulton never claimed to have been the first to 
 suggest steam navigation, but simply to have de- 
 vised improvements by which it could be success- 
 fully accomplished. All previous attempts had 
 failed to be remunerative to those who made them, 
 
ATTEMPTS OF OTHER INVENTORS. 
 
 73 
 
 and it is a matter of history that the first success- 
 ful steamboat was the one built by the man whose 
 biography is here written. 
 
 A summary of these attempts will be interesting 
 at this point. 
 
 Spanish writers believe that one of their country- 
 men, Blasco de Gary, propelled a vessel by steam 
 in the harbor of Barcelona in 1543, and they assert 
 that the ship was moved at the rate of one league 
 per hour. No details of the experiment are given, 
 except that it was made at the order of the king, 
 and the apparatus was applied to the Trinity," a 
 vessel of two hundred tons burthen. 
 
 Nearly all writers upon steam navigation dis- 
 credit the story concerning Blasco de Gary, and 
 say the first authentic steamboat was that of Papin, 
 who published a work in 1690, in which he proposed 
 steam as a universal motive power, and gave a rude 
 plan of a paddle steamer. In 1707 he made a 
 model steamboat, and tried it upon the river Fulda 
 near Cassel. Evidently it was not successful, as it 
 does not seem to have been heard of afterwards. 
 In 1736, Jonathan Hulls took out a patent for a 
 marine engine, which he proposed to place in a 
 boat which was to be used for towing ships very 
 much as the modern tow-boat is employed. His 
 boat was equipped with a single wheel at the stern, 
 and the power was carried to it by bands passing 
 over wheels. 
 
74 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 \\{i]liam Henry, of Chester County, Pennsyl- 
 vania, tried a model steamboat on the Conestoga 
 in 1763, and it has been surmised that Fulton was 
 familiar with this experiment. The Count d'Auxi- 
 ron, M. Perier, and the Marquis de Jouffroy, made 
 similar trials between the years 1774 and 1783. 
 
 The boat of the Marquis de Jouffroy was about 
 forty feet long, and was propelled by paddles 
 which were made to dip in the water while advan- 
 cing through it, their return motion being performed 
 in the air. The trial was made at Lyons in the 
 presence of the entire population of the city and 
 several officials of the government. The boat as- 
 cended the swift current of the river, and though 
 the experiment was considered successful, the gov- 
 ernment refused to grant a patent to the inventor. 
 French writers generally claim for the marquis the 
 honor of having invented the steamboat, and this 
 claim was supported by M. Arago and the French 
 Academy long after the death of the individual 
 most interested in the matter. It it also claimed 
 that Fulton became acquainted with the marquis 
 during his sojourn in France and obtained from 
 him the ideas which he afterwards put in practice 
 in America. 
 
 In connection with the French claim the following 
 letter from Joel Barlow to Mr. Fulton is interesting : 
 
 To-day I went to the National Depot of Machines 
 with Parker to show it him, and there I met Montgolfier, 
 
76 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 and there I saw a strange thing ; it was no less than your 
 very steamboat, in all its parts and principles, in a very 
 elegant model. It contains your wheel-oars precisely as 
 you have placed them, except that it has four wheels on 
 each side to guide round the endless chain instead of two. 
 
 '' The two upper wheels seem to be only to support the 
 chain ; perhaps it is an improvement. The model of the 
 steam-engine is in its place, with a wooden boiler, cylin- 
 der placed horizontal, every thing complete. I never saw 
 a neater model. It belongs to a company at Lyons, who 
 got out a patent about three months ago. Montgolfier 
 says they have made their funds to the amount of two 
 millions for building boats and navigating the Rhone. 
 They have already spent si?<: hundred thousand francs in 
 establishing their atelier at Lyons. They have not yet 
 tried the experiment en grand, I talked with M. a great 
 deal about it, and told him it was Fulton's idea in every 
 part except the cylinder being horizontal, which I be- 
 lieved would not do. He says none of it will do, and ' if 
 M. Fulton had spoken to me of that, I would have com- 
 plained to him of that defect ; and if I had 30,006 francs 
 in that enterprise at Lyons, I would have sold them for a 
 thousand ecus.' 
 
 '' I found, however, after a long discussion, that his 
 objections arose entirely from what you are well aware 
 of, and have calculated exactly, using water instead of 
 land for the point d'appnye. He said nothing that would 
 be new to you. He says that common oars and all modes 
 of moving a thing in water by pushing against water lose 
 ninety-nine hundredths of your power. You see he is not 
 aware that it is a subject of accurate calculation, and that 
 you may know exactly the difference between pushing 
 against water and against solid bodies, I shall say noth- 
 ing to Livingston of this model." 
 
ATTEMPTS OF OTHER INVENTORS. 
 
 77 
 
 The next experiment was made in i 784 by James 
 Rumsey, an American inventor, who built a boat 
 which was propelled by a jet of water forced out at 
 the stern by means of pumps worked by steam 
 power. Rumsey made a trial of his boat on the 
 Potomac River in September of that year in the 
 presence of General Washington and other officers 
 of the army. In 1786 and again in 1787 he re- 
 peated the experiments in larger boats than the 
 first, and his invention was considered sufficiently 
 practicable to recommend it to capitalists. 
 
 The Rumsey Society" was formed in Philadel- 
 phia in 1788, and the inventor went to England 
 where another boat was constructed ; patents were 
 obtained in England, France, and Holland, and a 
 successful trip was made on the Thames in 1792. 
 While making preparations for another trial Rum- 
 sey died suddenly and the company seems to have 
 dissolved. 
 
 Previous to his departure from America Rumsey 
 was in a bitter controversy with John Fitch of Phila- 
 delphia, in which a great many sharp things 
 were said on both sides. Fitch had designed a 
 steamboat about the beginning of 1785, and in the 
 following year he exhibited the working model of a 
 boat with a cylinder one inch in diameter. Exclu- 
 sive privileges for steam navigation were granted 
 him by the Legislature of Pennsylvania, and after- 
 wards of New York and Delaware in March 1787 ; 
 
78 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 in August of the same year he completed and tried a 
 boat with a twelve-inch cylinder, but she proved de- 
 ficient in speed. In 1788 a new boat was built for 
 the same machinery, and it made several passages 
 between Philadelphia and Burlington with a speed 
 of about four miles an hour. 
 
 The last and largest boat upon Fitch's plan was 
 built in 1789 and tried in 1790; it had a cylinder 
 eighteen inches in diameter and was run as a 
 passenger boat on the Delaware for the entire sum- 
 mer of that year. It made about seven and a half 
 
 miles an hour and altoo^ether is said to have run 
 
 <_> 
 
 more than two thousand miles before it was finally 
 laid up. As a speculation it was a failure and the 
 stockholders refused to advance more money for 
 the enterprise ; Fitch was reduced to poverty and 
 for some time wandered through the streets of 
 Philadelphia hardly knowing where his next meal 
 would be obtained. Through the aid of friends he 
 was able to go to France in the hope of introducing 
 his invention there, but the hope was blasted and 
 he returned from Europe as a sailor before the 
 mast. 
 
 Fitch constantly asserted that steamships would 
 one day navigate the ocean and that the traffic on 
 great rivers would be conducted exclusively on 
 boats propelled by steam. He predicted that some 
 one who came after him would obtain honor and 
 fortune by establishing steam navigation on a 
 
So 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 sound basis, and he was very bitter towards those 
 who did not beheve in his projects. He died sud- 
 denly in I 798 in the midst of discouragements, the 
 last one being his inability to induce capitalists to 
 undertake the formation of companies for the navi- 
 gation of our western rivers by steamboats. 
 
 Fitch's boat was propelled by oars or paddles 
 working at the sides of the craft in much the same 
 
 John Fitch, 1796. Collect Pond, New York. 
 
 way as the boat of the Marquis de Jouffroy. In 
 1796 he tried a small boat on the Collect Pond, 
 New York, which has been described as a screw 
 propeller, as it was driven by a submerged wheel. 
 According to the description made at the 
 trial, it was a ship's yawl fitted with a screw 
 greatly resembling the one afterwards brought for- 
 ward by Woodcraft. 
 
 Fitch seems to have fallen just short of success 
 
ATTEMPTS OF OTHER INVENTORS. 
 
 8l 
 
 and it is probable that the science of steam naviga- 
 tion owes more to him than to any other of Fulton's 
 predecessors. If the boat of i 790 had been com- 
 mercially remunerative it would have led to the 
 construction of other boats for the navigation of 
 the Delaware ; from Philadelphia the knowledge 
 and application of Fitch's invention would have 
 spread through the country, and from America to 
 the rest of the world. But failure caused the total 
 abandonment of the enterprise and we hear no 
 more of steam navigation in America until near the 
 beginning of the nineteenth century. 
 
 A model steamboat was constructed in i 789 by 
 Nathan Read, who had previously experimented 
 with a boat propelled by paddles attached to a 
 crank worked by hand. With this boat he crossed 
 with great ease an arm of the sea in Danvers, 
 Massachusetts, and his success convinced him that 
 the paddle-wheel was an effective mode of propul- 
 sion. He applied for a patent upon his system, 
 but before his papers were considered he learned that 
 the paddle-wheel had been rejected in France as 
 impracticable. Supposing this previous experiment 
 would invalidate his claim, he withdrew the part of 
 his application referring to the wheels, and retained 
 only the claim for a portable furnace and tubular 
 boiler. He afterwards applied for a mode of pro- 
 pulsion by means of an endless chain with buckets or 
 paddles attached, though he still preferred the wheel. 
 
82 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 William Longstreet, a native of New Jersey, and 
 in I 790 a resident of Georgia, wrote in that year a 
 letter to Thomas Tolfairs, of Savannah, asking 
 assistance in the construction of a boat to be pro- 
 pelled by steam. The letter was published in the 
 Savannah papers, but did not bring the needed 
 funds. Subsequently he obtained sufficient money 
 to build a boat which was propelled on the Savan- 
 nah River, against the tide, five miles an hour. 
 The plan of propulsion is not known. The enter- 
 prise was unsuccessful, and Longstreet turned his 
 attention to the construction of cotton-gins and 
 other m.achinery, until his death, in 18 14. 
 
 Elijah Ormsbee, a native of Connecticut, lived, 
 in 1792, at Providence, Rhode Island. He was 
 a carpenter by trade, and had the ingenuity for 
 which the Yankee is proverbial. He proposed to 
 David Wilkinson, of Pawtucket, that the latter 
 should make certain castings for a steam-engine, 
 while he (Ormsbee) would make the wood-work 
 for an engine for propelling a boat. Wilkinson 
 agreed to the proposal and made the castings and 
 wrought-iron work suggested by Ormsbee. The 
 latter borrowed a long-boat belonging to the ship 
 Abigail, from her owners, Clark and Nightengale, 
 and also borrowed a copper still of one hundred 
 and fifty gallons' capacity from Captain Ephraim 
 Bowen. 
 
 With the boat and materials he retired to a 
 
ATTEMPTS OF OTHER INVENTORS. 
 
 83 
 
 place called Windsor Cave, where he worked dili- 
 gently to carry out his idea. He had discussed 
 with Wilkinson the mode of propulsion. After 
 much deliberation they decided that paddle-wheels 
 would not answer, and gave their preference for a 
 .''goose-foot." This was a sort of paddle which was 
 moved forward and aft by the engine ; as it went 
 forward it closed, but immediately opened on being 
 pressed against the water. The action of the foot 
 of the goose, or other aquatic bird, had given the 
 idea of this mode of propulsion. 
 
 One afternoon in the autumn of 1792, Ormsbee 
 was ready, and made an experimental trip from 
 Windsor Cave to Long Wharf, Providence. The 
 next day he went to Pawtucket to show Wilkinson 
 the success of the scheme, and for several weeks 
 the boat went up and down the river frequently, at 
 the rate of between three and four miles an hour. 
 But nobody would advance the necessary capital 
 for the construction of a larger steamer, and, after 
 several vain attempts to obtain it, Ormsbee returned 
 the long-boat and copper still to their owners and 
 went to work again at his bench. 
 
 Samuel Morey, of Connecticut, made experi- 
 ments on the Connecticut River between 1790 and 
 1794, at propelling boats by steam. In the first 
 named year he constructed a model steamboat, and 
 in 1793 he built a boat with' a wheel at the stern, 
 which is said to have ascended the Connecticut 
 
84 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 River between Oxford and Fairlee at the rate of 
 five miles an hour. The boat was just large enough 
 to contain himself and his machinery. In 1794 
 he is said to have built a larger boat, with which 
 he went from Hartford to New York, where the 
 craft was seen by Chancellor Livingston, Judge Liv- 
 ingston, Edward Livingston, John Stevens, and 
 others. 
 
 Morey took out patents for the application of 
 steam to the propulsion of boats previous to the 
 patents of Fulton. His biographer. Rev. Cyrus 
 Mann, of Oxford, New Hampshire, says Morey 
 corresponded with Fulton, and showed him the 
 model of his boat before the Clermont was begun. 
 In 1797 Morey built a steamboat at Bordentown, 
 New Jersey, and ran it to Philadelphia. It was 
 propelled by wheels, one on each side, with a shaft 
 running across the boat, and having a crank in the 
 centre. Down to his death, in 1843, Morey 
 claimed that Fulton stole the idea of the steamboat 
 from him. This claim is weakened by the fact that 
 Fulton was not in America at the time of Morey's 
 experiments, and his plans for building the Cler- 
 mont were made on the other side of the Atlantic 
 after his experiments with Livingston in France. 
 
 The Maryland Historical Society published in 
 1871 ''A Lost Chapter in the History of the 
 Steamboat," by J. H. B. Latrobe. In this pamph- 
 let the claims of Nicholas J. Roosevelt as the 
 
ATTEMPTS OF OTHER INVENTORS. 
 
 85 
 
 inventor of the steamboat are set forth. Roose- 
 velt in 1815 sent a petition to the Legislature of 
 New Jersey, in which he claimed, to be ''the true 
 and original inventor and discoverer of steamboats 
 with vertical wheels." In an affidavit attached 
 to his petition he says that in or about 1781 
 or 1782 he made a wooden model of a boat with 
 vertical wheels which were propelled by springs of 
 hickory or whalebone attached to a cord passing 
 
 Miller, Taylor, and Symington, 1788. 
 
 between the wheels. In 1798 he agreed with Chan- 
 cellor Livingston and John Stevens to build a boat 
 on joint account. The engines were to be con- 
 structed at Second River by Roosevelt, while the 
 propelling power was to be on the plan of the 
 Chancellor. 
 
 The propelling power was an endless chain with 
 floats or paddles, and the boat was tried in the lat- 
 
86 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 ter part of 1798. It attained a speed of three miles 
 an hour with the wind and tide in its favor. 
 Roosevelt proposed to the Chancellor to have 
 vertical wheels over the sides of the boat, but the 
 latter replied October 28, 1798 : ''As for the verti- 
 cal wheels, they are out of the question." The ex- 
 periments were continued through 1799 and 1800, 
 but were brought to an end near the close of the 
 latter year by the appointment of Chancellor Liv- 
 ingston as Minister to France. 
 
 While Fitch and Rumsey were making their ex- 
 periments on the Potomac and Delaware, and in- 
 dulging in that war of pamphlets which was injuri- 
 ous to the honor and fortunes of both, experiments 
 were making on the other side of the Atlantic. In 
 1788 three Scotchmen — Miller, Taylor, and Sy- 
 mington — tried a boat on the Dalswinton River 
 and obtained a speed of five miles an hour. Their 
 boat consisted of two hulls with a wheel between 
 them propelled by an engine in one of the hulls. 
 Craft of similar construction may be seen to-day at 
 St. Louis, where they are used as ferries. Another 
 and larger boat was built by the same gentlemen in 
 I 789 and attained a speed of seven miles an hour. 
 In 1 801 Lord Dundas engaged Symington to con- 
 struct a boat for towing on the Caledonian 
 Canal. It was completed and put in operation in 
 1802 under the name of the ''Charlotte Dundas," 
 and was capable of drawing a vessel of 140 tons 
 
ATTEMPTS OF OTHER INVENTORS, 
 
 87 
 
 nearly four miles an hour. It was found, however, 
 that the ''wash" caused by the wheels was very 
 detrimental to the banks of the canal. The boat 
 was laid up after a few years, and finally rotted to 
 
 The "Charloiie Dundas,"i8oi . 
 
 pieces where she lay. English writers have claimed 
 that Fulton obtained his ideas of a steamboat from 
 the Charlotte Dundas, but it is pretty certain he 
 never saw that vessel, and there is no proof that he 
 ever heard of her. 
 
 Stevens' Sectional Boiler, 1804. 
 
 One more experimenter precedes Fulton — it is 
 Colonel John Stevens, of Hoboken, who obtained 
 a patent in 1804 fc>r a sectional boiler, and built a 
 
88 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Steamboat with twin screws driven by a high-pres- 
 sure engine attached to a boiler of the new design. 
 His boat was sixty-eight feet long and fourteen feet 
 broad, and the machinery is preserved in the Ste- 
 vens Institute at Hoboken. It was placed in a new 
 hull in 1844 3.nd tried on the Hudson, where it at- 
 tained a speed of eight miles an hour. It is a curi- 
 ous circumstance that the screw principle was ap- 
 plied to the propulsion of vessels before the paddle 
 
 Stevens' Screw Steamer, 1804. 
 
 steamer became successful ; that it was neglected 
 for about forty years and again assumed promi- 
 nence. At present the paddle-wheel is almost 
 wholly abandoned for the screw in ocean naviga- 
 tion, and is taking its place in many inland waters, 
 where sufihcient depth for the proper working of the 
 screw can be obtained. 
 
 The celebrated Dr. Franklin proposed a steam- 
 boat which was to be moved by a column of water 
 
ATTEMPTS OF OTHER INVENTORS. 
 
 89 
 
 flowing out at the stern ; his plan was never tried by 
 himself but the same idea had occurred to Rumsey, 
 whose experiment failed as already mentioned. 
 Dr. Franklin became convinced that it was not 
 practicable and economical to move boats by steam 
 owing to the great cost of running the engines and 
 the large space they would occupy. The same 
 belief was expressed by Benjamin H. Latrobe, an 
 eminent engineer, in a paper read before the 
 American Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, on 
 the 20th of May 1803. ^^e conclusion of his 
 
 paper Mr. Latrobe said : 
 
 There are, indeed, general objections to the use of the 
 steam-engine for impelling boats, from which no particular 
 mode of application can be free. These are : 
 
 First. The weight of the engine and of the fuel. 
 
 Second. The large space it occupies. 
 
 Third. The tendency of its action to rack the vessel 
 and render it leaky. 
 
 Fourth. The expense of maintenance. 
 
 Fifth. The irregularity of its motion, and the motion 
 of the water in the boiler and cistern, and of the fuel- 
 vessel in rough water. 
 
 Sixth. The difficulty arising from the liability of the 
 paddles or oars to break, if light, and from the weight if 
 made strong. 
 
 Nor have I ever heard of an instance, verified by 
 other testimony than' that of the inventor, of a speedy 
 and agreeable voyage having been performed in a steam- 
 V >at of any construction. 
 
 I am well aware that there are still many very respec- 
 
go 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 table and ingenious men, who consider the application of 
 the steam-engine to the purpose of navigation, as highly 
 important and very practicable, especially on the rapid 
 waters of the Mississippi ; and who would feel themselves 
 almost offended at the expression of an opposite opinion. 
 And perhaps some of the objections against it may be 
 avoided. That foanded on the expense and weight of 
 the fuel, may not for some years, exist on the Mississippi, 
 where there is a redundance of wood on the banks ; but 
 the cutting and loading will be ahnost as great an evil." 
 
 In the light of the progress that has been made 
 in steam navigation we may be inclined to smile at 
 this gentleman's suggestions, but he echoed the 
 general belief of the scientific men of the day, and 
 his paper was published in the transactions of the 
 society for the year named. 
 
 Among the ''very respectable and ingenious 
 men" to whom Mr. Latrobe makes reference he 
 undoubtedly included Hon. Robert R. Livingston, 
 though he does not give his name. Mr. Living- 
 ston was a statesman and jurist of renown in his 
 time, and a member of a family distinguished 
 through several generations for its ability and its 
 prominence in public affairs. He was born in New 
 York City in 1746 and died in 18 13, was a member 
 of the second Continental Congress and one of the 
 committee of five to draft the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence. He w^as absent from Philadelphia on 
 the memorable Fourth of July, 1776, and conse- 
 quently his name does not appear among the sign- 
 
CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON. 
 
 91 
 
 ers of the celebrated document, but he took an 
 active part in the revolutionary measures, was again 
 a member of Congress in 1 780, and Secretary of 
 Foreign Affairs from 1781 to 1783. 
 
 Livingston was a member of the convention that 
 framed the first constitution of the State of New- 
 York, which was adopted in 1777, and was the first 
 chancellor of the State, holding the office till 1801. 
 For this reason he is generally known as Chancel- 
 lor Livingston ; in this capacity he administered 
 the oath of office to Washington on his first 
 assumption of the duties of President in 1879. 
 1 801 he was appointed Minister of the United 
 States to France, and two years later he negotiated 
 the purchase of the territory of Louisiana from the 
 French Government. He resigned his official posi- 
 tion in 1804 and returned to America in 1805. 
 
 In addition to public affairs Chancellor Livings- 
 ton took great interest in mechanical, industrial, 
 scientific, and artistic matters, and was constantly 
 alive to measures that would increase the prosperity 
 of his country and the intelligence of its citizens, 
 l^he experiments of Fitch and Rumsey drew his at- 
 tention to the problem of moving boats by steam, 
 and he realized the great benefits that would come 
 from the successful adoption of steamboats in the 
 navigation of the rivers and lakes of the United 
 States. According to Mr. Colden he applied 
 himself with uncommon energy and perseverance 
 
92 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 and at great expense to constructing vessels and 
 machinery for that kind of navigation. As early 
 as I 798 he believed that he had accomplished his 
 object and represented to the Legislature of the 
 State of New York that he was possessed of a 
 mode of applying the steam-engine to propel a 
 boat on new and advantageous principles ; but 
 that he was deterred from carrying it into effect by 
 the uncertainty and hazard of a very expensive ex- 
 periment, unless he could be assured of an exclusive 
 advantage from it should it be found successful 
 
 ''The Legislature, in March, 1798, passed an 
 act vesting Mr. Livingston with the exclusive 
 right and privilege of navigating all kinds of boats, 
 which might be propelled by the force of fire or 
 steam, on all the waters within the territory or 
 jurisdiction of the State of New York, for the 
 term of twenty years from the passing of the act ; 
 upon condition that he should within a twelvemonth 
 build such a boat, the mean of whose progress 
 should not be less than four miles an hour." 
 
 Dr. Mitchell of New York introduced the bill, 
 and it was received with much opposition, princi- 
 pally by the lawyers and wags in the house. The 
 project was deemed idle and whimsical and 
 quite unworthy the attention of the Legislature, 
 and the introducer of the bill had his temper 
 sorely tried by the number and character of the 
 jokes that were made concerning it. In the State 
 
ASSOCIATION 0/^ LIVINGSTON AND FULTON, 93 
 
 Senate it was regarc'.ed in the same way, and one 
 Senator said that whenever the younger members 
 desired a Httle fun they would call up the steam- 
 boat bill and indulge in ridicule of the project and 
 its advocates. When the bill was passed it was 
 looked upon more as a joke than any thing else by 
 the majority of the members, and some of them 
 were quite willing to give Mr. Livingston a monop- 
 oly for a hundred or a thousand years, as they did 
 not believe the scheme would ever amount to any 
 thing. 
 
 As soon as the act was passed Mr. Livingston 
 built a boat of about thirty tons' burthen to be 
 propelled by steam, but she was deficient in speed 
 and did not meet the requirements of the law. The 
 year allowed for the preliminary trial elapsed and 
 the project was abandoned for a time, though the 
 Chancellor does not seem to have been discour- 
 aged. His departure for France occurred soon 
 after the discontinuance of the enterprise, and little 
 was said about steamboats in the United States 
 until a few years afterwards. 
 
 Livingston and Fulton became acquainted in 
 Paris and it was quite natural that they should be 
 drawn closely together from their interest in the 
 great problem which occupied both their minds. 
 They had many consultations and conferences 
 which resulted in a determination to build an ex- 
 perimental boat at their joint expense. In 1802 
 
94 
 
 ROBERT FULTOV. 
 
 Mr. Fulton went to Plombieres, France, to accom- 
 pany Mrs. Barlow, who had been sent there by her 
 physician, and while at Plombferes he tried some 
 models of boats which he constructed with his own 
 hands. In the latter part of the same year the con- 
 struction of the steamboat was beg-un at Paris and 
 it was completed early in the spring of 1803. 
 
 It was placed in the Seine, and Mr. Fulton and 
 Mr. Livingston were preparing to invite their friends 
 and others to witness the experiment when, early 
 one morning, the former gentleman was roused by a 
 messenger who came to tell him that the boat had 
 broken in pieces and gone to the bottom of the 
 river. In narrating the incident afterwards the 
 inventor said the news created a despondency he 
 had never felt before, but the sensation was only 
 momentary. Without waiting for his breakfast he 
 hurried to the spot where the boat had been moored 
 to the bank, and unhappily found that the mes- 
 sengers story was correct. The frame of the boat 
 was too weak to support the weight of the machin- 
 ery ; a gale had been blowing during the night, and 
 the agitation of the water had caused the craft to 
 break in two. She lay at the bottom of the river 
 and not a vestige of her was visible above the 
 surface of the water. 
 
 Without returning to his lodgings, Fulton went 
 to work to raise what was left of his boat, and 
 within twenty-four hours he had the machinery and 
 
96 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 the fragments of the hull safe on land, with the excep- 
 tion of a few unimportant pieces. But the destruc- 
 tion was so complete that it was necessary to rebuild 
 the boat entirely, and the work was not accom- 
 plished until the following July. During the work 
 of raising the boat Mr. Fulton was much of the 
 time in the river up to his waist, and he took no 
 rest or refreshment for the whole twenty-four hours. 
 At that time of the year the water of the Seine is 
 very cold, and the exposure and excitement brought 
 on a pulmonary trouble which remained with him 
 for the rest of his life. Much of his subsequent 
 ill-health was attributed to this incident. 
 
 Though the boat was destroyed, the machinery 
 was very little injured, and consequently the pecu- 
 niary damage was less than had first been supposed. 
 Early in August Mr. Fulton wrote to the officers 
 of the French National Institute, inviting them to 
 witness the trial of the boat ; they accepted the in- 
 vitation, and the experiment took place in their 
 presence, together with that of other distinguished 
 citizens of Paris, and a considerable multitude at- 
 tracted by idle curiosity. The boat was sixty-six 
 feet long and eight feet wide, and was moved by 
 wheels on the sides. The experiment was satisfac- 
 tory, though the boat did not equal the expectations 
 of her builders in point of speed. Mr. Fulton at 
 once declared that the engines were not sufficiently 
 powerful, and besides, there were many defects in 
 
ENGINE OF THE CLERMONT ORDERED. 97 
 
 their construction which could be remedied. Both 
 Fulton and Livingston were satisfied with the 
 result, and determined to build a larger and more 
 powerful boat for the navigation of the Hudson 
 River. 
 
 Mr. Livingston supplied the necessary funds, 
 and Fulton at once ordered an engine from Messrs. 
 Boulton & Watt, of Birmingham, which was to be 
 built upon certain specifications which he furnished. 
 He did not tell them the purposes for which it was 
 intended, and consequently there was a correspon- 
 dence concerning the engine, which caused consid- 
 erable delay in the work. On his arrival in Eng- 
 land, Fulton went to Birmingham and made some 
 new specifications for the work, which was not 
 pushed with any rapidity. By the terms of the 
 contract the engine should have been in America 
 in 1805, but it did not arrive until after Fulton's 
 return in 1806. 
 
 At the same time Livingston wrote to his friends 
 at home, and through their influence and action the 
 Leg, ji^^ture of the State of New York passed a law 
 rene ing the exclusive privilege of navigating the 
 wate's of the State by steam, which had been pre- 
 viously granted to Mr. Livingston, but had lapsed 
 in consequence of the failure of the experimental 
 beat of 1798. In the new act Fulton's name was 
 united with that of Livingston, the two being 
 made joint grantees, and they were allowed two 
 
98 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 years in which to produce a steamboat of not less 
 than twenty tons burthen, which should move with 
 and against the current of the Hudson River at 
 the rate of four miles an hour. A later law ex- 
 tended the limit of time for the trial to April, 1807. 
 
 While Fulton was at Plombieres, Mr. Barlow 
 wrote him as follows : 
 
 •5f -K- 'k u J j^^j ^ great talk with Livingston. He 
 says he is perfectly satisfied with your experiments and 
 calculations, but is always suspicious that the engine 
 beating up and down will break the boat to pieces. He 
 seems to be for trying the horizontal cylinder, or for return- 
 ing to his mercurial engine. I see his mind is not settled, 
 and he promises now to write you, which he says he 
 should have done long ago, but he thought you were to 
 be back every fortnight. He thinks che scale you talk of 
 going on is much too large, and especially that part which 
 respects the money. You converted him as to the prefer- 
 ence of the wheels above all other modes, but he says they 
 cannot be patented in America because a man (I forget 
 his name) has proposed the same thing there. You will 
 soon get his letter. Parker is highly gratified with your 
 experiments; he wishes, however, something fuiiidr-r to 
 remove his doubts — about keeping the proportionsxtid as. 
 to the loss of power in different velocities. He wisues to 
 have another barrelier made, four times as strong this 
 or thereabouts, to see whether the proportional velocity 
 would be the same when moving by. the paddles as when 
 moving by the fixtuic v.n shore. I should like ^-o see this 
 too. If you desire it, I can take this barrelier to Cala and 
 see whether he can make' another of the same volume four 
 
BARLOW TO FULTON. 
 
 99 
 
 times as strong, and know what it will cost. The relative 
 velocities can be tried in Perrier's pond on the hill." 
 
 A week later he wrote again on the same subject : 
 
 Your reasoning is perfectly right about inventions 
 and the spirit of the patent laws, and I have no doubt it 
 may be secured in America. ^ ^ ^ My project would 
 be that you should pass directly over to England, silent 
 and steady, make Chapman construct an engine of twelve 
 inches, while you are building a boat of a proportionate 
 size. Make the experiments on that scale, all quiet and 
 quick. If it answers, put the machinery on board a ves- 
 sel and go directly to New York (ordering another engine 
 as large as you please to follow you), then secure your 
 patent and begin your operation, first small and then 
 large. I think I will find you the funds without any noise 
 for the first operation in England, and if it promises well 
 you will get as many funds and friends in America as you 
 want. I should suggest a small operation first, for several 
 reasons: it can be made without noise. There must be 
 imperfections in the first trial which you can remedy with- 
 out disgrace if done without noise; you can easier find 
 funds for a small experiment, etc. ^ i have 
 
 talked with P. on your observations about great boats 
 with merchandise." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Financial troubles of Fulton and Livingston — Launch and trial trip of the 
 Clermont — Fulton's account of the first voyage to Albany — Consternation 
 along the river — Dr. Perry's narrative — Improvements in the boat — Hos- 
 tility of river men — Opposition and expensive litigation — ** Pendulum 
 boats." 
 
 WHILE occupied with his torpedo experi- 
 ments, which have been already described, 
 Mr. Fulton began the construction of the steamboat 
 which was to navigate the Hudson and demonstrate 
 the feasibility of the plans to which he and Chancel- 
 lor Livingston had devoted their thoughts and their 
 money. As is usually the case in affairs of this 
 kind, he soon found that the expense of the con- 
 struction was far beyond his calculations. He had 
 agreed not to call upon Mr. Livingston for more 
 than a certain amount, but circumstances obligea 
 him to break this compact and, like Oliver Twist, 
 ask for more. Mr. Livingston hesitated, and it 
 was arranged that Fulton should dispose of one 
 third of their joint rights, patents, and privileges in 
 consideration of the needed capital. 
 
 Fulton made the offer to several gentlemen of 
 means, and the fact that he had made it was widely 
 known, but no one was willing to risk his money 
 
FINANCIAL TROUBLES. 
 
 lOI 
 
 in such a wild scheme as the construction of a 
 steamboat. Failure to obtain a third party to join 
 them did not cause Fulton and Livingston to 
 despair. Between them they advanced the addi- 
 tional money necessary for the completion of the 
 work, and the enterprise went on. Livingston was 
 wealthy but Fulton was not, and it is probable that 
 the latter had considerable difficulty in providing 
 his Fhare of the funds. 
 
 Engine of the Clermont — 1807. 
 
 In a recent issue of the New York Times the 
 following anecdote appeared : 
 
 Ha, ha! " said a charming old gentleman whose mem- 
 ory was wonderful for his age, for he was born during the 
 first ten years of the present century. Inventions! You 
 can't get them always right. You see the inventive faculty 
 is one thing and the business talent to work out inven- 
 tions successfully something else. A good many people 
 have the first, but very few the other. There was my 
 father and Robert Fulton. It 's a family story. I dare 
 say it has been in print often and often, but you can't 
 wear out a good thing. You see, my father and Fulton 
 were quite intimate. Fulton was in the habit of coming 
 
I02 
 
 ROBERT FULTON'. 
 
 to see my father, and, having steamboat on the brain, he 
 probably talked my father, John McKesson, to death. It 
 was always endless chains or something or other. My 
 father was a patient listener, and that 's a talent. One 
 day during office hours Fulton came to see my father. 
 ' John/ said he, * I have got it sure. I can make her 
 
 go-' 
 
 " ' I am too busy to listen to you now, Fulton. I tell 
 you what you do, come round to my house to-night.' 
 
 ^' ' I can't,' said Fulton. ' What I want to see you 
 about is this: I must have $i,ooo.' 
 
 " ' Well, I have n't got it to give you. But anyhow, 
 come to the house all the same. You can take tea with 
 us. Then you can talk with me up to ten o'clock at 
 night ; then if you are not through I shall go to sleep. I 
 always go to bed at ten.' 
 
 Fulton seemed to hesitate for a while, and at last said 
 he would come. Fulton did come round, and took tea 
 with father. Fulton told him about the paddle-wheel. 
 Father thought that a paddle-wheel would never do. 
 You see, in those times they were cocksure that the power 
 used to lift up the water by the wheel would about neu- 
 tralize the propelling force. Ha ! ha ! those old fellows 
 were smart. We always are in our generation. 
 
 ' Well,' father said, ' Robert Fulton, your wheel is no 
 good. It would never work. You talk about making the 
 boat go four miles an hour ! That 's an unheard of speed. 
 No, sir. With a wheel on your boat she 'd stand stock 
 still.' 
 
 Then Robert Fulton argued it out with father, and 
 ten o'clock came, and father was getting sleepy. Just 
 then maybe Fulton got more excited, or father more at- 
 tentive, and it was eleven o'clock and they w^ere talking 
 over it still. 
 
FINANCIAL TROUBLES. 
 
 103 
 
 '*'It is time for you to go home, Robert/ said my 
 father, ' unless you would Hke to have a bed here, and you 
 might as well do that.' 
 
 ^ If I do,' answered Fulton, ' I only adjourn the talk 
 until to-morrow, for you must get me the $1,000.' Maybe 
 Fulton buttonholed father before breakfast. Anyhow, 
 Fulton's persuasive powers overcame father's doubts, and 
 he agreed that he would do his best to raise the $1,000 
 for Fulton. Right after breakfast father went out, and 
 the first man he met was Robert Lenox. ' See here, Mr. 
 Lenox,' said father, ' I want some money from you to help 
 one of Fulton's schemes. You may not believe it ever 
 will be done, but the man fancies that he can make a boat 
 go four miles an hour. I think he intends using steam, 
 and a wheel, or something. I am going to let him have 
 $100. Would you mind putting down your name for the 
 same sum ? ' 
 
 ^ It seems quite preposterous,' said Mr. Lenox to my 
 father, * and I have no reason to belive that Mr. Fulton's 
 boat will ever accomplish what he thinks it will. Still, if 
 your name is down, you may let him have $100 from me.' 
 
 ^ Then,' said my father, ' I will write down Robert 
 Lenox, $100." ' 
 
 '''No, no,' answered Mr. Lenox, 'just put down the 
 $100 with no name to it, because I should n't like the 
 people who come after me to learn that I was such a dunce 
 as to think that Fulton or anybody else ever could make 
 a boat go with steam or wheels four miles an hour.' 
 
 '^ That 's the story my father told me. See here," said 
 the pleasant old gentleman, " you never can exactly tell 
 what does come from an invention. I wonder what Ful- 
 ton would have to say could he learn how those rocks at 
 H*-'!! Gate had to be blown up because they bothered 
 
 it fleet of steamers which has to pass there every day. 
 
ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Eh ? eh ? " and the old gentleman gave here a merry 
 laugh. "Anyhow, Robert Fulton got his $i,ooo/' 
 
 The boat was built at the ship-yard of Charles 
 Brown on the East River, and was completed early 
 in the spring of 1807. It took some time to place 
 the engine on board, and it was not until August of 
 the same year that she was ready for trial. Early 
 one morning her engines were put in motion and 
 she was moved from the ship-yard to the Jersey 
 shore ; it was found that she steered easily, and her 
 progress was satisfactory to her owners. 
 
 There were few spectators on land, as at that 
 hour most persons were in bed, and no announcement 
 had been made of the intended transfer. There 
 was a good deal of excitement, however, among the 
 crews of vessels in the harbor as they saw a boat 
 going through the water without the aid of sails, 
 and even without masts for carrying them. Many 
 of the sailors regarded the new craft with supersti- 
 tious dread, as they had heard nothing about it and 
 were unaware of the power of steam. 
 
 The boat was 130 feet long, 16I feet wide, and 
 4 feet deep, and measured 160 tons by the custom- 
 house regulations then in force. The engine had 
 a steam cylinder 24 inches in diameter, and a 
 stroke of 4 feet. The boiler was 20 feet long, 7 
 feet deep, and 8 feet wide. The wheels were ^ 5 
 feet in diameter, with floats of 4 feet length anc. 2 
 feet dip. 
 
io6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 A day or two after the transfer Fulton and Liv- 
 ingston invited their friends to witness the trial of 
 the steamboat and there was a public announce- 
 ment of the affair which drew a considerable assem- 
 blage of people. Among the special guests was 
 Dr. Mitchell, the gentleman who secured the pas- 
 sage of the first bill which gave Livingston the 
 exclusive privilege of steam navigation in the 
 waters of New York for twenty years, and there 
 were also several other members of the Legislature. 
 Invitations were also sent to gentlemen who had 
 opposed the project and denounced it as ridiculous ; 
 some of them came to witness what they expected 
 would be a failure, but others declined to be 
 present as they were unwilling to treat the affair as 
 worthy of consideration. 
 
 Concerning the trial trip Mr. Colden writes as 
 follows : 
 
 Nothing could exceed the surprise and admiration of 
 all who witnessed the experiment. The minds of the 
 most incredulous were changed in a few minutes. Before 
 the boat had made the progress of a quarter of a mile, the 
 greatest unbeliever must have been converted. The man 
 who, while he looked on the expensive machine, thanked 
 his stars that he had more wisdom than to waste his 
 money on such idle schemes, changed the expression of 
 his features as the boat moved from the wharf and gained 
 her speed ; his complacent smile gradually stiffened into 
 an expression of wonder. The jeers of the ignorant, who 
 had neither sense nor feeling enough to suppress their 
 
TRIAL TRIP OF THE CLERMONT. 
 
 107 
 
 contemptuous ridicule and rude jokes, were silenced for a 
 moment by a vulgar astonishment, which deprived them 
 of the power of utterance, till the triumph of genius 
 extorted from the incredulous multitude which crowded 
 the shores, shouts and acclamations of congratulation and 
 applause." 
 
 During this trial trip Fulton perceived an error 
 in the form of the wheels ; after a run of a few 
 miles she returned to her starting-point and the 
 inventor caused the diameter of the buckets to be 
 lessened so that they did not dip so deeply in the 
 water. Another trial was then made, and it was 
 found that her speed improved under the alteration. 
 Shortly after the trial the boat was advertised to 
 run to Albany, and as soon as she could be got in 
 readiness the Clermont" sailed on her first voy- 
 age up the Hudson. 
 
 The date of the departure of this memorable trip 
 is differently given by several writers, but the 
 weight of evidence is in favor of Monday, August 
 iith. Mr. Fulton wrote the following letter after 
 his return : 
 
 " New York, Sept. 15, 1807. 
 To the Editor of the 'American Citizen' 
 ''Sir: — I arrived this afternoon, at four o'clock, 
 in the steamboat from Albany. As the success of 
 my experiment gives me great hopes that such 
 boats may be rendered of great importance to my 
 country, to prevent erroneous opinions and give 
 
io8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 some satisfaction to the friends of useful improve- 
 ments, you will have the goodness to publish the 
 following- statement of facts : 
 
 I left New York on Monday at one o'clock, 
 and arrived at Clermont, the seat of Chancellor 
 Livingston, at one o'clock on Tuesday — time, 
 twenty-four hours, distance, one hundred and ten 
 miles. On Wednesday, I departed from the Chan- 
 cellors at nine in the morning, and arrived at 
 Albany at five in the afternoon — distance, forty 
 miles, time, eight hours. The sum is one hundred 
 and fifty miles in thirty-two hours, equal to near 
 five miles an hour. 
 
 On Thursday, at nine o'clock in the morning, 
 I left Albany, and arrived at the Chancellor s at 
 six in the evening : I started from thence at seven, 
 and arrived at New York at four in the afternoon 
 — time, thirty hours, space run through, one hun- 
 dred and fifty miles, equal to five miles an hour. 
 Throughout my whole way, both going and retr>rn- 
 ing, the wind was ahead ; no advantage could be 
 derived from my sails : the whole has, therefore, 
 been performed by the power of the steam-engine. 
 I am, sir, your obedient servant, 
 
 Robert Fulton." 
 He gives the following account of the same voy- 
 age in a letter to his friend Mr. Barlow : 
 
 My steamboat voyage to Albany and back has 
 turned out rather more favorable than I had calcu- 
 
TRIAL TRIP OF THE CLERMONT. 
 
 109 
 
 lated. The distance from New York to Albany is 
 one hundred and fifty miles : I ran it up in thirty- 
 two hours, and down in thirty. I had a light 
 breeze against me the whole way, both going and 
 coming, and the voyage has been performed wholly 
 by the power of the steam-engine. I overtook 
 many sloops and schooners beating to windward, 
 and parted with them as if they had been at 
 anchor. 
 
 **The power of propelling boats by steam is now 
 fully proved. The morning I left New York, there 
 were not perhaps thirty persons in the city who 
 believed that the boat would ever move one mile 
 an hour, or be of the least utility ; and while we 
 were putting off from the wharf, which was crowd- 
 ed with spectators, I heard a number of sarcastic 
 remarks. This is the way in which ignorant men 
 compliment what they call philosophers and pro- 
 jectors. 
 
 Having employed much time, money, and zeal, 
 in accomplishing this work, it gives me, as it will 
 you, great pleasure to see it fully answer my expec- 
 tations. It will give a cheap and quick conveyance 
 to the merchandise on the Mississippi, Missouri, 
 and other great rivers, which are now laying open 
 their treasures to the enterprise of our countrymen ; 
 and although the prospect of personal emolument 
 has been some inducement to me, yet I feel infinite- 
 ly more pleasure in reflecting on the immense 
 
no 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 advantage my country will derive from the inven- 
 tion/' etc. 
 
 The passengers on board the boat, on her first 
 passage as a Packet, published a statement, over 
 their signatures, that the speed, accommodations, 
 and conveniences far exceed their most sanguine 
 expectations. 
 
 The following letter tells how the people along 
 the river were excited by the passage of the steam- 
 boat on her voyage from New York to Albany: 
 
 SOUDERSBURG, LANCASTER Co., yail. 4, 1 856. 
 
 ''J. Franklin Reigart, Esq. ^ 
 
 ''Dear Sir: — Having been informed that you 
 are about to publish a history of Robert Fulton, 
 who was distinguished for many noble inventions, 
 allow me to state that the publication of the narra- 
 tive of facts as they happened, and the description 
 of his productions, would be exceedingly interest- 
 ing to the admirers of genius and every lover of 
 the arts and sciences. The works of Fulton are 
 now justly appreciated, and the citizens of this 
 matchless county will forever honor the name and 
 birthplace of his genius. 
 
 It was in the early autumn of the year 1807, 
 that a knot of villagers was gathered on a high 
 bluff just opposite Poughkeepsie, on the west bank 
 of the Hudson, attracted by the appearance of a 
 strange dark-looking craft, which was slowly making 
 
TRIAL TRIP OF THE CLERMONT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 its way up the river. Some imagined it to be a 
 sea-monster, whilst others did not hesitate to 
 express their behef that it was a sign of the 
 approaching judgment. What seemed strange in 
 the vessel was the substitution of lofty and strange 
 black smoke-pipes, rising from the deck, instead of 
 the gracefully tapered masts that commonly stood 
 on the vessels navigating the stream, and, in place 
 of the spars and rigging, the curious play of the 
 working-beam and pistons, and the slow turning, 
 and splashing of the huge and naked paddle- 
 wheels, met the astonished gaze. The dense 
 clouds of smoke, as they rose wave upon wave, 
 added still more to the wonder of the rustics. 
 
 This strange-looking craft was the Clermont, 
 on her trial trip to Albany ; and of the little knot 
 of villagers above mentioned, the writer, then, a 
 boy in his eighth year, with his parents, formed a 
 part ; and I well remember the scene, one so well 
 fitted to impress a lasting picture upon the mind of 
 a child accustomed to watch the vessels that passed 
 up and down the river. 
 
 The forms of four persons were distinctly visi- 
 ible on the deck, as she passed the bluff — one of 
 whom, doubtless, was Robert Fulton, who had on 
 board with him all the cherished hopes of years, 
 the most precious cargo the wonderful boat could 
 carry. 
 
 On her return trip, the curiosity she excited 
 
112 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 was scarcely less intense — the whole country talked 
 of nothing but the sea-monster, belching forth fire 
 and smoke. The fishermen became terrified, and 
 rowed homewards, and they saw nothing but 
 destruction, devastating their fishing grounds ; 
 whilst the wreaths of black vapor, and rushing 
 noise of the paddle-wheels, foaming with the stirred- 
 up waters, produced great excitement amongst the 
 boatmen, until it was more intelligent than before ; 
 for the character of that curious boat, and the 
 nature of the enterprise which she was pioneering, 
 had been ascertained. From that time Robert 
 Fulton became known and respected as the author 
 and builder of the first Steam- Packet; from which 
 we plainly see the rapid improvemont in commerce 
 and civilization. Who can doubt that Fulton's first 
 packet boat has been the model steamer? Except 
 in finer finish and greater size, there is no difference 
 between it and the splendid steamships now cross- 
 ing the Atlantic Who can doubt that Fulton saw 
 the meeting of all nations upon his boats, gathering 
 together in unity and harmony, that the ' freedom 
 of the seas would be the happiness of the earth ' ? 
 Who can doubt that Fulton saw the world circum- 
 navigated by steam, and that his invention was 
 carrying the messages of freedom to every land, 
 that no man could tell all its benefits, or describe 
 all its wonders ? ' What a wonderful achieve- 
 ment ! ' ' What a splendid triumph ! ' Fulton was a 
 
TRIAL TRIP OF THE CLERMONT. II3 
 
 man of unparalleled foresight and perseverance. 
 His character and genius rise higher in our estima- 
 tion, and still more grandly before our minds, the 
 more we contemplate him. To write this history 
 requires the noblest effort, and I trust you will be 
 able to accomplish it. With my best wishes for 
 your success, I subscribe myself. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 H. Freeland." 
 
 The following letter descriptive of the first voy- 
 age of the Clermont from Albany was written by 
 Fulton and sent to Chancellor Robert R. Living- 
 ston, grandfather of Clermont Livingston, in whose 
 keeping the letter now is : 
 
 " New York, 
 Saturday, the 28th of August^ 1807. 
 
 Dear Sir : — On Saturday I wrote you that I 
 arrived here on Friday at four o'clock, which made 
 my voyage from Albany exactly thirty hours. We 
 had a little wind on Friday morning, but no waves 
 which produced any effect. I have been making 
 every exertion to get off on Monday morning, but 
 there has been much work to do — boarding all the 
 sides, decking over the boiler and works, finishing 
 each cabin with twelve berths to make them com- 
 fortable, and strengthening many parts of the iron 
 work. So much to do, and the rain, which delays 
 the caulkers, will, I fear, not let me off till Wednes- 
 day morning. Then, however, the boat will be as 
 
114 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 complete as she can be made — all strong and in 
 good order and the men well organized, and I 
 hope, nothing to do but to run her for six weeks or 
 two months. The first week, that is if she starts 
 on Wednesday, she will make one trip to Albany 
 and back. Every succeeding week she will run 
 three trips — that is, two to Albany and one to New 
 York, or two to New York and one to Albany 
 always having Sunday and four nights for rest to 
 the crew. By carrying for the usual price there 
 can be no doubt but the steamboat will have the 
 preference because of the certainty and agreeable 
 movements. I have seen the captain of the fine 
 sloop from Hudson. He says the average of his 
 passages have been forty-eight hours. For the 
 steamboat it would have been thirty certain. The 
 persons who came down with me were so much 
 pleased that they said were she established to run 
 periodically they never would go in any thing else. 
 I will have her registered and every thing done 
 which I can recollect. Every thing looks well and 
 I have no doubt will be very productive. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 Robert Fulton." 
 ''You may look for me Thursday morning about 
 seven o'clock. I think it would be well to write to 
 your brother Edward to get information on the 
 velocity of the Mississippi, the size and form of the 
 boats used, the number of hands and quantity of 
 
DR. PERRY'S NARRATIVE. II5 
 
 tons in each boat, the number of miles they make 
 against the current in twelve hours, and the quan- 
 tity of tons which go up the river in a year. On 
 this point beg of him to be accurate." 
 
 Having been informed that Dr. William Perry 
 of Exeter, New Hampshire, was a passenger on 
 the Clermont on her first voyage, the author of 
 this volume addressed him on the subject and 
 received the following reply : 
 
 "Exeter, N. H., yune 12, 1885. 
 
 ''Col. Thomas W. Knox. 
 
 '' My Dear Sir : — You may remember me in con- 
 nection w^ith the Cincinnati Gazette and the Phila- 
 delphia Exposition. 
 
 For some years I have been living quietly in this 
 my native town, contributing to the Cincinnati 
 Commercial Gazette, and other western papers and 
 periodicals, and living within reach of my father, to 
 whom you have just written. He is in good health, 
 neither blind nor deaf, and with no internal dis- 
 order, his only trouble being that his legs are weak, 
 so that his walks must be short and slow. He was 
 born Dec, 20, i 788, and is now the oldest living gra- 
 duate of Harvard. He writes letters occasionally, 
 but not as readily as once, so I have volunteered to 
 take down what he has to say, and will give it in 
 
ii6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 his own words and in the first person. I ought 
 to premise that the voyage he describes was not 
 the trial trip of the skeleton of Fulton's steamer in 
 1807, but its first voyage with passengers in the 
 spring of 1808. Now for the narrative. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 John T. Perry." 
 
 In April, 1808, I left Union College, Schenec- 
 tady, where my brother, the late Gardiner B. Perry, 
 D. D., had been tutor, to go to my birthplace, 
 Norton, Mass., and to enter Harvard College in 
 the fall, for which last my stay in Schenectady had 
 been a preparation. I was then in my twentieth 
 year, and had in charge a lady from Hartford, who 
 was on her way home. On reaching Albany, I 
 found that none of the sail boats, then in use, were 
 to start for several days. So I engaged a room for 
 myself at a public house, the lady going to the 
 house of some friends. Early the next morning a 
 man, evidently a person who loved his glass, rushed 
 into the bar-room and cried out that the steamboat 
 had come in during the night and would go down 
 river at nine o'clock. It took so much time to hunt 
 up my charge, and she was so long in getting ready, 
 that the boat had started when we reached the 
 wharf. I hailed her, however, and a small boat was 
 sent out to take us on board. There were more 
 than fifty passengers, many of them youths and 
 
DI^. PERRY'S NARRATIVE. 
 
 117 
 
 children. I soon noticed Mr. Fulton, who was 
 watching and directing every thing. He was of 
 medium height, slimly built, and so much absorbed 
 in looking after the craft that he had no time or in- 
 clination to talk with any one. I once saw him 
 leaning in an absorbed manner over a chair. He 
 had a shoe on one foot, and only a stocking on the 
 other. I looked over the stern of the boat and 
 read the name ' Katherine of Clermont.' It was 
 that of Fulton's wife, daughter of the Livingston 
 of Clermont Manor. Most accounts say the title 
 was simply ' The Clermont,' but I cannot be mis- 
 taken. She was a common open river boat about 
 one hundred and twenty-five feet long, with no deck, 
 and the boys were running about everywhere. 
 The only cabin was a small room over the bows. 
 It was claimed that the Katherine would run six 
 miles an hour, but she did not make that time. 
 Her paddle wheels were at the side, and her tube 
 (or smoke-stack) was of sheet iron. I think my 
 fare to Kingston was three dollars. 
 
 ''The first part of the voyage was quiet enough, 
 but in the afternoon we ran aground, as many 
 thought, through the treachery of some of the crew, 
 for the owners of sloops and other sailing craft 
 were much in dread of the result of the successful 
 inauguration of steam power. I got off at Esopus 
 — now Kingston — as did my companion, and so 
 missed being present at the bursting of the boiler, 
 
ii8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 which occurred near West Point. Being of sheet 
 iron no damage was done besides stopping the 
 works and frightening the passengers. A week or 
 ten days later I was in New York, going there in a 
 sloop. The steamer, which I hunted up, was under- 
 going repairs at the docks. 
 
 Among the passengers was a Mr. Lyon, a mem- 
 ber of Congress from Connecticut or Vermont, I 
 forget which, who was quite notorious at the time 
 on account of a hand-to-hand encounter at Wash- 
 ington on the floor of the House. He kept away 
 from the crowd most of the time, staying in the 
 little cabin. 
 
 As I have said, the owners of sailing craft were 
 jealous of Fulton, and soon after they got an in- 
 junction, restraining him from using his steamboat, 
 on the ground that the navigation of the river be- 
 lonp^ed to them. He secured Daniel Webster for 
 his counsel, and won his case, though he afterward 
 had much trouble about patent rights. The case 
 was a very important one, not only in the principle 
 involved, but on account of the number and in- 
 fluence of Fulton's opponents." 
 
DR. PERRY'S NARRATIVE. 
 
 119 
 
 The signature to the letter as herewith printed 
 is a fac-shmle of the signature appended to the 
 original by Dr. Perry. 
 
 The reader will note Dr. Perry's statement that 
 the name of the steamer was Katherine of Cler- 
 mont." The author has examined all accessible 
 biographies of Fulton and accounts of the inaugu- 
 ration of steamboats on the Hudson, and in none 
 of them does he find the steamer designated other- 
 wise than as the Clermont. In 1805 Mr. Fulton 
 married Harriet, daughter of Walter Livingston, 
 who was a relative of Fulton's friend and partner. 
 Chancellor Livingston, consequently Dr. Perry is 
 not correct in giving the name of Fulton's wife as 
 Katherine, and his memory may be equally at fault 
 respecting the appellation of the steamboat, though 
 there cannot be the least doubt of his entire sincer- 
 ity. He has long been a prominent citizen of 
 Exeter, and is greatly beloved and revered by his 
 fellow townsmen. 
 
 During the autumn of 1807 the Clermont con- 
 tinued to run as a packet, and so great was the 
 curiosity concerning her and the appreciation of 
 her quick passages, that she nearly always had as 
 many passengers as she could accommodate. Sev- 
 eral accidents occurred to her machinery owing to 
 defects in its construction, but none of them caused 
 any loss of life ; there were so many of these mis- 
 haps, however, that the incredulous were encour- 
 
I20 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 aged in the belief that she was a failure, and numer- 
 ous predictions were made that she would never 
 resume her trips after the end of the year. In 
 some respects she was a disappointment to Fulton, 
 as she did not meet his calculations in regard to 
 speed, and he spent much of his time in trying to 
 discover the cause of the deficiency. His friends 
 say that in every instance he found it was due 
 to faults of construction either of boat or engines, 
 and not to any error in his own figures ; he made 
 plans for alterations while she was still on the route, 
 and as soon as she was laid up for the winter he 
 began the work of overhauling. 
 
 The shafts of the wheels were originally made 
 of cast iron, which was found incapable of sustain- 
 ing the weight of the wheels and the power applied 
 to them. Several breakages occurred during the 
 first season ; while laid up for the winter the boat 
 was provided with wrought-iron shafts, which pre- 
 vented a recurrence of these mishaps. Then, too, 
 there were no supports for the outward ends of the 
 shafts and the wheels were entirely exposed to 
 view. During the winter the Clermont was 
 extended to a length of one hundred and forty feet 
 while her beam, originally sixteen and one half feet, 
 remained unchanged. The shafts of the wheels 
 were provided with wheel-guards or outer supports, 
 and several minor improvements were made in the 
 machinery and fittings of the boat ; altogether the 
 
HOSTILITY OF RIVER MEN. 
 
 121 
 
 Clermont of 1808 was a considerable advance upon 
 the Clermont of 1807. 
 
 But the misfortunes of the boat were not limited 
 to accidents to machinery and other legitimate mis- 
 haps ; they included wilful attempts at her destruc- 
 tion on the part of those who felt that their busi- 
 ness was about to be injured by the new system of 
 navigation. Vessels ran foul of her intentionally, 
 and so determined were the sloop owners and 
 others to rid themselves of this dangerous competi- 
 tor that it was necessary for the Legislature to 
 interfere. At its session in the winter of 1807-8 a 
 law was passed to prolong for five years the 
 exclusive privilege of Livingston and Fulton for 
 each additional boat they should build and establish 
 on the river ; provided, that the whole time should 
 not exceed thirty years from the passage of the 
 law. A clause was added to this act declaring that 
 combinations to destroy the Clermont or any other 
 steamboat, or wilful attempts to injure her, were 
 public offences punishable by fine and imprison- 
 ment. 
 
 Fulton was further annoyed, as suggested by Dr. 
 Perry, by infringements of his patent rights. From 
 the first his boat was open to the inspection of 
 everybody, and naturally she attracted much atten- 
 tion. Not only was she visited by those who went 
 from motives of curiosity, but by individuals w^ho 
 had an eye to business. Fulton had applied for 
 
122 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 patents soon after beginning the construction of the 
 Clermont but as he progressed he made various 
 improvements in the machinery which were not 
 covered in his original applications. When the boat 
 was completed and he had made her trial trip there 
 were obvious improvements which would suggest 
 themselves to an intelligent mechanic as readily as 
 to the builder himself. One of these improvements 
 was the wheel-guard, or outer support for the wheel- 
 shafts, which has been already mentioned ; it is said 
 to have been thought of by Fulton before the 
 launching of the boat, but was not made owing to 
 lack of time and the necessity of economy. Some 
 of the visiting mechanics who had scoffed at the 
 steamboat as the idle fancy of a dreamer did not 
 hesitate to take out patents for improvements on 
 his work ; they were even audacious enough to 
 apply for patents covering the devices which had 
 already been recorded to Fulton's credit in the 
 archives of the patent office. 
 
 Litigation threatened to swallow up all the pro- 
 ceeds of the enterprise, and to litigation was added 
 competition from the builders of rival steamboats. 
 These men defied the law by which Fulton and 
 Livingston had received exclusive privileges, and 
 employed counsel to find loopholes in the act of the 
 Legislature. As a coach and six can be driven 
 through an act of the British Parliament, in like 
 manner a steamboat can pass through a law of the 
 
OPPOSITION AND LITIGATION. 
 
 123 
 
 State of New York with less liability to injury than 
 in the tortuous channel of Harlem River. 
 
 History repeated itself in the case of Fulton as 
 it has repeated itself in the case of every inventor 
 whose invention proves successful. Human nature 
 is the same in all ages, and until the millennium 
 comes every inventor whose work promises to yield 
 a pecuniary advantage will be assailed by unprinci- 
 pled men who would rob him of glory, profit, and 
 good name, in order to benefit themselves. Such 
 is the history of inventions from the day that 
 patent laws were first enacted, down to the moment 
 these lines are written, and such will it be until 
 patent laws are no longer needed, because the world 
 is so filled with inventions that it can contain no 
 more. 
 
 Fulton's first patent for improvements in naviga- 
 tion by steam is dated February eleventh, 1809; 
 on the ninth of February, 181 1, he took out a 
 second patent for improvements which covered the 
 boats and machinery. But others had gone ahead 
 of him in patenting some of his own inventions, and 
 hence his expensive and dispiriting litigation. 
 
 One of the devices by which attempts were made 
 to defraud him was a boat to be run by a pendu- 
 lum. An ingenious, and alleged respectable, 
 gentleman constructed a boat of this sort ; while 
 she lay on the stocks and her wheels were in the 
 air and met no resistance the machinery performed 
 
124 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 very well when the pendulum was set in motion. 
 But as soon as the boat was put in the water it 
 was found that the pendulum would not propel the 
 machinery without the application of a great power 
 to the pendulum, and the only power the inventor 
 could think of was steam ; so he rigged up a steam 
 engine to run the pendulum while the pendulum 
 was to run the boat ! He obtained a patent for 
 this product of his genius, and as Fulton had dem- 
 onstrated the commercial advantages of boats pro- 
 pelled by some other power than the wind, he had 
 no difificulty in obtaining abundant capital for 
 building pendulum boats and paying for the litiga- 
 tion which sought to drive Fulton into poverty and 
 disgrace. 
 
 On this subject, Mr. Colden says, pages 185 and 
 186 : 
 
 ^' Messrs. Livingston and Fulton attempted to vindicate 
 their rights and to stop these boats by an application to 
 the Circuit Court of the United States for an injunction, 
 but the judge decided that he had not jurisdiction in the 
 case. They then made the same appHcation to the Court 
 of Chancery of the State, but the Chancellor, after hearing 
 an argument for several days, refused to grant an injunc- 
 tion. From this decision there was an appeal, and, in the 
 winter of 181 2, the Court of Errors, which, when the ap- 
 peal is from Chancery, is composed of the Senate of the 
 State and the five judges of the Supreme Court, unani- 
 mously reversed the decision of the Chancellor and or- 
 dered a perpetual injunction, so that the boats could no 
 
OPPOSITION AND LITIGA TION, 
 
 125 
 
 more be moved with steam than they could with a pen- 
 dulum. 
 
 The true merits of the members of this Pendulum 
 Company were happily exposed in the learned, eloquent, 
 and ingenious argument which Mr. Emmet, as counsel 
 for the appellants, made on this occasion before the 
 Court of Errors. In characterizing the members of 
 this company and contrasting them with Mr. Fulton, he 
 described them as ' men who never wasted health and 
 life in midnight vigils and painful study; who never 
 dreamt of science in the broken slumbers of an ex- 
 hausted mind ; who bestowed on the construction of a 
 steamboat just as much mathematical calculation and 
 philosophical research as in the purchase of a sack of 
 wheat or a barrel of ashes.* " 
 
 The laws having proved insufficient to prevent 
 the building and running of boats in opposition to 
 the rights of Fulton and Livingston, the Legisla- 
 ture in 181 1 passed a supplementary act for their 
 relief. In this act certain summary remedies were 
 provided against such persons as should violate the 
 existing laws, but though they restricted, they 
 could not wholly suppress the competition. Two 
 boats which were then running on the Hudson, 
 and one on Lake Champlain, were exempted from 
 the provisions of this act. This exemption was not 
 intended as a compromise measure or as an ap- 
 proval of their opposition, but because the sum- 
 mary proceedings might be considered, in applica- 
 tion to these boats, as having an ex-post-facto char- 
 
126 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 acter, and would, therefore, be in violation of the 
 Constitution of the United States. In regard to 
 these existing boats, Fulton and Livingston were 
 in the same position as before the passage of the 
 act. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The successors of the Clermont — Increase of speed — East River ferry- 
 boats — The "horse-ferry" — Boat on Long Island Sound — Boats on 
 the Mississippi — Plans for a war steamer — The first war steamer in the 
 world — Her description, performance, and fate — The death of Fulton. 
 
 ALL the pictures of the Clermont represent her 
 as having a hull much like that of the sloop of 
 the time and equipped with two small masts and a 
 bowsprit. The funnel was much taller in propor- 
 tion to the side of the boat than is the case with the 
 steamboats of the present time, but this may have 
 
 Clermont, 1807. 
 
 arisen from the fact that she burned pine wood and 
 required excessive draft to her furnaces. As she 
 poured forth volumes of smoke by day and showers 
 
128 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 of sparks by night it is no wonder that she filled the 
 minds of the sailors on the river and the inhabitants 
 along its banks with the direst apprehensions of 
 impending calamities. 
 
 The picture representing the departure of the 
 Clermont on her first voyage is reproduced from 
 Reigart's Biography of Fulton. As Mr. Reigart 
 had access to the papers and drawings in possession 
 of Mr. Fulton's family it is asssumed that the sketch 
 is authentic. 
 
 The first voyage of the Clermont demonstrated 
 beyond a doubt the advantages which a steamboat 
 possessed over the sailing craft of the time. With 
 the vicissitudes of wind and tide the sloops and 
 schooners then navigating the Hudson were fre- 
 quently a week or more between New York and 
 Albany, and a passage of four days was considered 
 a remarkably short one. Accomplishing the up- 
 ward journey in thirty-two hours' running time and 
 the downward one in thirty, the Clermont settled 
 the question of competition between sails and steam 
 in a way that left no room for discussion. Time 
 was of consequence to the traveller of those days 
 as in the present, and in no other way could the 
 new craft appeal more strongly to the American 
 mind than in shortening the voyage of the Hudson 
 by more than three fourths. When she began run- 
 ning regularly as a passenger packet she made the 
 round trip in seventy-two hours, so that a merchant 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OF THE CLERMONT. 1 29 
 
 could count on going to Albany and returning to 
 New York in less time than he had formerly re- 
 quired for the journey either way. 
 
 The fares were certainly high enough to be 
 remunerative if the boats were even moderately 
 patronized. They were as follows : From New 
 York to Verplanck s Point, $2 ; West Point, $2.50 ; 
 Newburg, $3 ; Wappinger s Creek, $3.25 ; Pough- 
 
 Car of Neptune, r8o8. 
 
 keepsie, $3.50 ; Hudson, $5, and to Albany $7. All 
 other passengers besides those bound to the regular 
 landings were charged $1 for every twenty miles, 
 and the advertisement calls particular attention to the 
 factthatnoonewouldbe taken on board or put ashore 
 for less than $1, however short the distance was. 
 
 Other steamboats were built and put on the 
 route, and in less than two years from the first 
 voyage of the Clermont there was a regular service 
 
130 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 between the commercial and political capitals of the 
 Empire State. The Car of Neptune, a boat of 
 295 tons measurement, was the immediate succes- 
 sor of the Clermont ; then came the Paragon in 
 i8ri, and then other steamers, the exact dates of 
 whose construction is unknown. An advertise- 
 ment in a newspaper of 18 13 informs the public 
 that the Paragon, Capt. Niswall, will leave New 
 
 Paragon, 1811. 
 
 York every Saturday evening at 5 o'clock for 
 Albany, the Car of Neptune, Capt. Roorback, every 
 Thursday afternoon, and the North River, Capt. 
 Bartholomew, every Tuesday afternoon at the 
 same hour. Before 181 7 the time of the passage 
 from New York to Albany was reduced to eighteen 
 hours. 
 
 Compared with the boats of the present time, 
 the Clermont and her sisters were the crudest sort 
 
THE SUCCESSORS OE THE CLERMONT. I3I 
 
 of craft, with slender accommodations for passen- 
 gers, and limited freight capacity. No great im- 
 provement was made in them until after 1820, when 
 newer and more commodious boats made their ap- 
 pearance, and the original steamers were withdrawn. 
 Competition was of benefit to the public, however 
 much it might be detrimental to the interests of the 
 pioneers in steam navigation, and as soon as the 
 monopoly was broken there was an abundance of 
 
 Raritan, 1808. 
 
 capital ready for investment in steamboat enter- 
 prises. 
 
 The first important improvement of which any 
 record has been preserved dates from 1826, when 
 advertisements in the papers announced that the 
 new and splendid steamboats Constellation and 
 Constitution v/ould run daily between the metropo- 
 lis and the capital during the summer. The bills 
 assured the public that these boats were first class, 
 ''and for any accommodation, speed, quiet motion 
 
132 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 of engines, and skilful management, were not sur- 
 passed by any boats." They reduced the time of 
 the journey to about fifteen hours, and the competi- 
 tion made a material decrease in the fares. 
 
 In regard to the speed of boats, the captain of 
 one of the river steamers now running said recently : 
 In 1836 the old North American made a trip in 
 ten hours twenty minutes ; in 1840 the Albany re- 
 duced the time to eight hours twenty-seven min- 
 utes ; in 1 84 1 the South American did it in seven 
 hours twenty-eight minutes ; in 1849 Alida, 
 since cut down to a towboat, made a record of 
 seven hours forty-five minutes ; in 1852 the Francis 
 Skiddy, a famous boat in her time, covered the 
 distance in seven hours twenty-four minutes. But 
 it was not until 1862 that the figure seven was 
 knocked oflf the record by the Daniel Drew, which 
 rang her bell at each end of the course in nine 
 minutes less than seven hours, and in 1864 the 
 Chauncey Vibbard did the same in another nine 
 minutes less. Since that day the time on the river 
 has not improved." 
 
 But to return to Mr. Fulton. There was great 
 need of boats for crossing the North and East 
 rivers, and his attention was called to the subject. 
 In 181 1 and 181 2 he built two ferry-boats for cross- 
 ing the Hudson River from New York to the Jersey 
 shore, and shortly after he constructed a similar 
 boat for the East River. Mr. Colden says these 
 
FIRST FERR Y-BOA TS. 
 
 were what are called twin boats, each of them be- 
 ing two complete hulls, united by a deck or bridge ; 
 they were sharp ?X both ends, and could move 
 
 York (ferry-boat), iSii. 
 
 equally well with either end foremost, so that they 
 crossed and recrossed without turning about. He 
 contrived also, says Mr. Golden, floating docks for 
 
 Fire-Fly (ferry-boat), 18 12. 
 
 the reception of these boats, and a means by which 
 they were brought to them without a shock. 
 
 This description will answer very well for the 
 
134 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 ferry-boats that connect New York with neighboring- 
 shores in this latter half of the nineteenth century. 
 The double-ender steamboat and the pontoon to 
 which it is attached at either end of the route were 
 the invention of the man who built the pioneer 
 steamboat for the Hudson. His name is preserved 
 in Fulton Ferry, the principal of all the ferries con- 
 necting New York with Long Island, and in the 
 streets running from it on either side of the East 
 River. How many of the thousands who daily 
 cross by Fulton Ferry have ever known or cared to 
 know whence its name was derived ? 
 
 Mr. Fulton wrote and published a description of 
 these boats in the American Medical and Philosophi- 
 cal Register for October, 1812. In the course of 
 the description he says : 
 
 In a new combination of this kind it is not to 
 be expected that every thing should work to the 
 best advantage in a first experiment, or that every 
 requisite should be foreseen. The boat which I 
 am now constructing will have some important im- 
 provements, particularly in the power of the engine 
 to overcome strong ebb-tides ; from which again 
 other improvements will be made as in all new in- 
 ventions. The present boat crosses the river, 
 which is a mile and a half broad, when it is calm, in 
 fifteen minutes ; the average time is twenty minutes. 
 She has had in her at one time eight four-wheel 
 carriages, twenty-nine horses, and one hundred 
 
THE HORSE-FERRY. 
 
 passengers, and could have taken three hundred 
 persons more." 
 
 Previous to the introduction of steam the East 
 River was crossed by means of row-boats and also 
 by ''horse-boats." The latter have been thus de- 
 scribed by Mr. Banvard, who was once famous as 
 the exhibitor of a panorama of the Mississippi : 
 
 ' How well I remember the horse-boat that paddled 
 'Cross the East River ere the advent of steam, 
 Somethnes the old driver the horses would straddle, 
 And sometimes ride 'round on the circling beam. 
 
 " The old wheel would creak and the driver would whistle 
 To force the blind horses to pull the wheel 'round. 
 And their backs were all scarr'd and stuck out in bristles, 
 For the driver's fierce stick their old bones would pound 
 
 '' The man at the gate, in fair weather or rainy. 
 Stood out in the storm by the cold river side, 
 With pockets capacious to hold all the pennies ; 
 It took just four coppers to cross o'er the tide. 
 
 " The pilot, he, too, took the wind and the weather. 
 Perched over the horses, his tiller in hand ; 
 Sometimes would the wind and the fierce tide together 
 Delay him in getting his boat to the land. 
 
 " Though four-horse was the power that ploughed the swift 
 river, 
 
 Yet oft in his hurry has the passenger curs't, 
 Though no thought would come to make a man shiver 
 About the dread danger of boilers to burst." 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 In 1 812 Mr. Fulton superintended the construc- 
 tion of the Camden, which began running at Phila- 
 delphia on the 9th of May of that year. Its route 
 
 Camden, 18 12. 
 
 was from Market Street in that city to Springer s 
 Ferry at Camden. In 1813 he built the steamers 
 
 Richmond, 1813. 
 
 Richmond and Washington — the former of 370 
 and the latter of 275 tons, and also the Fulton, 
 327 tons. In the same year the ferry-boat 
 
CONTRACT WITH THE GOVERNMENT. 1 37 
 
 Nassau was built under his plans and direction. 
 -In 1 8 14 the steamboat Vesuvius, 400 tons burthen, 
 
 Washington, 1813. 
 
 was launched at Pittsburgh, Pa., as a regular trader 
 between the falls of the Ohio and New Orleans. 
 In December of the same year Fulton made a con- 
 
 Nassau, 1813. 
 
 tract with the Government for the employment of 
 his steamboats Vesuvius, P2tna, New Orleans, 
 
138 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Natchez, and Puffalo, as transports on the Mis- 
 sissippi and Ohio rivers, for the conveyance of 
 troops and munitions of war. How many of these 
 boats had been actually completed at the time the 
 contract was signed, we cannot ascertain with exact- 
 ness. The Vesuvius was at New Orleans at the time 
 of the famous battle of the 8th of January, i8i5,and 
 is said to have been of great service to General Jack- 
 son in his arrangements for the defence of the city. 
 She was impressed into the service of the Govern- 
 ment Dec. 30, 1 8 14, before the knowledge of Ful- 
 ton's contract was known at New Orleans, and re- 
 mained in government hands till the 12th of the 
 following March. During a part of this time she 
 was aground on a sand bar, and a claim was after- 
 wards presented to the Government on behalf 
 of her owners. The declaration of peace at the 
 beginning of 18 15 rendered the contract for the use 
 of the steamboats abortive, and it was never carried 
 out. 
 
 The Vesuvius was employed as a trading boat 
 on the Mississippi until August, 1816, when she 
 met the usual fate of western steamers. On the 
 tenth of that month she was burned near New Or- 
 leans, and the loss on boat and cargo was estimated 
 at $200,000. 
 
 The prices for freight and passage on the Missis- 
 sippi in the early days of steamboating are pre- 
 served in the report which accompanied the claim 
 
BOA TS VjV the MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 of Fulton's heirs for damages for loss of services of 
 the Vesuvius during the time she was in govern- 
 ment employ. They were established by the Legis- 
 lature of the State of Louisiana in 181 2, and were 
 not reduced until 18 19. 
 
 Vesuvius, 1 81 3. 
 
 From New Orleans to Louisville, four and a half 
 cents per pound for heavy goods, and six cents 
 for light ; averaging five cents per pound, or per 
 ton ......... $112.05 
 
 From New Orleans to Natchez, three fourths of a 
 cent per pound, or $1.50 per barrel ; and the same 
 rates were charged for all the intermediate land- 
 ings — Donaldsonville, seventy-five miles. Baton 
 Rouge, one hundred and twenty, etc., or per ton . 15.00 
 
 From New Orleans to Louisville, passage . . 125.00 
 
 From New Orleans to Natchez .... 30.00 
 
 And half price for passage down. 
 
 Witnesses who were examined in connection with 
 the claim testified thaL $600 a day would be a mod- 
 erate allowance for her services for the period of her 
 
ROBERT FULTON-, 
 
 impressment. One of them declared that the 
 steamer New Orleans, of very nearly the same ton- 
 nage as the Vesuvius, averaged $800 a day during 
 an absence of forty days from New Orleans on a 
 trip to Louisville. 
 
 The Chancellor Livingston, for the navigation 
 of the Hudson River, was built upon the plans anc 
 specifications of Mr. Fulton, but was not com- 
 pleted until after his death. The last passenger 
 boat planned by him and built upon his specifica- 
 tions was for the navigation of Long Island Sound 
 between New York and New Haven. Mr. Golden 
 said of her in 181 7 : 
 
 She is nearly four hundred tons burthen, built with 
 uncommon strength, and is fitted up with convenience and 
 elegance ; she is tlie first steamboat that had a round 
 bottom like a ship. The form w^as adopted because, for 
 a great part of her route, she w^ould be as much exposed 
 as she could be on the ocean. It was therefore necessary 
 to make her a perfect sea-boat. She passes daily and at 
 all times of the tide, the dangerous strait of Hell Gate, 
 where, for the distance of nearly a mile, she often en- 
 counters a current running at the rate of at least six miles 
 an hour. For some distance she has on either side of her 
 rocks and whirlpools which rival Scylla and Charybdis, 
 even as they are poetically described. This passage, pre- 
 viously to its being navigated by this vessel, was always 
 supposed to be impassable except at certain stages of the 
 tide, and many a shipwreck has been occasioned by a 
 small mistake in the tide time. The boat passing through 
 these whirlpools with rapidity, while the angry waters are 
 
PASSENGER RECEIPTS, 
 
 141 
 
 foaming around her bows, and appear to raise themselves 
 in obstinate resistance to her passage, is a proud triumph 
 of human ingenuity. The owners, as the highest tribute 
 they had in their power to offer to his genius, and as an 
 evidence of the gratitude they owed him, called her the 
 Fulton." 
 
 According to the returns made to the Comptroller 
 of the State of New York at the end of 18 18, the 
 tax on passengers for 181 7 and 18 18 amounted to 
 
 Fulton, 1814. 
 
 $37,620.18, after deducting the expenses of collec- 
 tion. The gross amount of the steamboat tax for 
 those two years was $41,440. Passengers under 
 thirty miles paid no tax ; over thirty and under one 
 hundred miles the tax was fifty cents, and above 
 one hundred miles one dollar. It was estimated 
 that the receipts of the proprietors of steamboats 
 from passengers alone amounted to seven times as 
 much as the tax, or nearly three hundred thousand 
 dollars. Fares were much higher than at present, 
 
142 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 and consequently the figures do not represent as 
 many travellers as would the same amount of money 
 in more modern days. 
 
 Though successful with steamboats for peaceful 
 purposes, Fulton was not inactive respecting ships 
 of war. While he was engaged with his various 
 enterprises for navigating the Hudson and other 
 rivers of the country, the war between England 
 
 Olive Branch, 1815. 
 
 and the United States came upon us and filled the 
 minds of many citizens with alarm. The harbor of 
 New York was regarded liable to entrance by the 
 British fleet then hovering about the coast, and in 
 the early part of 1814a public assembly was called 
 to devise means for its defence. 
 
 The meeting appointed a committee to be called 
 the Coast and Harbor Defence Committee of New 
 York, and as soon as it was organized it sent for 
 
PLANS FOR A WAR STEAMER. 1 43 
 
 Mr. Fulton and asked what he had to suggest. 
 After a brief delay he exhibited plans and specifica- 
 tions for a ship of war to be propelled by steam not 
 less than four miles an hour, and carrying a battery of 
 forty-four guns. The committee approved the de- 
 sign, and it was also favored by several distinguished 
 officers of the navy. The names of Commodore 
 Decatur, Captain Jones, Captain Evans, Captain 
 
 Emperor of Russia, 1815, 
 
 Biddle, Commodore Perry, Captain Warrington, 
 and Captain Lewis, were signed to a document 
 approvini^ the plan, which was immediately for- 
 warded to the authorities at Washington. 
 
 In the'r recommendation these naval officers 
 said such a vessel would possess the following ad- 
 vantages : In a calm or li^ht breeze she could 
 make choice of position or distance. If she could 
 move at the rate of four miles an hour she could, in 
 
144 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 our harbors, bays, and rivers, be rendered more 
 formidable than any kind of engine hitherto in- 
 vented, and in such case, she would be equal to the 
 destruction of one or more seventy-fours, or of com- 
 pelling them to depart from our waters. In addi- 
 tion to her armament, and her furnaces for red-hot 
 shot, she was to be provided with submarine guns 
 upon the plan which Fulton had already elaborated. 
 A memorial was sent to Congress by the com- 
 
 Original i'lnn of the Demologos. 
 
 mittee and also a letter to the St^cretary of the 
 Navy, soliciting his support of the. measure. There 
 was a difficulty about the matter, as the committee 
 did not desire to have their operations made public 
 through a debate in Congress, and at the same time 
 the President and Cabinet could not e>pend the 
 public money without congressional sanction. To 
 get around this dilemma the committee oftered to 
 build the vessel at its own expense and risk provided 
 the Government would accept and pay for her as 
 
THE FIRST WAR STEAMER. 
 
 soon as her utility had been shown. It was esti- 
 mated that she would cost about three hundred and 
 twenty thousand dollars, and the readiness of the 
 citizens to advance this amount of money under the 
 circumstances shows what faith they had in Fulton's 
 ability to produce the ship he promised. 
 
 The necessary recommendation was made to 
 Congress and the bill for the construction of one 
 or more floating batteries was passed in March, 
 
 Launch of the Fulton the First, 1814. 
 
 1 8 14. A sub-committee of five from the Committee 
 on Coast and Harbor Defence was appointed to take 
 charge of the work, and Mr. Fulton was named as 
 engineer and constructor. The committee con- 
 sisted of General Dearborn, Colonel Henry Rut- 
 gers, Oliver Wolcott, Samuel L. Mitchell, and 
 Thomas Morris, and on tue twentieth of the follow- 
 ing June they were present at the laying of the 
 keel of the first steam frigate that was ever built. 
 
146 
 
 ROBEI^T FULTON, 
 
 Originally she was called the Demologos but was 
 subsequently named Fulton the First. 
 
 On the 29th of October, little more than four 
 months from the date of placing the first timber in 
 position, the ship was launched from the yard of 
 Adam and Noah Brown on the East River. There 
 was an immense crowd in attendance, many ships 
 of war and merchantmen were anchored in the har- 
 bor, and all the steamboats of which New York 
 could then boast were present with their decks cov- 
 ered with spectators. The vessel slid easily into 
 the water, and the launch was successfully accom- 
 plished without accident. 
 
 The rapidity with which the work was performed 
 is proof of the energy of Mr. Fulton who was at 
 the same time superintending the manufacture of 
 the engines of the ship at one of the largest 
 foundries in the city. It must be remembered that 
 nothing of the kind had ever been done before, and 
 the inventor had much difficulty in making the 
 workmen understand his plans. Many times the 
 work was done incorrectly and had to be thrown 
 away, and the vexation and annoyance were enough 
 to turn the sweetest temper to vinegar. After the 
 vessel was launched there were many delays about 
 the machinery, and Mr. Fulton spent much of his 
 time at the foundry in superintendence of the work. 
 
 In January, 181 5, he was called to Trenton, New 
 Jersey, as a witness in the case of John R. Livings- 
 
THE FIRST WAR STEAMER, 
 
 ton. The Legislature of that State had passed a 
 law which prohibited any steamboats not belonging 
 to the licensees under the monopoly of John Fitch 
 from carrying passengers to or from any part 
 of New Jersey ; Fitch's license was granted in i 787 
 for thirteen years on certain conditions. These 
 conditions had never been met, and furthermore 
 the license had long since terminated by limitation, 
 but an enterprising speculator bought it for ten dol- 
 lars, and persuaded the wise men of the Legislature to 
 revive it. John R. Livingston owned the steamboat 
 which had been running between New York and 
 New Jersey, and it was stopped by the passage of 
 the law. He had petitioned for the repeal of the 
 unjust enactment, and Mr. Fulton was called to 
 show the facts in the case ; after hearing him and 
 other witnesses the legislators rescinded the op- 
 pressive law. 
 
 The weather was very severe, and Mr. Fulton 
 was much exposed and chilled through while wait- 
 ing in the hall of the State capitol. In crossing 
 the Hudson on his return to New York his boat 
 was caught in the ice and detained several hours, 
 while a gale was blowing from the north. The 
 chill caught at Trenton was increased by this ex- 
 posure, and on reaching his house Fulton was con- 
 fined to his bed for several days. He was very 
 anxious about the progress on the steam frigate, 
 and before able safely to do so he went again to 
 
148 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 the foundry and to the docks where the ship was 
 lying. Additional exposure sent him to his bed 
 again, from which he never rose. He died on the 
 24th of February, 181 5, in the fiftieth year of his 
 life. 
 
 Work on the war steamer was delayed but not 
 stopped by Mr. Fulton's death. The war was 
 over, and the immediate necessity for the ship had 
 disappeared, so that she was not hurried to com- 
 pletion. There was some difficulty in raising the 
 necessary funds for the work, as the citizens who 
 were zealous for the ship while the war lasted had 
 become indifferent after the restoration of peace. 
 The contractors were required to wait some time 
 for their pay, and the wages of the workmen fell in 
 arrears. Once the men refused to work longei 
 unless they received what was due them. In the 
 language of modern days, they struck," and the 
 committee was obliged to advance the mone) 
 needed for the wages account. 
 
 Cannon for the armament were not on hand in 
 New York, or rather could not be spared from the 
 ships and forts defending the harbor, and it was 
 decided to use British cannon from a prize that had 
 been taken into Philadelphia. To avoid the risk 
 of recapture by the British cruisers along the coast, 
 the cannon were brought overland from Philadel 
 phia to New York at a time when the roads ot 
 New Jersey were especially difficult on account of 
 
The ** Fulton the First" (from drawings by Mr. Fulton). 
 
ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 the mud. Altogether, the first war steamer of the 
 world was constructed under adverse circumstances. 
 
 During the month of May her engines were 
 placed on board, and on the first day of June, 1815, 
 she made a short trial trip in the harbor. She 
 fully met the expectations of her builders, as she 
 went directly in face of wind and tide, crossed the 
 currents and eddies without diflficulty, and was 
 easily steered among vessels at anchor in spite of 
 the high wind and rough waves that prevailed on 
 that day. Several defects in her construction and 
 in the arrangement and working of the machinery 
 were discovered, and the commissioners immedi- 
 ately set about their correction. 
 
 Of her subsequent performances and her descrip- 
 tion, we have the following narrative by Mr. Col- 
 den in his memoir of Fulton : 
 
 On the fourth of July, in the same year, the steam 
 frigate made a passage to the ocean and back, and went 
 the distance, which, going and returning, is fifty-three 
 miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes, by the mere 
 force of her engine. These trials suggested the correc- 
 tion of some errors, and the supplying of some defects in 
 the machinery. In September, she made another passage 
 to the sea, and having at this time the weight of her whole 
 armament on board, she went at an average of five and a 
 half miles an hour, with and against the tide. When 
 stemming the tide, which ran at the rate of three miles an 
 hour, she advanced at the rate of two and a half miles an 
 hour. 
 
THE FIRST WAR STEAMER, 
 
 This performance was not more than equal to Mr. 
 Fulton's expectations ; but it exceeded what he had prom- 
 ised the Government, which was, that she should be 
 propelled by steam, at the rate of from three to four 
 miles an hour. 
 
 The substance of the following description of the 
 * Fulton the First,' the honored name this vessel bears, is 
 extracted from the report of the gentlemen who were the 
 commissioners for building her. 
 
 She is a structure resting on two boats and keels, 
 separated from end to end by a channel fifteen feet wide, 
 and sixty-six feet long ; one boat contains the caldrons of 
 copper to prepare her steam. The cylinder of iron, its 
 piston, levers, and wheels occupy part of the other. The 
 water-wheel revolves in the space between them. The 
 main or gun deck supports the armament, and is pro- 
 tected by a parapet, four feet ten inches thick, of solid 
 timber, pierced by embrasures. Through thirty port-holes, 
 as many thirty-two pounders are intended to fire red-hot 
 shot, which can be heated with great safety and con- 
 venience. Her upper or spar-deck, upon which several 
 thousand men m^ht parade, is encompassed with a bul- 
 wark, which affords safe quarters ; she is rigged with two 
 stout masts, each of which supports a large latteen yard 
 and sails ; she has two bow-sprits and jibs, and four rud- 
 ders, one at each extremity of each boat ; so that she can 
 be steered from either end foremost ; her rnachinery is 
 calculated for the addition of an engine, which will dis- 
 charge an immense column of water, which it is intended 
 to throw upon the deck, and through tlie port-holes of an 
 enemy, and thereby deluge her armament and ammuni- 
 tion. If, in addition to all this, we suppose her to be 
 finished, according to Mr. Fulton's intention, with hundred- 
 pound columbiads, two suspended from eacli bow, so as 
 
152 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 to discharge a ball of that size into an enemy's ship at ten 
 or twelve feet below her water-line ; it must be allowed 
 that she has the appearance at least of being the most 
 formidable engine for warfare that human ingenuity has 
 contrived. 
 
 The English were not uninformed as to these prepara- 
 tions which were making for them, nor inattentive to their 
 progress. It is certain that the steam frigate lost none of 
 her terrors in the reports, or imaginations of the enemy. 
 In a treatise on steam vessels, published in Scotland, the 
 author says he has taken great care to procure full and 
 accurate information about a steam frigate said to have 
 been launched in New York, which he describes in the 
 following words : ' Length on deck, three hundred feet ; 
 breadth, two hundred feet ; thickness of her sides, thirteen 
 feet, of alternate oak plank and cork-wood; carries forty- 
 four guns, four of which are hundred pounders; quarter- 
 deck and forecastle guns, forty-four pounders ; and further, 
 to annoy an enemy attempting to board, can discharge 
 one hundred gallons of boiling water in a minute, and by 
 mechanism, brandishes three hundred cutlasses with the 
 utmost regularity over her gunwales ; works also an equal 
 number of heavy iron spikes of great length, darting them 
 from her sides, with prodigious force, and withdrawing 
 them every quarter of a minute.' " 
 
 The v^ar was over before the " Fulton the First " 
 vv^as ready for battle, or in a condition to be made 
 ready in a short time, and there w^as no opportunity 
 of testing her qualities. She was taken to the 
 Navy Yard at Brooklyn, where she was moored 
 near the shore, and for more than ten years was 
 used as a receiving ship. On the fourth day of 
 
THE FIRST WAR STEAMER. 
 
 June, 1829, she was blown up by the explo^^ion of 
 two and a half barrels of gunpowder in her maga- 
 zine. Her timbers were a good deal rotted, and 
 she went to pieces so badly after the explosion that 
 all thought of repairing her was out of the question. 
 
 Whether the accident was intended or accidental 
 has never been clearly ascertained. Twenty-four 
 men and one woman were killed, and five others 
 were missing and supposed to have been killed. 
 Nineteen men were wounded, most of them severe- 
 ly, and from the numbers on board at the time, it 
 was a wonder that the casualties were so few. 
 Commodore Chauncy, in reporting the loss to the 
 Government, said: ''The explosion could not have 
 taken place by accident, as the magazine was as 
 well or better secured than the magazines of other 
 ships " ; but at the same time he cannot assign a 
 motive to those in the magazine for so horrible an 
 act as to voluntarily destroy themselves and those 
 on board.'' 
 
 Another officer who was attached to the Fulton 
 at the time of her destruction wrote long afterwards 
 that her magazine, if it could be called one, was 
 nearly under the ship's coppers, and close to the 
 bag-room," where the sergeant of marines had a 
 writing-desk, which was lighted by a naked oil- 
 lamp. ''Soon after joining the ship," he says, " I 
 had occasion to go clown there ; the bulkhead had 
 a sliding-door, which was open, and the sergeant's 
 
154 
 
 J^OBERT FULTON, 
 
 lamp shone on the kegs of powder, one of which 
 was without a head. I remarked to the sergeant : 
 ' if your Hght was only five feet nearer (all the 
 space that separated it from the powder) there 
 would be trouble/ ' Yis/ said he, turning his 
 beery eyes on me, 'there would be a sensation/ 
 After that I never turned in at night without think- 
 ing there might be a sensation before morning, and 
 to this day I have not forgotten the appearance of 
 that powder, with the light shining on it, and draw 
 the inference that gross carelessness caused the sen- 
 sation. There was a story at that time that a gunner s 
 mate had been disrated and punished with the cats 
 the morning before the blowing up of the Fulton." 
 
 Five years after the launch and trial of the Ful- 
 ton the First " at New York, the English Govern- 
 ment decided to build three steam gunboats, the 
 first steam vessels that ever appeared in the British 
 navy. They were the ''Comet," ''Lightning," and 
 " Meteor," the " Comet " being the first to take the 
 water and fly the naval ensign. 
 
 The three surveyors then in the admiralty refused 
 to take the res^ponsibility of constructing steam- 
 vessels for sea service, and the work was performed 
 by Oliver Lang, who was then an assistant sur- 
 veyor of the navy. They were paddle steamers, 
 115 to 126 feet long, from 80 to lOO horse-power, 
 and each carried three guns. The keels were laid in 
 1820, and the boats were not ready for sea until 1823. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Fulton's plan for a submarine boat — Description of "The Mute" — Fulton's 
 last illness ; his death and funeral — Fulton's family and estate — The in- 
 gratitude of republics — Tardy and niggardly action of Congress — Ful- 
 ton and the " perpetual-motion " machine — Fulton's personal appearance 
 and peculiarities — His grave in Trinity churchyard. 
 
 STILL another vessel for purposes of war was in 
 _ the mind of Fulton at the time of his death, 
 and actually under construction. It was a modifica- 
 tion of his submarine boat, the Nautilus, and had a 
 system of air-chambers by which it could be floated 
 at varying depths at the pleasure of its commander, 
 but was never to be entirely submerged. Fulton 
 sent a model of this ship to the Government, which 
 was approved, and the President authorized him to 
 proceed with the construction. Fulton died before 
 the hull of the craft was completed, and, as the 
 workmen were unable to go on without him, opera- 
 tions upon it were suspended and never resumed. 
 This novel war-ship is thus described : 
 
 Her sides were to be of the ordinary thickness, but 
 her deck was to be stout, and plated with iron, so as to 
 render it ball-proof, which would not require so much 
 strength as might be at first imagined ; because, as no 
 shot could strike it from a vessel but at a very great 
 
156 
 
 ROBERT FULTOKT, 
 
 angle, the ball would ricochet on a slight resistance fronn a 
 hard substance. She was to be capable of sheltering a 
 hundred men under her deck, and was to be moved by a 
 wheel placed in another air-chamber near the stern, so 
 that, when the vessel was to be propelled, only a part of 
 the under paddles should be in water, at least the upper 
 half of the wheel or more moving in air. The wheel was 
 to be turned by a crank attached to a shaft that should 
 penetrate the stern to the air-chamber through a stuffing- 
 box and run along the middle of the boat until it ap- 
 
 proached her bows. Through this shaft rungs were to be 
 passed, of which t-he crew were to take hold as they were 
 seated on each side of it on benches. By merely pushing 
 the shaft backward and forward the water-wheel would be 
 turned and the boat be propelled with a velocity equal to 
 the force of a hundred men. By means of the air-chamber 
 she was to be kept, when not in hostile action, upon the 
 surface, as common boats are. But when in reach of an 
 enemy she was to sink so that nothing but her deck would 
 be exposed to his view or to his fire. Her motion when 
 in this situation would be perfectly silent, and therefore 
 he called this contrivance The Mute.'' His design was 
 
 Fulton's Nautilus. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE MUTE, 
 
 that she should approach an enemy, which he supposed 
 she might do in fogs or in the night, without being heard 
 or discovered, and do execution by means of torpedoes or 
 submarine guns." 
 
 The Mute was provided with mast and sails ; the 
 sails could be lowered and the mast struck when- 
 ever it was necessary to bring them down, but in 
 ordinary times she would present the appearance 
 
 The Mute. 
 
 of a common sailing craft and be moved in the 
 same way. Several inventors of laten lays have 
 devised boats not much unlike the M ! ^ce, and some 
 of them have done effective work. 
 
 Fulton's illness was not considered dangerous 
 until a very short time before his death, and con- 
 sequently the news of that event came like a shock 
 to the public. The newspapers that announced it 
 were dressed in mourning, the corporation of the 
 
 * See illustration of " The Mute" in Chapter III. 
 
158 
 
 ROBEl^T FULTON, 
 
 city and several literary and scientific societies held 
 special meetings and passed resolutions eulogistic 
 of Mr. Fulton and expressing their deep grief at 
 his demise. Some of the' societies appointed dele- 
 gations to be present at the funeral, while others 
 voted to attend in a body. The Legislature was 
 then in session at Albany, and as soon as the sad 
 news was received appropriate resolutions were 
 passed, and it was voted that the members should 
 wear mourning badges for a designated time. 
 
 Mr. Fulton's last residence was at No. i State 
 Street, and the funeral cortege from the house to 
 Trinity Church was one of the most imposing that 
 had ever been seen in New York up to that date. 
 The funeral was attended by all the officers of the 
 State and National Governments then in the city, 
 by the mayor and common council, by the societies 
 already mentioned, and by many prominent citizens 
 who came to testify their appreciation of the man 
 and the inventor. 
 
 While ^'ic?e procession was moving from State 
 Street to Ti^vnity Church minute guns were fired 
 from the Battery and the flags on ships in the har- 
 bor were at half-mast. The body was placed in a 
 vault belonging to the Livingston family. The re- 
 mains were enclosed in a leaden coffin covered with 
 one of mahogany, and when the vault was last 
 opened a few years ago the casket was found in a 
 good state of preservation. 
 
FULTON'S DEATH AND FUNERAL, 
 
 159 
 
 Fulton left a widow and three children, one son 
 and two daughters ; he had been married but nine 
 years, and his widow died a few years after the loss 
 of her husband. The son, Robert Barlow Fulton, 
 died in 1841 ; the daughters were married, one in 
 Philadelphia and the others in New York, and lived 
 to or beyond middle life. Mr. Fulton's will was 
 made about two months before his death ; it left 
 nine thousand dollars a year to his wife during her 
 lifetime, and made suitable provision for the edu- 
 cation and maintenance of his children out of the 
 residue of his estate. There were bequests to his 
 brother and sisters and to their children. In the 
 event of the death of all his children before the 
 death of his wife and without issue he devised half 
 of his property not otherwise disposed of for the 
 promotion of an academy of fine arts, for histori- 
 cal and scientific paintings, which academy shall be 
 established at the seat of government of the 
 United States." 
 
 As before stated he had spent about five thou- 
 sand dollars for the publication of Joel Barlow's 
 
 Columbiad " ; this expenditure gave him a prop- 
 erty interest in the work, which he relinquished to 
 Mr. Barlow's widow, with the exception of fifty 
 copies of the book. He also willed that the money 
 then due him from the estate of Joel Barlov/ — 
 about seven thousand dollars — was not to be de- 
 manded from Mrs. Barlow in her lifetime, but 
 
i6o 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 should be the legal claim of his estate after that 
 lady's death. / 
 
 The will was proved and entered upon the 
 records of the surrogate's office February 27th, 
 181 5. The terms of the will show that Fulton ex- 
 pected his estate to be of considerable value, as 
 he devises that the sums mentioned therein shall 
 be paid out of the profits arising from my steam- 
 boats, and in case of that not proving sufficient, 
 then out of any other property or profits arising 
 from my real or personal." Like most inventors 
 Fulton was sanguine as to the success of his inven- 
 tions and the large amounts of money that would 
 be received from them. 
 
 Though theoretically possessing a fortune, Ful- 
 ton really died penniless in consequence of the 
 numerous lawsuits with which he was harassed, 
 and the opposition that had followed the successful 
 establishment of the Clermont and her sister boats 
 on the Hudson. Envy and greed robbed him of 
 what was his proper due, and he never received a 
 cent for his patents. Neither Fulton nor Living- 
 ston, the pioneers of steam navigation, ever real- 
 ized from their work as much as they invested 
 in it, and the inventor left an estate burdened 
 with debt. Fulton was in the service of the 
 United States at the time of his death, as he was 
 supervising the construction of the steam frigate, 
 and the government was indebted to him upwards 
 
TARDY ACTION OF CONGRESS, 
 
 i6i 
 
 of one hundred thousand dollars for money ex- 
 pended on its account in accordance with his con- 
 tracts, and his claim for the services of the Vesu- 
 vius at New Orleans. 
 
 Twenty years after his death a bill for the relief 
 of his heirs was introduced in Congress, but it did 
 not become a law until 1846, when Fulton had been 
 thirty-one years in his grave. No allowance was 
 made for interest, and the amount was reduced to 
 $76,300 before the passage of the bill. That re- 
 publics are ungrateful is well shown by the history 
 of Fulton's claim for compensation. The steam- 
 boat has been one of the most important agencies 
 in the development and growth of the country, sec- 
 ond only to the railway, and by many claimed to 
 be its superior, but the Government refused to pay 
 the just claims of Fulton for money expended, and 
 granted no recognition whatever for the great ser- 
 vices he performed in the interest of commerce and 
 civilization. 
 
 Mr. Colden tells the following story to illustrate 
 Fulton's quickness in grasping ideas relating to ma- 
 chinery : 
 
 It is well known how long and how successfully Red- 
 heffer had deluded the Pennsylvanians by his perpetual 
 motion.^ 
 
 Many men of ingenuity, learning, and science had seen 
 the machine. Some had written on the subject — not a 
 few of these were his zealous advocates, — and others, 
 though they were afraid to admit that he had made a 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 discovery which violated what were believed to be the 
 established laws of nature, appeared also afraid to deny 
 what the incessant motion of his wheels and weights 
 seemed to prove. These contrived ingenious theories 
 which were hardly less wonderful than the perpetual mo- 
 tion itself. They proposed that Redheffer had discovered 
 a means of developing gradually some hidden power, which, 
 though it could not give motion to his machine forever, 
 would keep it going for some time, which they could not 
 pretend to determine. 
 
 " One of these perpetual motions commenced its career 
 in New York City in 1813. Mr. F'ulton was a perfect un- 
 believer in Redheffer's discovery, and, although hundreds 
 were daily paying their dollar to see the wonder, Mr. Ful- 
 ton could not be prevailed upon to follow the crowd. Af- 
 ter a few days, however, he was induced by some of his 
 friends to visit the machine. It was in an isolated house 
 in the suburbs of the city. 
 
 In a very short time after Mr. Fulton had entered the 
 room in which it was exhibited, he exclaimed : ' Why, this 
 is a crank motion.* His ear enabled him to distinguish 
 that the machine was moved by a crank, which always 
 gives an unequal power, and, therefore, an unequal ve- 
 locity in the course of each revolution, and a nice and 
 practised ear may perceive that the sound is not uniform. 
 If the machine had been kept in motion by what was its 
 ostensible moving power, it must have had an equable 
 rotary motion, and the sound would have been always 
 the same. 
 
 After some little conversation with the showman, Mr. 
 Fulton did not hesitate to declare that the machine was 
 an imposition, and to tell the gentleman that he was an 
 impostor. 
 
 " Notwithstanding the bluster and anger which these 
 
THE PERPETUAL-MOTION MACHINE, 
 
 163 
 
 charges excited, he assured the company that the thing 
 was a cheat, and that, if they would support him in the 
 attempt, he would detect it at the risk of paying any pen- 
 alty if he failed. 
 
 Having obtained the assent of all who were present, 
 he began by knocking away some very thin little pieces 
 of lath, which appeared to be no part of the machinery, 
 but to go from the frame of the machine to the wall of 
 the room, merely to keep the corner-posts of the machine 
 steady. 
 
 It was found that a catgut string was led through one 
 of these laths and the frame of the machine to the head 
 of the upright shaft of the principal wheel; that the cat- 
 gut was conducted through the wall and along the floors 
 of the second story to a back cockloft at the distance of a 
 number of yards from the room which contained the ma- 
 chine, and there was found the moving power. This was 
 a poor old man with an immense beard, and all the ap- 
 pearance of having suffered a long imprisonment ; who, 
 when they broke in upon him, was unconscious of what 
 had happened below, and who, while he was seated on 
 a stool gnawing a crust, was with one hand turning a 
 crank. 
 
 The proprietor of the perpetual motion soon disap- 
 peared. The mob demolished his machine — the destruc- 
 tion of which immediately put a stop to that which had 
 been, for so long a time and to so much profit, exhibited 
 in Philadelphia." 
 
 Fulton was of slender but well-proportioned 
 figure, and about six feet high, he had strong 
 features, an abundance of dark, curly hair, and his 
 forehead was high and projecting. His eyes were 
 
164 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 large and dark, and are said to have been expres- 
 sive to an unusual degree. His personal character- 
 istics are thus given by his friend Golden : 
 
 Nature had made him a gentleman and bestowed upon 
 him ease and gracefuhiess. He had too much good sense 
 for the least affectation, and a modest confidence in his 
 own worth and talents gave him an unembarrassed de- 
 portment in all companies. His temper was mild and his 
 disposition lively ; he was fond of society, which he always 
 enlivened by cheerful, cordial manners and instructed or 
 pleased by his sensible conversation. He expressed him- 
 self with energy, fluency, and correctness, and as he owed 
 more to his own experience and reflections than to books, 
 his sentiments were often interesting from their origi- 
 nality. 
 
 In all his domestic and social relations he was zealous, 
 kind, generous, liberal, and affectionate. He knew of no 
 use for money but as it was subservient to charity, hospi- 
 tality, and the sciences. But what was most conspicuous 
 in his character was his calm constancy, his industry, and 
 that indefatigable patience and perseverance which always 
 enabled him to overcome difficulties. 
 
 He was decidedly a Republican. The determination 
 which he often avowed, that he would never accept an 
 office, is an evidence of the disinterestedness of his poli- 
 tics, but his zeal for his opinions or party did not extin- 
 guish his kindness for the merits of his opponents. 
 Society,'' says Mr. Golden in conclusion, will long re- 
 member and regret him, but he will be most lamented by 
 those by whom he was best known." 
 
 To show the estimation in which he was publicly 
 
EULOGIUM BY DEWITT CLINTON. 
 
 165 
 
 held, the following words of two distinguished citi- 
 zens of New York are herewith presented : 
 
 Extract from a discourse delivered before the 
 American Academy of the Arts, by his Excellency, 
 DeWitt Clinton, Governor of New York. 
 
 7f -X- 4f ^ -K- * * 
 
 Fortunately for the interests of mankind, Mr. Living- 
 ston became acquainted with ROBERT FULTON, a 
 self-created man, who has risen into distinguished useful- 
 ness and into exalted eminence by the energies of his own 
 genius unsupported by extrinsic advantages. 
 
 Mr. Fulton had directed the whole force of his mind 
 to mathematical learning and mechanical philosophy. 
 Plans of defence against maritime invasion and of sub- 
 aquatic navigation had occupied his reflections. During 
 the late war he was the Archimedes of his country. 
 
 '^The poet was considered under the influence of a dis- 
 ordered imagination when he exclaimed : 
 
 * Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd steam, afar 
 Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car ; 
 Or on wide-waving wings expanded bear 
 The flying chariot through the fields of air ! ' 
 
 The connection between Livingston and Fulton real- 
 ized to a great degree the vision of the poet. All former 
 experiments had failed, and the genius of Fulton, aided 
 and fostered by public spirit and discernment of Living- 
 ston, created one of the greatest accommodations for the 
 benefit of mankind. These illustrious men will be con- 
 sidered through all time as the benefactors of the world ; 
 they will be emphatically hailed as the Castor and Pollux 
 of antiquity — lucida sidera — stars of excellent light and 
 the most benign influence. 
 
ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Mr. Fulton was personally well known to most who 
 hear me. To those who were favored with the high com- 
 munion of his superior mind, I need not expatiate on the 
 wonderful vivacity, activity, comprehension, and clearness 
 of his intellectual faculties; and while he was meditating 
 plans of mighty import for his future fame and his coun- 
 try's good, he was cut down in the prime of his life, and 
 in the midst of his usefulness. Like the self-burning tree 
 of Gambia, he was destroyed by the fire of his own 
 genius, and the never-ceasing activity of a vigorous 
 mind." 
 
 Extract from a discourse delivered before the 
 New York Historical Society, in September, 1816, 
 by the Hon. Gouverneur Morris. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ 
 
 If the learned leisure of European wealth can gain 
 applause or emolument for meting out, by syllables re- 
 luctantly drawn together, unharmonious hexameters, far 
 be it from us to rival the manufacture. Be it ours to 
 boast that the first vessel successfully propelled by steam 
 was launched on the bosom of Hudson's River. It was 
 here that American genius, seizing the arm of European 
 science, bent to the purpose of our favorite parent art the 
 wildest and most devouring element. 
 
 The patron, the inventor, are no more. But the 
 names of Livingston and of Fulton, dear to fame, shall 
 be engraven ON A MONUMENT SACRED TO THE BENE- 
 FACTORS OF MANKIND. There generations yet unborn 
 shall read : 
 
 " * Godfrey taught seamen to interrogate 
 
 With steady gaze, though tempest-tossed, the sun, 
 And from his beam true oracle obtain. 
 Franklin dread thunderbolts, with daring hand, 
 
FULTON'S GRA VE, 
 
 Seized and averted their destructive stroke, 
 
 From the protected dwellings of mankind. 
 
 FULTON by flame compelled the angry sea, 
 
 To vapor rarefied, his bark to drive, 
 
 IN TRIUMPH proud, thro' the loud-sounding surge/ 
 
 ^^This invention is spreading fast in the civilized world; 
 and though excluded as yet from Russia, will, erelong, 
 be extended to that vast empire. A bird hatched on the 
 Hudson will soon people the floods of the Volga, and 
 cygnets descended from an American swan glide along the 
 surface of the Caspian Sea. Then the hoary genius of 
 Asia, high-throned on the peaks of Caucasus, his moist 
 eye glistening while it glances over the ruins of Baby- 
 lon, Persepolis, Jerusalem, and Palmyra, shall bow with 
 grateful reverence to the inventive spirit of this Western 
 world. 
 
 ''Hail, Columbia! child of science, parent of useful 
 arts — dear country, hail ! Be it thine to meliorate the 
 condition of man. Too many thrones have been reared 
 by arms, cemented by blood, and reduced again to dust 
 by the sanguinary conflict of arms. Let mankind enjoy 
 at last the consolatory spectacle of thy throne, built by 
 industry on the basis of peace, and sheltered under the 
 wings of justice. May it be secured by a pious obedience 
 to that Divine Will which prescribes the moral orbit of em- 
 pire with the same precision that his wisdom and power 
 have displayed in whirling millions of planets round mil- 
 lions of suns through the vastness of infinite space." 
 
 While preparing this volume the author visited 
 Trinity churchyard, in order to see the grave of 
 Robert Fulton. Without making known his pur- 
 pose he asked for the Livingston vault, and was di- 
 rected to a plain slab of brown sandstone, about 
 
ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 two feet by three, set on a level with the grass 
 around it, near the rear of the church. On the sur- 
 face of the slab is inscribed the following : 
 
 ''The vault of Walter and Robert C. Living- 
 ston, sons of Robert Livingston, of the manor of 
 Livingston." 
 
 ''This is the Livingston vault," said the attend- 
 ant. " Robert Fulton is buried there too ; he was 
 a great friend of the Livingstons, and was married 
 in the family, and he made the first steamboat on 
 the North River." 
 
 Fulton's name is not upon the slab, nor is there 
 any monument near the spot to show that his re- 
 mains are here. The stranger in search of Fulton's 
 grave, and unacquainted with the circumstances of 
 his burial, could not find the spot unless directed to 
 it as was the writer of these words. The grave of 
 the builder of the first successful passenger steam- 
 boat and of the first steamship of war that was ever 
 launched, is unmarked by a monument or even by 
 a stone of any kind bearing his name ! How pro- 
 phetic were the words of Emmet as he ad- 
 dressed Mr. Fulton while pleading his case before 
 the Legislature of the State of New York : 
 
 "Yes, my friend ; my heart bleeds while I utter 
 it ; but I have fearful forebodings that you may 
 hereafter find in public faith a broken staff for your 
 support, and receive from public gratitude a broken 
 heart for your reward." 
 
FULTON'S GRAVE. 
 
 169 
 
 The grave is but a few yards from the Elevated 
 Railway, where every day pass hundreds of trains 
 bearing thousands of passengers in their journeys 
 between the business and residence portions of 
 New York. How many of these thousands know 
 where. Fulton is buried? Could not the Trinity 
 corporation spare from its vast accumulation of 
 wealth sufficient money to pay the cost of a plain 
 shaft bearing the words ''Robert Fulton"? Such 
 a monument need not be costly, and the justice and 
 propriety of its erection no man will deny. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 First ocean voyage of a steamer — The Slevens family and their work in 
 steam navigation — The Stevens Battery — Commodore Vanderbilt — His 
 opposition boats and his steamship enterprises — The Chancellor Living- 
 ston — Modern steamboats on the Hudson — Incidents and anecdotes of 
 steamboating— The fastest boats. 
 
 WE have seen how steamboats were success- 
 fully established on the Hudson River and 
 on Long Island Sound, and have also learned some- 
 thing of their first appearance in the valleys of the 
 Ohio and Mississippi. The first ocean voyage of 
 a steamer was made from New York to Philadel- 
 phia in the summer of 1808. It was performed by 
 the steamboat Phoenix, built by Col. John Stevens 
 at Hoboken. The Phoenix was originally intended 
 for the navigation of the Hudson, but in conse- 
 quence of the monopoly of Fulton and Livingston 
 in New York waters, Col. Stevens decided to take 
 his boat around to the Delaware River, where she 
 ran successfully for several years. 
 
 Other boats were built by Col. Stevens and his 
 sons, not only for the Delaware River, but for the 
 Connecticut, and later on for the Hudson and other 
 waters contiguous to New York. 
 
THE STEVENS FAMILY. 17I 
 
 Colonel John Stevens was born in New York in 
 1749, anvd died in Hoboken in 1838. Towards the 
 end of the last cc^ntury he turned his attention to 
 the availability of the steam-engine for propelling 
 boats, and in 1791 made his first experiment. It 
 has been claimed that he invented the tubular 
 boiler about 1803 1804. Admirable Preble says 
 a patent for that invention was taken out by Na- 
 than Reed in 1 790. As early as 1 789, Stevens 
 
 Stevens' Return Tubular Boiler. 
 
 sent a memorial to the Legislature, in which he 
 claimed to have solved the problem of steam navi- 
 gation. But he does not seem to have given it es- 
 pecial attention for several years after that time. 
 Before Chancellor Livingston went to France, he 
 had several conferences with Col. Stevens on the 
 subject of steam navigation, but nothing of conse- 
 quence came from their relations. 
 
 As before stated, Stevens' first steamboat was 
 launched in 1804, and easily crossed the Hudson 
 
172 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 from Hoboken to New York. He used for this 
 experiment a rotary engine, but its operations were 
 unsatisfactory, and he removed it to make place 
 for one of Watts' engines. The boilers were tubu- 
 lar, and said to have been the first constructed on 
 that principle. The machinery was made by Col. 
 Stevens at his shop in Hoboken, and was some- 
 what complicated ; it communicated motion to the 
 twin screws which propelled the craft, and which 
 had been made with a great deal of trouble, under 
 the directions of the designer of the apparatus. 
 
 His second steamboat, the Phoenix, was the one 
 which made the first sea voyage ever performed by 
 a steam-vessel. The Phoenix, on this memorable 
 occasion, was commanded by Capt. De Graw, and 
 her engines were in charge of Robert Livingston 
 Stevens, a son of Col. John Stevens ; he was then 
 only twenty years of age, but had already distin- 
 guished himself for his mechanical and technical 
 ability. The steamer was accompanied by a 
 schooner as a matter of precaution, in case of acci- 
 dent. A storm arose, and the schooner was driven 
 to sea, and did not return for several days ; but the 
 Phoenix put into Barnegat, where she remained till 
 the storm was over, when she continued her voyage 
 around Cape May to Philadelphia. 
 
 For many years the Phoenix ran between Phila- 
 delphia and Trenton, New Jersey, forming one of 
 the Swift-sure Line, connecting Philadelphia and 
 
THE STEVENS FAMILY, 
 
 New York by means of steamboats and stages. A 
 description in a newspaper of the time says she had 
 no wheel-house, and sometimes, when the wind was 
 high, the water would be thrown as high as her 
 smoke-stack. Previous to her departure a tin horn 
 was blown, and there was always a crowd at the 
 wharf in Philadelphia to see her off. Her engines 
 were high-pressure condensing and her boilers sec- 
 tional. 
 
 Engine, Boiler, and Screw Propellers used by Stevens, 1804. 
 
 Robert L. Stevens is thus mentioned by Scott 
 Russell : 
 
 He is probably the man to whom, of all others, 
 America owes the greatest share of its present 
 highly improved steam navigation. His father was 
 associated with Livingston in his experiments pre- 
 vious to the connection of the latter with Fulton, 
 and persevered in his experiments during Living- 
 ston's absence in France. Undisputably he is the 
 pioneer of steam navigation on the open sea.'' 
 
 During the War of 1812, he invented and sold 
 to the Government an elongated shell, which was 
 
174 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 intended to explode by percussion after being fired 
 from a smooth-bore gun, and in 1816 he began run- 
 ning a steam ferry-boat between Hoboken and New 
 York. The Clermont and her successors for sev- 
 eral years burned wood for fuel ; in 1818, Mr. Ste- 
 vens constructed furnaces for burning anthracite 
 coal, and used it successfully on his boats, but it 
 did not come into extensive use for purposes of 
 navigation until after 1830. Previous to its intro- 
 duction, the great space required for wood had ma- 
 terially limited the room for freight and passengers. 
 Some authorities say the earning power of a steam- 
 boat was increased not less than twent)^ per cent, 
 when coal took the place of wood, while the dan- 
 ger from fire was diminished. 
 
 Other improvements in steamboats are credited 
 to this gentleman. In 1821, he replaced the heavy 
 working-beam of cast iron with a much lighter and 
 smaller one of wrought iron ; three years later, he 
 supplied an artificial blast to the furnaces ; and 
 from that time until his death, in 1856, his mind 
 was constantly employed with the development of 
 steam for purposes of navigation. 
 
 In 1842 he laid before the Government apian for 
 defending the forts and harbors of the United 
 States with floating steam batteries ; his plans were 
 favorably received, and he was authorized to go on 
 with the work, which was not begun until some 
 years later. His design was for a screw steamer, 
 
THE STEVENS BATTERY. 
 
 420 feet long, 52 feet breadth, and a depth of 28 
 feet. Her sides and deck were plated with iron 
 varying from three to six and a half inches in 
 thickness, and the sides were at an angle that was 
 intended to cause projectiles to glance off on strik- 
 ing it. In ordinary trim, and with coal and stores 
 on board, the ship had a draft of twenty feet, six 
 inches ; when in action, she was to take water into 
 certain compartments prepared for it, so that she 
 would sink two feet, thus making her fighting draft 
 twenty-two feet, six inches. Her guns were ar- 
 ranged so that they could be worked by steam, and 
 the men working them were protected by shot-proof 
 armor. 
 
 The Stevens battery was incomplete at the time of 
 the inventor s death. His brother, Edwin Augustus 
 Stevens (born 1795), spent a large sum of money 
 upon her, and at his death, in 1868, left one million 
 dollars by his will for her completion. This 
 amount v/as insufficient, and the vessel was sold in 
 1874 to the United States Government by the 
 State of New Jerse\-, to which it had been be- 
 queathed by Mr. Stevens. Congress did not see 
 fit to appropriate the money to pay for her, and 
 she was finally sold at auction and broken up for 
 her materials and machinery. To Mr. E. A. 
 Stevens the city of Hoboken and the country at 
 large are indebted for the Stevens Institute of 
 Technology, an educational establishment of no 
 small importance. 
 
176 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Cornelius Vanderbilt, better known as the 
 ''Commodore," was an energetic opponent of the 
 enterprise of Fulton and Livingston ; he had no re- 
 spect for a monopoly in which he was not interested, 
 and throughout his life his energies were largely de- 
 voted to breaking up the enterprises of other peo- 
 ple, in order to make them his own. He was born 
 in I 796 ; at sixteen years of age he was the owner 
 of a sail-boat, which he ran as a ferry between New 
 York and Staten Island, and when eighteen years 
 old, he owned two sail-boats, and was doing a 
 profitable business with them. In 1817 he joined 
 Thomas Gibbons in building a steamboat, to run 
 between New York and New Brunswick, New 
 Jersey; he was captain of the boat at a salary of 
 one thousand dollars a year, and in the following 
 year he built and commanded a larger and better 
 boat for the same line. In a few years he became 
 full manager of the Gibbons Line, and by 1824 it 
 was paying an annual profit of forty thousand dol- 
 lars. In 1827 he took a long lease of the ferry be- 
 tween New York and Elizabethport, New Jersey, 
 which he made very profitable, and in 1829 he be- 
 gan running boats on the Hudson and Delaware 
 rivers, and on the route to Boston by way of 
 Long Island Sound. 
 
 Commodore Vanderbilt's policy was to compete 
 with existing lines by building better and faster 
 boats than they had, and running them at lower 
 
COMMODORE VANDjF.RBILT. 
 
 177 
 
 rates. Frequently passengers were carried for 
 nothing, and sometimes competition was so fierce 
 that meals and lodgings were included irr free tick- 
 ets. He generally continued the opposition urntil his 
 competitors abandoned the route and allowed him 
 to establish a monopoly of his own, when ti^^e 
 prices where immediately advanced to figures that 
 paid a handsome profit. Sometimes he was bought 
 off and induced to retire, but he invariably made 
 money by the retirement ; in such cases the old 
 companies did not long remain the sole possessors 
 of the field, as a new opposition would be organ- 
 ized with very little delay. In the nineteen years 
 between 1829 and 1848 he owned and operated 
 nearly fifty steamboats, of which the larger number 
 were built by him, and though often running them 
 at heavy losses the aggregate of business gave him 
 handsome profits. 
 
 The discovery of gold in California in 1848 
 turned his attention to ocean navigation. In 1848-9 
 he built the steamship Prometheus and in 1850 he 
 sailed in her for the Isthmus of Darien with the 
 intention of establishing a route to California ; he 
 had secured a controlling interest in the American 
 Atlantic and Pacific Canal Company," but an ex- 
 amination of the route decided him to establish a 
 transit across Nicaragua from Grey town on the 
 Atlantic side to San Juan del Sur on the Pacific. 
 In 1 85 1 he placed three steamers on the Atlantic 
 
178 
 
 RCjBERT PULTO]^, 
 
 side of the line, and four on the Pacific, and began 
 ^n active competition with the ''United States" 
 and Parcific Mail" companies which were running 
 by way of Chagres, or Aspinwall, and Panama. 
 
 Later he ran an opposition line over the entire 
 route covered by these companies and was finally 
 bought off by the payment of a large subsidy, as 
 there was not sufficient business to enable all the 
 lines to be profitably operated. In 1855 he estab- 
 lished a transatlantic line, which was discontinued 
 in 1 86 1, when he gave his finest steamer, the Van 
 derbilt, to the Government to be used for war pur 
 poses. While engaged in ocean navigation he 
 built eleven steamships and was the owner of ten 
 others, or twenty-one in all. Commodore Vander 
 bilt's connection with steam vessels of all kinds 
 covered a period of forty-seven years and at his 
 retirement from the water he was said to have 
 accumulated a fortune of forty millions of dollars. 
 
 As the Chancellor Livingston was the last of the 
 steamboats planned by Fulton, her description and 
 history deserve a place in this memorial. 
 
 Her keel was one hundred and fifty-four feet long, 
 and her decks one hundred and sixty-five feet ; she 
 was thirty-two feet wide and drew seven feet three 
 inches of water when loaded. Her main cabin was 
 fifty-four feet long and had thirty-eight sleeping 
 berths ; above this there was a ladies' cabin thirty- 
 six feet long with twenty-four berths, and there was 
 
THE CHANCELLOR LIVLNGSTON. 
 
 179 
 
 a forward cabin thirty feet long with fifty-six berths. 
 Then there were other berths in the captain's, 
 engineer s, and pilot's cabins, and altogether there 
 were sleeping accommodations on the Chancellor 
 Livingston for one hundred and thirty-five persons. 
 Her measurement was four hundred and ninety-six 
 tons, which was one hundred and twenty-five tons 
 larger than any of her predecessors on the Hudson. 
 She had an engine of seventy-five horse power, 
 with a cylinder forty-five inches in diameter and 
 
 Chancellor Livingston, 1815. 
 
 seven feet stroke. Her boiler was twenty-eight 
 feet long and twelve broad ; she had two funnels, 
 and her wheels were seventeen feet in diameter, 
 with paddle-boards five feet ten inches long. She 
 had two fly-wheels, each 14 feet in diameter, con- 
 nected by pinions to the crank-wheel. She made 
 eight miles an hour on the average ; with strong 
 wind and tide in her favor she made twelve miles 
 an hour, but when they opposed her the speed was 
 not more than six. She was afterwards length- 
 
i8o 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 ened and provided with a larger engine, which 
 considerably increased her speed. 
 
 The Chancellor Livingston ran on the Hudson 
 for nearly sixteen years. In 1832 she was bought 
 by Cornelius Vanderbilt and Amos H. Cross, of 
 Portland, and placed on the route between Boston 
 and Portland as an opposition boat. Before going 
 on that route she was provided with her third en- 
 gine, which had a 56-inch cylinder and six feet 
 stroke. After running there two years she was 
 condemned as a sea-boat and broken up at Port- 
 land. Her engines were placed in a new boat 
 called the Portland, which was launched in 1835, 
 and took the place of the Livingston as a passen- 
 ger boat. She was chartered to the Government 
 during the Mexican war, and was finally lost on the 
 coast of Mexico about the year 1848. She is said 
 by some to have been the first boat on which an- 
 thracite coal was successfully burned, and the in- 
 vention of the blower, by which this was accom- 
 plished, is credited to her engineer, afterwards 
 captain, J. B. Coyle. This claim is stoutly op- 
 posed by supporters of Robert L. Stevens. They 
 assert that the latter gentleman used it on the 
 steamer Passaic in 18 18, several years before Coyle 
 thought of it. 
 
 When the Chancellor Livingston took her place 
 on the New York and Albany route, there were 
 many wise men who predicted her failure on ac- 
 
I82 
 
 ROBERT PULTON, 
 
 count of her great size. It was thought she would 
 be difficult to turn in the bends of the river and un- 
 able to avoid collisions with sailing and other craft, 
 while her movements in coming to her dock at 
 either end of the route would be so slow as to ex- 
 haust the patience of passengers. All these pre- 
 dictions proved without foundation, and the suc- 
 cess of the large boat stimulated the building of 
 larger ones. The reader will bear in mind that 
 while the Livingston was of greater tonnage than 
 any of the other boats constructed by Fulton, she 
 was not as long as either the Car of Neptune or the 
 Paragon, which were 175 and 173 feet respectively, 
 while the Livingston was 165 feet. The superior 
 tonnage was obtained by greater width of beam. 
 
 Compare the above lengths with those of the 
 steamers that navigated the Hudson in 1838 and 
 the few previous years, and see how the vessels 
 grew in size as the business of steam navigation 
 developed. The following are some of the figures 
 — the name of each boat being followed by its 
 leno-th in feet : 
 
 De Witt Clinton, 230; North America, 212; 
 Swallow, 233; Albany, 212; Rochester and 
 Utica, 200 each. 
 
 In 1854 boats of the following lengths were run- 
 ninor on the Hudson and contioruous waters: 
 
 Isaac Newton, 333; Bay State, 300; Empire 
 State, 304; Oregon, 375 ; Hendrick Hudson, 320; 
 
MODERN STEAMBOA TS ON THE HUDSON. 
 
 183 
 
 C. Vanderbilt and Connecticut, 300 each ; New 
 World, 376 ; Alida, 286. 
 
 In 1830 there were eighty-six steamboats run- 
 ning on the Hudson River and contiguous waters. 
 
 The following description of the boats on the 
 Hudson was written by Dr. Lardner in 1854. Lit- 
 tle changes would be needed to adapt it to the pres- 
 , ent time. Although more than thirty years have 
 passed since it was penned, electric bells have taken 
 the place of the old-fashioned mode of signalling to 
 the engineer, electric lights have been introduced 
 in place of oil or gas for illuminating purposes, 
 some of the boats are larger and their cabins are 
 more spacious and more profusely upholstered, but 
 in nearly all particulars the conditions are the same. 
 The extract is from Dr. Lardner s Museum of 
 Science and Arts," volume ii. 
 
 To obtain an adequate notion of the form and struc- 
 ture of one of the first-class steamboats on the Hudson, 
 let it be supposed that a boat is constructed similar in 
 form to a Thames wherry, but above three hundred feet 
 long and twenty-five to thirty feet wide. Upon this let a 
 platform of carpentry be laid, projecting several feet upon 
 either side of I he boat, and at the stem and stern. The 
 appearance to the eye will then be that of an immense 
 raft, from two hundred and fifty to three hundred and 
 fifty feet long and some thirty or forty feet wide. Upon 
 this flooring let us imagine an oblong rectangular wooden 
 erection, two stories high, to be raised. In the lower part 
 of the boat and under the flooring, a long narrow room is 
 
ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 constructed, having a series of berths at either side, three 
 or four tiers high. In the centre of this flooring, usually, 
 but not always, is enclosed an oblong rectangular space, 
 upon which the steam machinery is placed, and this en- 
 closed space is continued upward through the structures 
 raised in the platform, and is intersected at a certain 
 height above the platform by the shaft or axle of the 
 paddle-wheel. 
 
 These wheels are propelled generally by a single en- 
 gine, but occasionally by two. The paddle-wheels are of 
 great diameter, varying from thirty to forty feet, accord- 
 ing to the magnitude of the boats. In the wooden build- 
 ing raised upon the platform already mentioned, is a mag- 
 nificent saloon, devoted to the ladies and those gentlemen 
 who accompany them. Over this, in the upper story, is 
 constructed a row of small bedrooms — state-rooms — each 
 handsomely furnished, which passengers can have who de- 
 sire seclusion, by paying a small additional fare. The 
 lower apartment is commonly used as a dining- and break- 
 fast-room. 
 
 In some boats the wheels are propelled by two en- 
 gines, which are placed on the platform which overhangs 
 the boat at either side, each wheel being propelled by an 
 independent engine ; the wheels in this case acting inde- 
 pendently of each other, and without a common shaft or 
 axle. This leaves the entire space in the boat from stem 
 to stern free of machinery. It is impossible to describe 
 the magnificent cotip d' ceil which is presented by the im- 
 mense apparent length when the communication between 
 them is thrown open. Some of these boats are upwards 
 of three hundred feet long, and the uninterrupted length 
 of the saloons corresponds with this. 
 
 This arrangement of machinery is attended with some 
 practical advantages, one of which is a facility of turning, 
 
MODERN STEAMBOATS ON THE HUDSON. 1 85 
 
 as the wheels acting independently of each other may be 
 driven in opposite directions, one propelling forward and 
 the other backward, so that the boat may be made to turn 
 on its centre. Although, from the great width of the 
 Hudson, no great difficulty is encountered in turning the 
 longest boat, yet cases occur in which this power of revo- 
 lution is found extremely advantageous. Another advan- 
 tage of this system is that if one of the two engines be- 
 comes accidentally disabled, the boat can be propelled by 
 the other. 
 
 No spectacle can be more remarkable than that which 
 the Hudson presents for several miles above New York. 
 The skill with which these enormous vessels, measuring 
 from three to four hundred feet in length, are made to 
 thread their way through the crowd of shipping of every 
 description moving over the face of this spacious river, 
 and the rare occurrence of accidents, are truly admirable. 
 In dark nights these boats run at the top of their speed 
 through fleets of sailing vessels. The bells, through which 
 the steersman speaks to the engineer, scarcely ever cease. 
 Of these bells, there are several different tones, indicating 
 the different operations which the engineer is commanded 
 to make, such as stopping, starting, reversing, slackening, 
 accelerating, etc. At the slightest tap of one of these 
 bells, the enormous engines are stopped, or started, or re- 
 versed by the engineer, as though they were the play- 
 things of a child. These vessels, proceeding at sixteen and 
 eighteen miles an hour, are propelled among the crowded 
 shipping with so much skill as almost to graze the sides, 
 sterns, or bows of the vessels among which they pass. 
 
 No spectacle,'* adds Dr. Lardner, can be more re- 
 markable than a large steam tow-boat dragging its enor- 
 mous load up the Hudson. They may be seen in the 
 middle of this vast stream surrounded by a cluster of 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 twenty or thirty loaded craft of various magnitudes. 
 Three or four tiers are lashed to each side, and as many 
 more at the bow and at their stern. The steamer is 
 almost lost to the eye in the midst of this crowd of ves- 
 sels w^iich cling around it, and the moving mass is seen to 
 proceed up the river, no apparent agent of propulsion 
 being visible. As this watc7^ goods-train^ for so it may be 
 called, ascends the Hudson, it drops off its load, vessel by 
 vessel, at the towns which it passes. One or two are left 
 at Newburgh, another at Poughkeepsie, two or three more 
 at Hudson, one or two at Fishkill, and, in fine, the tug 
 arrives with a residuum of some half a dozen vessels at 
 Albany." 
 
 Steamboating on the Hudson may be said 
 to have reached its heio^ht about the time the fore- 
 going description was written. The Harlem Rail- 
 way, connecting New York and Albany, became a 
 competitor for the through business between the 
 two cities, and the curious spectacle was offered of 
 a war of rates, in which a ticket from one city to 
 the other could be bought for a less price than for 
 a point half way between them. At one time the 
 fare from New York to Albany was advertised at 
 one dollar, while a ticket to an intermediate point 
 would cost twice or three times as much. Later, 
 the Hudson River Railway, which winds along the 
 eastern bank of the river and rarely leaves it more 
 than a few yards away, was opened for business, 
 and became a new competitor against the steamboats. 
 There were times when the steamboats carried 
 
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES. 
 
 passengers for nothing, and the railway occasion- 
 ally did likewise, but the free passage business was 
 generally confined to the rivalries between differ- 
 ent lines of steamboats. 
 
 Many and amusing are the stories told of the 
 competitions between the boats on the great river 
 of New York. The walls in the terminal cities, 
 as well as those along the route, were covered with 
 placards, in which the advantages of the boats 
 were described in glowing terms, and along the 
 streets and wharves in the vicinity of the landing- 
 places there were leathern-lunged runners, who 
 made the air resound with their appeals for patron- 
 age. A hesitating stranger ran the risk of being 
 torn in twain by rival runners, and sometimes a 
 traveller was dragged on board one boat, while 
 his satchel was triumphantly transported to another. 
 
 One of the steamboat anecdotes relates to an 
 old lady who was timid on the subject of boiler 
 explosions. The rival runners sought to enlighten 
 her by the most earnest assurances that there was 
 not the least danger. One said the boilers of his 
 boat had just been put in perfect repair, but the 
 other man retorted that his boat had received 
 entirely new boilers only the day before. Then the 
 first man assured her that new boilers were at that 
 moment being placed on board his craft, and the 
 workmen would complete their task not more than 
 five minutes before the time for starting. 
 
1 88 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 The second runner saw his chance was diminish- 
 ing, and appealed to one of his associates, who 
 gravely assured the lady that his boat had no 
 boilers whatever, but was run entirely by cold 
 steam made from river water. We took 'em all 
 out last week," said he, as we were determined to 
 have a boat that would n't be able to blow up." 
 
 Then I '11 go on your boat," said the lady, as 
 that 's just what I want. I 've always said they 
 ought to make these pesky boats without boilers, 
 and then they would n't be blowing folks up." 
 
 But if the boats carried passengers for nothing, 
 they did not run entirely without remuneration. 
 At such times they had crowds of passengers, as a 
 matter of course, and they generally revenged 
 themselves on the travelling public by charging 
 high prices for what was sold on board. In some 
 of the competitions meals were included in the 
 free or cheap tickets, but this was not usually the 
 case, and where they were not so included the 
 boats often paid their running expenses by the 
 profits of what they sold during their trips. 
 
 For the last thirty years the number of steam- 
 boats running on the Hudson has not varied 
 greatly from year to year, or from one decade to 
 another. But, while the number in use has re- 
 mained practically unchanged, their size has in- 
 creased. As the old boats have been withdrawn, 
 new and larger ones have taken their places, and 
 
THE FASTEST BOATS. 
 
 on the principal lines the traveller finds the maxi- 
 mum of speed and comfort with the minimum of 
 expense. 
 
 The finest boats are on the lines to Troy and 
 Albany, and during the summer season they are well 
 patronized both by day and by night. The swift- 
 est boat on the Hudson is the Mary Powell (at 
 least such is the claim of her owners), which plies 
 daily each way between New York and Pough- 
 keepsie. She was built in 1861, and has been 
 twice rebuilt since that time, her hull being en- 
 tirely reconstructed, but her model remaining un- 
 changed. Since her last reconstruction in 1881 
 she has made an average speed of twenty miles an 
 hour, and during the month of June, 1882, she ran 
 on one occasion at the rate of twenty-six miles an 
 hour between Milton and Poughkeepsie, making 
 the four miles of distance in nine minutes. 
 
 The steamer South America is reputed to have 
 made twenty-six miles an hour on the Hudson River 
 a year or two after she was launched. Other fast 
 records of river steamers are : 
 
 Mary Powell, 76 miles. New York to Pough- 
 keepsie, in 3 h. 39 m. 30 sec, August 6, 1874; 
 Chrysopolis, 125 miles, Sacramento to San Fran- 
 cisco, in 5 h. 18 m., on December 31, 1861 ; Alida, 
 145 miles, New York to Albany, 6 h. 21 m. ; R. E. 
 Lee, New Orleans to Natchez, 279 miles, 16 h. 36 
 m. 47 sec, on October 28, 1870 ; the same steamer, 
 New Orleans to St. Louis, 3 days, 18 h. 14 m. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The first steamboat on Western M^aters — Oliver Evans and his boat — Ex- 
 ploration of the Ohio and the Mississippi by Nicholas J. Roosevelt — 
 Building the first steamboat at Pittsburgh — The pioneer voyage — Exciting 
 adventures — Passing the falls of the Ohio — The comet and earthquakes 
 of 1811 — Indians — Arrival at Nev/ Orleans — A wedding at the end of 
 the voyage. 
 
 WE will now turn to the valley of the Missis- 
 sippi and study the history of steam navi- 
 gation upon the " Father of Waters" and its tribu- 
 taries. In 1802 Oliver Evans agreed with James 
 M'Keever, of Kentucky, to build a steamboat to 
 run on the Mississippi River, between New Orleans 
 and Natchez. The boat was built in Kentucky and 
 floated down to New Orleans. The engine was 
 constructed in Philadelphia under the supervision 
 of Mr. Evans and shipped by sea to New Orleans, 
 but before it arrived the boat was destroyed by a 
 hurricane. The engine was a high-pressure one, 
 but its dimensions cannot be ascertained. It was 
 set up on shore at New Orleans and used for saw- 
 ing lumber, and its engineer reported that in the en- 
 tire year after it went into operation it did not 
 break down or get out of order enough to stop 
 the mill for one hour. 
 
OLIVER I'. VANS AND HIS BOAT, 
 
 191 
 
 Oliver Evans was an enthusiast on the subject 
 of using steam for the propulsion of carriages on 
 land. He predicted that carriages would one day 
 be propelled on roads of wood or iron, and urged 
 the construction of a railway between New York 
 and Philadelphia, but could not find any one who 
 would advance the necessary capital for the work. 
 In 1787 he obtained from the State of Maryland 
 
 Evans' Oruktor Amphibolis," 1 804. 
 
 the exclusive right to use an improvement he had 
 made in the steam-engine for propelling vehicles, 
 but he found it more profitable to employ it for 
 driving mills. Finding it entirely successful in this 
 respect, he gave comparatively little attention to his 
 earlier project. 
 
 In 1803-4 he built for the Board of Health of 
 Philadelphia a dredging scow, which raised the 
 mud from the river by means of a steam-engine. 
 
192 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 To show that vessels could be moved on the water 
 and carriages on land by steam, he fitted his scow 
 with wheels at the place where it was built and pro- 
 pelled it by steam to the bank of the river, a dis- 
 tance of a mile and a half. There he launched her 
 after removing the land wheels, and when she was 
 in the water he attached a paddle-wheel to the 
 stern. In an account he wrote of the perform- 
 ance, he says : 
 
 I drove the scow down the Schuylkill with this 
 paddle-wheel till I reached the Delaware, and then 
 went up the Delaware to the city ; leaving all the 
 vessels going up behind me at least half way, the 
 wind being ahead." 
 
 The movement of the scow from the place where 
 it was built to the bank of the Schuylkill was the 
 first instance of the propulsion of a land carriage 
 by steam in America and the fourth in the world. 
 His boat-carriage was called the Oruktor Am- 
 phibolis." 
 
 Whether the engine which Evans built for the 
 Mississippi would have been able to propel a boat 
 against the current, is of course unknown, as the de- 
 struction of the boat by the hurricane and the em- 
 ployment of the engine in other work prevented the 
 making of the experiment. 
 
 After demonstrating the feasibility of navigating 
 the Hudson with steamboats, Fulton and Living- 
 ston turned their attention to the Mississippi, 
 
EXPLOR'ATION OF THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPL 1 93 
 
 There was some doubt about the possibiHty of 
 stemming the powerful current of the great river, 
 and before investing heavily in the enterprise those 
 gentlemen determined to investigate the matter. 
 For this purpose they engaged Nicholas J. Roose- 
 velt, who has been mentioned elsewhere in connec- 
 tion with steamboat experiments, with the under- 
 standing that, if his report was favorable, the three 
 men — Livingston, Fulton, and Roosevelt — would 
 be jointly interested. In 1809 Roosevelt (who 
 had been recently married) went to Pittsburgh, 
 accompanied by his wife, where he built a flat-boat 
 on which they descended the river. With the ex- 
 ception of about three weeks passed on shore at 
 Louisville, and eight or ten days in a row-boat 
 between Natchez and New Orleans, Mr. and Mrs. 
 Roosevelt lived for six months on this flat-boat. 
 Of this voyage the lady wrote as follows : 
 
 **The journey in the flat-boat commenced at 
 Pittsburgh, where Mr. Roosevelt had it built. 
 There was a huge box containing a comfortable 
 bedroom, dining-room, pantry, and a room in front 
 for the crew, with a fire-place where the cooking 
 was done. The top of the boat was flat, with 
 seats and an awning. We had on board a pilot, 
 three hands, and a man cook. We always stopped 
 at night, lashing the boat to the shore. The row- 
 boat was a large one, in which Mr. Roosevelt went 
 out constantly with two or three of the men to 
 
194 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 ascertain the rapidity of the ripples or current. 
 It was in this row-boat we went from Natchez to 
 New Orleans with the same crew. * ^ We 
 reached New Orleans about the ist of Decem- 
 ber, 1809, and took passage for New York in the 
 first vessel we found ready to sail. We had a 
 terrible voyage of a month, with a sick captain. 
 The yellow fever was on board ; a passenger, a 
 nephew of General Wilkinson, died of it. Mr. 
 Roosevelt and myself were taken off the ship by a 
 pilot-boat and landed at Old Point Comfort. From 
 thence we went to New York by stage, reaching 
 there the middle of January, 18 10, after an absence 
 of nine months. 
 
 Once while in the flat-boat on the Mississippi 
 we were aroused in the night by seeing two Indians 
 in our sleeping-room, calling for whiskey. Mr. 
 Roosevelt had to get up and give it to them before 
 he could induce them to leave the boat." 
 
 At Cincinnati, Louisville, and other cities Mr. 
 Roosevelt delivered his letters of introduction 
 and was everywhere received with characteristic 
 Western hospitality. He was listened to with re- 
 spect and his accounts of the success of steamboats 
 on the Hudson were accepted as truthful, but he 
 was unable to inspire the Western people with 
 faith in his project. They pointed to the swift 
 currents of the Ohio and the Mississippi and 
 showed how different they were from the gentle flow 
 
EXPLORATION OF THE OHIO AND MISSISSIPPI. 1 95 
 
 of the Hudson, and from first to last he received 
 scarcely a word of encouragement. He was re- 
 garded as a visionary enthusiast whose schemes 
 could only bring financial loss to those who engaged 
 in them. 
 
 The pilots and boatmen were as incredulous as 
 the merchants of the cities and the residents along 
 the river ; they could not believe it possible for a 
 steam-engine to move a boat against the current 
 of the river, and some of them did not fail to hint 
 that the explorer ought to be in a lunatic asylum. 
 But he went patiently forward with his work of 
 gauging and measuring the current of the river in 
 many places, ascertaining the character and depth 
 of the stream, the nature of the sand bars and their 
 tendency to change their position with the annual 
 floods, ascertaining the difference between high and 
 low waters, and the alterations produced by the 
 seasons. When he returned to New York he had 
 a large amount of practical and statistical informa- 
 tion which he laid before Livingston and Fulton, 
 with a favorable report on the proposed enterprise. 
 
 They were so impressed with the report that 
 they immediately arranged for him to return to 
 Pittsburgh in the spring of 1810, to superintend 
 the building of the pioneer steamboat of the West. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt was again accompanied by his 
 wife, who was thus the first woman to make the 
 voyage in a steamboat on Western waters. She 
 
196 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 was a sister of J. H. B. Latrobe, of Baltimore, 
 and the account which follows is condensed from 
 a paper by that gentleman, which was read before 
 the Maryland Historical Society, and published by 
 that body in 1871. 
 
 In 1 8 10 Pittsburgh was a city of small popula- 
 tion, though of considerable importance geographi- 
 cally and commercially. The main part of the 
 town was on the right bank of the Monongahela, 
 and extended from the junction with the Allegheny 
 for about three quarters of a mile up the former 
 stream. There were few buildings on the Alle- 
 gheny side, which was liable to overflow. Under 
 a bluff called Boyd's Hill, and close to an iron 
 foundry, the keel of Mr. Roosevelt's steamboat was 
 laid. At the present time the depot of the Pittsburgh 
 and Connellsville Railway covers the ground. 
 
 Fulton had made the plans for the steamboat 
 before Roosevelt left New York. It was to be 
 1 16 feet long, with a beam of 20 feet. The engine 
 was to have a cylinder of 34 inches, and the other 
 parts of the machinery were in proportion to it. 
 Owing to the stronger current of the Mississippi, 
 the engines were made more powerful than for a 
 boat of similar size intended for the Hudson. 
 
 There was no timber at Pittsburgh for building 
 the boat, and men were sent into the forest to 
 procure it. The necessary ribs, beams, and knees 
 were obtained with much difficulty on the banks 
 
THE FIRST STEAMBOAT TV THE WEST. I97 
 
 of the rivers that unite at Pittsburgh, and floated 
 down to the temporary ship-yard. Much of the 
 timber was unseasoned, as Mr. Roosevelt could 
 not procure it in any proper condition, and was 
 unwilling to wait for it to pass through the season- 
 ing process. Whatever sawing was required on 
 the spot was done in the old-fashioned saw-pits, 
 which formed a feature of Pittsburgh in those 
 days, but were long since abandoned. 
 
 The only workmen that could be found at Pitts- 
 burgh were those accustomed to building the 
 barges at that time. Shipbuilders and all the ma- 
 chinists were brought from New York, and there 
 was great difficulty in finding a shop where any part 
 of the work on the engines could be performed. 
 Certainly the builder of the first steamboat in the 
 West conducted his work under many disadvantages. 
 
 Hardly was he fairly at work before a sudden 
 rise in the river backed into his ship-yard and set 
 afloat all his timber. This happened several times, 
 and on one occasion, when the boat was nearly 
 finished, the waters rose so high as to threaten to 
 carry her from the stocks and set her adrift in the 
 river before her time. 
 
 It was not until the month of September, 1811, 
 that the boat was ready. She was successfully 
 launched and received the name of New Orleans, 
 in honor of the place of her destination, but many 
 persons predicted she would never reach it. 
 
198 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 As the time approached for her departure, and 
 when it became known that Mrs. Roosevelt in- 
 tended to accompany her husband, the many 
 friends that she had made in Pittsburgh tried to 
 dissuade her from the attempt. Some character- 
 ized her intention as folly and others as madness, 
 and finding they could not shake her determina- 
 tion, they appealed to her husband. He was told 
 he had no right to imperil his wife's life, however 
 reckless he might be with his own, and at one time 
 there were threats of taking her from him by force 
 and locking her up out of his reach. But the 
 woman had faith in her husband, and in spite of 
 the showers of advice she did not waver in her de- 
 termination. 
 
 In the latter part of September the boat made a 
 short experimental trip on the Monongahela, and 
 a day or two afterward started on her memorable 
 journey. There were two cabins — a forward one, 
 for gentlemen, and another aft, for ladies. The 
 ladies' cabin was comfortably furnished and had 
 four berths, and Mrs. Roosevelt was its sole occu- 
 pant. Her husband was the only tenant of the 
 gentlemen's cabin, as no one else had the temerity 
 to apply for passage. The crew consisted of a 
 captain, an engineer named Baker, a pilot named 
 Andrew Jack, six deck hands, two female servants, 
 one waiter, one cook, and a huge Newfoundland 
 dog called Tiger. Fifteen human beings and a 
 
THE PIONEER VOYAGE. 
 
 dog were the living occupants of the pioneer boat 
 of the Mississippi valley on its pioneer voyage. 
 
 The entire population of Pittsburgh turned out 
 to witness the departure of the New Orleans. 
 Cheers echoed on cheers, flags were flown, handker- 
 chiefs waved, and hats flung in the air in honor of 
 the event. The boat steamed a short distance up 
 the Monongahela, then swung around to her course, 
 and disappeared behind the bends of the Ohio. 
 Down she sped at the rate of eight or ten miles an 
 hour, and in a little while all doubts concerning her 
 ability to descend the river were set at rest. The 
 problem of her successful ascent was yet to be 
 solved. 
 
 Mr. Roosevelt was too much excited to sleep on 
 the first night of the voyage, but paced the deck or 
 stood or sat near the pilot from evening until morn- 
 ing. The engine worked smoothly in spite of its 
 newness, and the engineer was happy. The pilot 
 had had misgivings about being able to steer the 
 craft, but found her easier to handle than any of the 
 keel-boats or flats to which he was accustomed, and 
 he too was filled with delight. Even the unpoetic 
 deck-hands became excited at the novelty of the 
 situation, and when in the morning all the crew 
 were called to return the cheers of the inhabitants 
 of a village that had turned out to greet the 
 steamer as she sped on her course, there was never 
 a happier set of men afloat on the Ohio. 
 
200 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 On went the New Orleans without accident or 
 hindrance, and on the second day after leaving 
 Pittsburgh she reached Cincinnati and a^ichored in 
 the river, as levees and wharf-boats were then un- 
 known. Many of the acquaintances which Mr. and 
 Mrs. Roosevelt had made on their first journey 
 came off in small boats to visit them, and the 
 whole population seemed to be assembled on the 
 banks. ''Well, you are as good as your word," 
 said some of the visitors; ''you have come in a 
 steamboat, but we see you for the last time. Your 
 boat may go down the river, but as to coming up 
 it, the very idea is an absurdity ! " 
 
 The keel-boatmen crowded around and cracked 
 all sorts of jokes with the crew of the New Orleans, 
 who had been selected from their own profession, 
 but some of the flat-boatmen seemed to have a bet- 
 ter opinion of the strange visitor. The steamer 
 had passed several of these boats a short distance 
 above Cincinnati, and, as they floated by with the 
 current, some of them proposed a tow in case they 
 were again overtaken. But all were agreed that 
 the steamboat could never ascend the river, no 
 matter how rapidly she could descend it. 
 
 The boat remained at Cincinnati only long 
 enough to take in a supply of wood, and then pro- 
 ceeded to Louisville, which she reached at mid- 
 night on the first of October, 1811, on the fourth 
 day from Pittsburgh. There was a brilliant moon- 
 
202 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 light, and as the New Orleans dropped anchor in 
 the river opposite the town, the roar of the escaping 
 steam brought all the inhabitants from their beds 
 to ascertain the reason of the unusual noise. A 
 letter of that time records the fact that some of the 
 good citizens thought the comet of i8i i had fallen 
 into the river and created the tumult ! 
 
 The next morning Mr. Roosevelt's acquaintances 
 and others of the citizens came on board and wel- 
 comed him heartily. They commended his energy, 
 but repeated the same words of dismay that had 
 been spoken at Cincinnati, as he could not possibly 
 come back after once leaving them. It was the 
 first and last time a steamboat would be seen above 
 the falls of the Ohio, and this they said to their sin- 
 cere regret. Still they were so impressed with his 
 good faith that they gave a public dinner in his 
 honor, at which a great many complimentary things 
 were said and all sorts of good wishes expressed. 
 To make a proper return for their hospitality, Mr. 
 Roosevelt got up a dinner on board the boat, and 
 invited as many as the forward cabin would contain. 
 
 While the feast was at its height there was a 
 rumbling that brought everybody to his feet and 
 caused a sudden rush to the deck. All the guests 
 thought the steamer had escaped from her an- 
 chor and was drifting toward the falls of the 
 Ohio, where everybody would be lost. Their dis- 
 may was changed to delight when they found she 
 
THE PIONEER 1^0 V AGE. 
 
 203 
 
 was steaming up the river, and, as she warmed to 
 her work and increased her speed, they found 
 themselves carried more rapidly than they had ever 
 before travelled on the water. A good many of 
 the incredulous were thus convinced of the success 
 of the enterprise, and the faith in the steamboat was 
 materially increased. 
 
 On his departure from Pittsburgh Mr. Roose- 
 velt had intended to go as quickly as possible to 
 New Orleans in order to place the boat on her 
 projected route between that city and Natchez, but 
 on reaching Louisville he found the elements 
 against him. Just below Louisville are the cele- 
 brated falls of the Ohio, which can only be safely 
 passed at a high stage of water, and at the time of 
 his arrival the river was altogether too low for his 
 purposes. It was necessary to wait for a rise which 
 could only be brought about by a rain in the coun- 
 try above. To utilize the time as much as possi- 
 ble Mr. Roosevelt took the boat to Cincinnati, and 
 thus convinced the doubting Thomases of that city 
 of her ability to ascend the river as well as descend 
 it. She was greeted with even more enthusiasm 
 than on her first visit, as there could no longer be 
 any question of her ability to stem the current. 
 There was universal incredulity when she arrived 
 there from Pittsburgh which was replaced by the 
 most unbounded confidence when she arrived from 
 Louisville. 
 
204 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 It was near the end of November when the rise 
 in the Ohio made its appearance and the water was 
 deep enough to permit the passage of the falls. 
 The depth in the shallowest part was only five 
 inches more than the draft of the boat and the rise 
 had ceased ; it was a very narrow margin, but Mr. 
 Roosevelt determined to try it as it might be his 
 only chance for months. 
 
 An extra pilot was engaged, all steam that the 
 boilers would carry was put on, and away went the 
 boat on her expedition. Mrs. Roosevelt refused 
 to remain on shore but stood near the stern of the 
 boat ; the pilots were at the bow, and as the boat 
 turned into the current the shouts of the crowd that 
 had assembled to witness her departure grew fainter 
 and fainter in the distance. 
 
 The safety of the boat depended on having her 
 speed exceed that of the current, and as she dashed 
 along with all the velocity her engines could give, 
 added to that of the rush of the river, she seemed 
 to be darting like an arrow. Rocks rose on each 
 side of the channel, the water was dashed in 
 spray on the deck of the boat, and sometimes the 
 New Orleans seemed to pitch forward as though 
 about to be swallowed up. Every one grasped 
 some part of the boat for safety, and even the 
 Newfoundland dog shook with terror as he crouched 
 at Mrs. Roosevelt's feet. It was une maiivaise 
 quart d' heure, as the French say, but it was quickly 
 
THE PIONEER VOYAGE, 
 
 205 
 
 4nd safely over. The danger was passed and the 
 New Orleans rounded to at the foot of the falls, 
 where they discharged the pilot who had accom- 
 panied them through the dangerous channel. 
 
 From this point to the Gulf of Mexico there were 
 no more falls or other obstructions to navigation, 
 and the pioneers of steamboating on the Mississippi 
 thought their voyage would not be marked with 
 any further incident of importance. But Mrs. 
 Roosevelt records that their passage of the falls of 
 the Ohio was only the prelude to days of hor- 
 ror. 
 
 While they were waiting at Louisville there were 
 many days together when the sky had a dull leaden 
 hue without a cloud. The sun was like a globe of 
 red-hot iron at morning and evening ; its color was 
 brightened at noon, but through the whole day one 
 could look steadily at it without blinking. The 
 nights were starless and the moon even at the full 
 was just barely visible. This atmospheric condition 
 continued after the passage of the falls and was 
 followed by the earthquake whose effects are still 
 visible at New Madrid and other points. 
 
 * Mr. C. J. Latrobe, in " The Rambler in North America," published a 
 few years later, wrote as follows : " Many things conspired to make the 
 year 181 1, tJie annus vrirabilis of the West. During the earlier months, the 
 waters of many of the great rivers overflowed their banks to a vast extent, 
 and the whole country was in many parts covered from bluff to bluff. Un- 
 precedented sickness followed. A spirit of change and recklessness seemed 
 to pervade the very inhabitants of the forest. A countless multitude of 
 squirrels, obeying some great and universal impulse, which none can know 
 
2o6 
 
 l^OBEkT PULTON. 
 
 In his first visit in the flat-boat, Mr. Roosevelt 
 found coal at several places along the banks of the 
 Lower Ohio, and arranged for it to be mined and 
 stored for the arrival of the steamboat whose keel 
 had not then been laid. He found the coal ready, 
 according to agreement, and took on as much as 
 his boat could carry. When it was exhausted, he 
 took in wood wherever he could find it. At least 
 once in twenty-four hours the boat stopped for 
 wood ; there were no wood-yards then as in later 
 days, and in nearly every instance the work of cut- 
 ting and preparing the desired fuel was performed 
 by the crew. 
 
 As the New Orleans nearecl the mouth of the 
 Ohio, it was found that an unusual rise in the Mis- 
 sissippi had backed the latter into the former 
 stream, and for a long distance all the low ground 
 was flooded. Canoes of the Chickasaw Indians, 
 who then inhabited that region, were paddled about 
 among the trees ; sometimes the Indians attempted 
 to approach the steamer, and at others they fled 
 when they saw it. At some of the places where 
 
 but the Spirit that gave them being, left their reckless and gambolling life, 
 and their ancient places of retreat in the North, and were seen pressing for- 
 ward by tens of thousands in a deep and solid phalanx to the South. No 
 obstacles seemed to check their extraordinary and concerted movement. 
 The word had been given them to go forth and they obeyed it, though mul- 
 titudes perished in the broad Ohio which lay in their path. The splendid 
 comet of that year long continued to shed its twilight over the forests, and 
 as the autumn drew to a close, the whole valley of the Mississippi, from the 
 Missouri to the Gulf, was shaken to its centre by continued earthquakes." 
 
THE PIOMEER VOYAGE. 
 
 the boat stopped for wood, the Indians came out 
 and talked, by signs and a few words of EngHsh, 
 with the men. 
 
 They seemed to beHeve that the steamboat had 
 some connection with the comet, as the sparks 
 from the chimney bore a marked resemblance to 
 the fiery tail of that erratic orb. They also at- 
 tributed the smoky atmosphere to the steamer, and 
 thought the earthquake was caused by the beating 
 of its paddles. They looked on the first steamboat 
 as an omen of evil, and for a long time afterwards 
 all the Indians of the Mississippi Valley regarded 
 the fiery craft with awe. As late as 1834, when 
 the Chickasaws emigrated to the Indian Territory, 
 hundreds of them refused to be carried on the 
 steamboats, but made the long and weary journey 
 on foot. 
 
 The first shock of the earthquake was felt while 
 the steamer was anchored below the falls of the 
 Ohio. The effect was much as though the steamer 
 had suddenly run aground ; the cable shook and 
 trembled, and some of those on the boat felt the 
 qualms of sea-sickness. Several shocks occurred 
 during the night and for many succeeding nights. 
 When the boat was in motion during the day, the 
 tremblings of the earth were unnoticed, owing to 
 the jar caused by the machinery and paddles. It is 
 a curious circumstance that at such times the dog 
 only was aware of the earthquakes ; he would 
 
?o8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 prowl, moaning and growling, about the boat, or 
 come and place his head in Mrs. Roosevelt's lap. 
 
 At New Madrid they found a large part of the 
 town had been swallowed up ; the inhabitants were 
 in the greatest terror, and begged to be taken on 
 board the steamer and carried to a place of safety. 
 Transportation for so many or even a small num- 
 ber was impossible, as the accommodations of the 
 steamer were very meagre, and the supply of food 
 was only sufficient for the party, while purchase of 
 other provisions on the way was extremely doubt- 
 ful. The steamer continued on her voyage after a 
 very brief halt, at this unhappy spot. At every 
 point where she touched in the region covered by 
 the earthquake they found the inhabitants in a sim- 
 ilar state of alarm. 
 
 The earthquake lasted from November till the 
 following March, and extended over an area of 
 country stretching nearly three hundred miles 
 southward from the mouth of the Ohio. The 
 ground was shaken both vertically and horizon- 
 tally, the horizontal movements being the most de- 
 structive. The ground rose and sank in great un- 
 dulations ; fissures, sometimes more than half a 
 mile long, were opened in the earth, and from 
 these fissures mud and water were often thrown as 
 high as the tops of the trees ; trees on the banks 
 were toppled into the river, and the adventurers on 
 the steamboat had several narrow escapes while 
 
THE PIONEER VOYAGE, 
 
 tied up to the banks. So many times were they 
 near destruction from this cause that they aban- 
 doned the practice of tying up to the bank at night, 
 but preferred to make fast to the lower end of an 
 island where there were no trees to endanger 
 them. 
 
 One night while they were thus tied up, the 
 boat was repeatedly shaken by logs running against 
 it, but they supposed it was nothing but drift-wood, 
 and felt no alarm. In the morning they found the 
 island had disappeared during the night, and the 
 tree to which their cable was fastened had sunk 
 below the surface of the water, and was held by 
 its roots. They were obliged to cut the cable in 
 order to get free. 
 
 The pilot was bewildered, as the flood and earth- 
 quake had made so many changes, that the ordinary 
 landmarks were not to be found, or, when found, 
 were of no use. Tall trees that had been his 
 guides were gone ; islands had changed their shape 
 or disappeared altogether. He found shallows 
 where he had expected deep water, and deep water 
 where there was formerly dry land ; and where the 
 river had previously flowed around bends, there 
 were cut-off's, through which more than half of the 
 great stream was pouring. 
 
 Long before reaching Natchez the steamer 
 passed out of the region of the earthquake, and 
 the only inconvenience was from snags and saw- 
 
2IO 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 yers. They had a few races with the Indians, and 
 on one occasion a large canoe filled with the red 
 men came out of the forest abreast of the boat and 
 made for her with all possible speed. As they 
 were , much more numerous than the crew, it was 
 not desirable to receive them on board, and accord- 
 ingly all steam was crowded on the boat, and the 
 Indians were soon left behind, making the air ring 
 with their shouts. 
 
 One night there was a sudden trampling of feet 
 on deck, and Mr. Roosevelt and his wife thought 
 the Indians were upon them. They rushed from 
 the cabin, to find that their visitor was not a party 
 of Indians, but something quite as alarming — the 
 boat was on fire ! 
 
 A servant had placed some green wood close to 
 the stove, in order to render it fit for burning. 
 The stove became overheated, and the wood took 
 fire. The fire communicated to the joiner work 
 near it, and the cabin would have been in flames 
 very speedily if the servant, whose carelessness had 
 caused the accident, had not awakened half-suff'o- 
 cated from the smoke. The fire was under good 
 headway, but was extinguished, not, however, 
 until it had destroyed or seriously defaced all the 
 interior work of the cabin 
 
 Nobody slept for the rest of that night, and the 
 incident did not tend to reassure the travellers 
 or make them content with their floating home. 
 
777^ PIONEER VOYAGE. 
 
 211 
 
 The Mississippi steamboat burns like tinder, and 
 when once a fire is fairly started it is not often 
 extinguished. Many lives have been lost by con- 
 flagrations on the great river of the West, and the 
 most horrifying annals of the Mississippi and its 
 tributaries are those which chronicle the burning of * 
 steamboats. In one accident of this sort no less 
 than sixteen hundred lives were lost. 
 
 At Natchez the romance of the voyage ended. 
 The travellers were received with the same hospi- 
 tality as at Louisville and Cincinnati, and later on 
 similar courtesies were shown them at New Or- 
 leans. From Natchez to New Orleans the river is 
 deeper and more moderate in its current than 
 above the former city, and there was no incident 
 worthy of record in the voyage to the steamer s 
 destination. 
 
 The pioneer steamboat took her place on the line 
 between Natchez and New Orleans ; in due time 
 she was followed by the Vesuvius and the Etna, 
 and these in turn were followed by others. Steam- 
 boats multiplied rapidly on the great river of 
 America. In less than twenty years from the ad- 
 venturous voyage here recorded they were counted 
 by dozens and almost by hundreds, and pene- 
 trated through all the tributaries of the Mississippi 
 over navigable courses, with an aggregate of more 
 than twenty thousand miles. 
 
 Mr. Latrobe adds to this narrative as follows : 
 
212 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Although forming no part of the voyage 
 proper, yet, as this has been called a romance, and 
 as all romances end, or should end, in marriage, the 
 incident was not wanting here. The captain of the 
 boat, falling in love with Mrs. Roosevelt's maid, 
 * prosecuted his suit so successfully as to find him- 
 self an accepted lover when the steamer reached 
 Natchez. A clergyman was sent for, and a wed- 
 ding marked the arrival of the first steamboat at 
 the chief city of the Mississippi." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Early navigation of the Mississippi — Keel-boats, flat-boats, and rafts — Their 
 peculiarities — Reminiscences of the keel-boatmen — Mike Fink and his 
 tragic death — The New Orleans and her successors — First steamboat 
 from New Orleans to Pittsburgh — Racing on the Mississippi — The last 
 great race — Snags, sawyers, and the Red River raft — First ascent of the 
 Mississippi by steam — What the first steam-whistle did. 
 
 REVIOUS to the introduction of steamboats 
 
 jL on the Mississippi and its tributaries the 
 navigation of those rivers was conducted with sev- 
 eral kinds of craft. They were respectively called 
 keel-boats, barges, flat-boats, and rafts. Flat-boats 
 and rafts are not unknown at the present day, 
 though their numbers are not as great as in past 
 years ; but the death-knell of the keel-boat and 
 barge was sounded when steam navigation was 
 successfully established. This important feature 
 of a by-gone age merits a description, as it was a 
 marked characteristic of our Western civilization. 
 
 The keel-boat was long and narrow, sharp at 
 both ends, and of light draft. When it had a 
 house in the centre, it was dignified into a 
 barge " ; but if the house was not there, the 
 original name was retained. In descending the 
 river it floated with the current, and the work of 
 
214 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 the crew of fifteen or twenty men was not severe. 
 Laden with the products of the upper part of the 
 Mississippi valley, andperhaps witha few passengers, 
 the keel boats went down the river to New Orleans. 
 Returning, they brought cargoes of goods destined 
 for consumption in the upper country — sometimes 
 on the account of the owners of the boats, but 
 more frequently as freight, for which a fixed price 
 per ton or hundred-weight was paid. 
 
 The ascent of the river was long and tedious, as 
 it was necessary to stem the powerful current of 
 the Mississippi for many hundreds of miles. This 
 business developed a peculiar race or class of men 
 that disappeared with the adoption of the steam- 
 boat, and is known at present only in tradition or 
 in the memory of that oft-quoted authority, the 
 oldest inhabitant." 
 
 On each side of the keel-boat was a plank or 
 board extending from bow to stern, and known as 
 the ''walking-board." The crew was equally di- 
 vided on the two sides of the boat, and each man 
 was provided with a long staff, known as a ''set- 
 ting-pole." The lower end of the pole was planted 
 or "set" in the bottom of the river and the other 
 pressed against the shoulder of the man who 
 handled it. Having placed the pole properly, the 
 man walked from the bow to the stern, and the 
 united force of the crew thus propelled the boat up 
 the stream. A steersman was at the stern to di- 
 
EARL V NA VIGA TION OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 215 
 
 rect the course of the boat, which he did by means 
 of a long oar that had a tremendous leverage 
 against the water. 
 
 The life of the keel-boatman was a laborious one, 
 but it developed a wonderful power of muscle that 
 was often used for less honorable purposes than 
 propelling a vessel along the great river. When 
 the crews of two boats happened to meet at a land- 
 ing-place, a fight was a very likely occurrence, es- 
 pecially if each crew possessed a man of more than 
 common renown for his prowess. If a keel-boat- 
 man claimed never to have been whipped, he was 
 obliged to try conclusions with every man who 
 chose to assail him, and the number of such was 
 not small. Sometimes when two or three crews 
 were camped together at night the most perfect 
 harmony would reign until some one would imi- 
 tate the crowing of a cock. Then from another 
 crew would come an answering crow, and a com- 
 bat for the local championship would follow imme- 
 diately. 
 
 Certain codes of etiquette were binding on all 
 keel-boatmen, though they were never formulated 
 in writing or made the basis of a labor union. The 
 men were a terror to all the towns and villages 
 along the river, as the local police were utterly un- 
 able to control them, and they gave free rein to their 
 fancies in the way of rough practical jokes on peace- 
 able inhabitants or on each other. They were unerring 
 
2l6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 shots with the rifle, which was always within reach, 
 while they were working at oars or poles in their 
 voyages on the river. If a deer or a bear made his 
 appearance within range on the banks he was a 
 mark for the rifle of the man who first saw him, 
 and a shot was rarely thrown away. They did fine 
 service at the battle of New Orleans (January 8, 
 1815). ''The hunters of Kentucky,'' whose ex- 
 ploits on that memorable day have passed into 
 song and history, were mainly keel-boatmen from 
 the upper waters of the Mississippi and Ohio. 
 
 With the rifle-ball and at long distances they 
 would cut the hat-band of a fellow-boatman or 
 upset a coff'ee cup that might be resting on his 
 knee. To cut off the head of a turkey at a hundred 
 yards, while the bird was in motion, was a frequent 
 feat, and at night they would snuff a candle at fifty 
 paces, and leave it burning or extinguished as the)? 
 chose. In the battle of New Orleans many of 
 them suggested the place where they intended to 
 hit an enemy, and after the battle was over their 
 predictions were found to have been verified. 
 
 One of their favorite amusements was to drive 
 the nail " ; — a nail would be driven half its length 
 into a tree, and then sent home to its place by the 
 rifle at forty paces. When two of them quarrelled 
 and afterwards made friends, their test of amity was 
 to shoot a small object from each other's heads. 
 One of the most renowned keel-boatmen was Mike 
 
MIKE FINK AND HIS TRAGIC DEATH. 21/ 
 
 Fink, and his reputation as a marksman was of the 
 best ; he lost his Hfe in one of these pecuHar tests 
 of reconciliation. 
 
 Mike had quarrelled with a fellow-boatman, and 
 after they made up their differences, the usual cere- 
 mony was ordered. The man put an apple on his 
 head, and the regulation distance was paced off ; Mike 
 fired, and the man fell to the ground as if dead. His 
 brother, who was standing near, immediately turned 
 and shot Mike through the heart ; a few moments 
 later the man rose to his feet stunned, but not hurt 
 beyond a crease in the scalp. Mike had shot be- 
 tween the apple and the skull, as he would have 
 barked " a squirrel from a tree. Whether he did 
 it by design or accident was of course never known, 
 but it is supposed to have been done from mere 
 warttonness. 
 
 In spite of their lawlessness and their frequent 
 depredations upon the store-houses of farms or the 
 products of field or orchard, these men had a keen 
 sense of honor, which was very rarely transgressed. 
 They could be implicitly trusted with goods or 
 money for transportation, and if any thing in their 
 charge was lost or damaged, they paid its full value 
 without hesitation. When they interfered in the 
 quarrels of others, they always took the side of the 
 weaker ; if two rival crews were about to fight, an 
 equal number of men was told off from each, and 
 the contest was not interfered with by the rest. 
 
2l8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 When a crew was paid off at the end of a voyage, 
 there was a season of wild debauchery until the 
 money was gone and the men had found work 
 again. A keel-boatman who consented to work on 
 shore immediately lost caste among his fellows, and 
 could not associate with them till he took to the 
 river again. 
 
 The ascent of the river from New Orleans to 
 Louisville, with the keel-boat, occupied from one 
 hundred to one hundred and twenty days, and the 
 downward journey was rarely less than forty. The 
 flat boats and rafts did not return at all, but were 
 broken up at New Orleans and sold for their tim- 
 ber, while their crews came home on foot or shipped 
 as hands on the keel-boats. The flat-boat was 
 more familiarly known as the broad-horn " ; it 
 was a hundred feet long by thirty broad, square at 
 the ends, and not infrequently it reached a leng^li 
 of one hundred and fifty feet, with proportionate 
 breadth. 
 
 The broad-horns were built on the upper rivers, 
 and laden with corn, wheat, and other produce of 
 the country, and their great length and width en- 
 abled them to carry enormous cargoes. With the 
 rise of the river in autumn the boats started for 
 their destinations ; they floated with the current, 
 where they were kept by the enormous oars in the 
 hands of the steersman and one or two men on 
 each side. Keel-boats, and afterwards steamboats, 
 
THE NEW ORLEANS AND HER SUCCESSORS. 2ig 
 
 were required by the law of the river, and also by a 
 regard for their own safety, to give a free road to 
 the broad-horn ; the greatest delight of the flat- 
 boatman of modern days is to compel a first-class 
 steamboat to change its course in order to avoid 
 contact with his unwieldy craft. 
 
 Rafts are often of a size that makes the broad- 
 horns appear diminutive, and sometimes they carry 
 quite an extensive population. A raft is managed 
 by men at bow and stern, and the steamboats 
 always seek to maintain a respectable distance be- 
 tween themselves and these great masses of float- 
 ing timber. The ire of a raftsman can be easily 
 roused, and his combative qualities developed, by 
 remarks relative to the speed of his vessel, its 
 liability to leak, and a query as to how often he 
 finds it necessary to pump the raft dry. 
 
 But to return to the steamboat. The New 
 Orleans was sunk by a snag near Baton Rouge, a 
 few years after the voyage narrated in the last 
 chapter, but not until she had returned to her 
 owners much more than the thirty-eight thousand 
 dollars expended in her construction. About 1850 
 her timbers were found in a very good state of pres- 
 ervation ; they were discovered during an unusu- 
 ally low stage of the river, where they had lain for 
 more than a quarter of a century. 
 
 The Enterprise, one of the immediate successors 
 of the New Orleans, was the first steamboat tg 
 
220 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 make the trip from New Orleans to Pittsburgh. 
 She left the former city early in 1815 with a cargo 
 of ordnance stores, and reached Louisville in 
 twenty-five days ; the time consumed on the rest 
 of her trip to Pittsburgh is not given. The river 
 was high at the time, and the boat saved a consid- 
 erable distance by chutes " and passages that could 
 not be used in the middle or lower stages. She 
 was commanded by Captain H. M. Shreve, the in- 
 ventor of the first snag-boat and the founder of 
 Shreveport, Louisiana. On her arrival at Louis- 
 ville there was great excitement ; triumphal arches 
 were erected, cannon were fired, and a public din- 
 ner was given to the captain for his successful 
 ascent of the great river. 
 
 While responding to the toast in his honor Cap- 
 tain Shreve taxed the credulity of his listeners by 
 saying that under more favorable circumstances 
 he could make the journey in twenty days. In 
 1823 there were similar rejoicmgs at Louisville when 
 a steamer arrived at New Orleans in fifteen days 
 and six hours. At the banquet in his honor the 
 captain said the upward passage might possibly 
 be made in fifteen days, or in six hours less 
 time than he had taken. Some of his listeners 
 agreed with him, but many shook their heads. 
 Little more than a decade later the time of the 
 trip was reduced to less than eight days ; in 
 1840 it was inside of six days; in 1850, inside of 
 
RACING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 221 
 
 five days; and in 1853 the voyage from New 
 Orleans to Louisville was reduced to four days and 
 nine hours. 
 
 The distance is fourteen hundred and eighty 
 miles and the average speed for the trip in the 
 instance last mentioned was fourteen miles an hour. 
 It was in a race between the steamers Eclipse and 
 A. L. Shotwell, which was won by the former by 
 only fifty minutes; seventy thousand dollars were 
 wagered between the owners of the boats and 
 there were private bets to a much greater amount. 
 
 Steamboat racing was for many years one of the 
 pastimes of the Mississippi, and many interesting 
 stories are told concerning these trials of speed. 
 When two crack boats happened to be going the 
 same way a race was almost among the certainties, 
 and if it was announced beforehand both boats 
 were pretty sure to be crowded in order to enjoy 
 the dangerous sport. 
 
 Dangerous it was, as the contestants would carry 
 all the steam to which they were entitled by law, 
 and frequently a great deal more. Pine knots and 
 sides of. bacon were used as fuel; tar was often 
 poured over the wood to make it burn more fiercely ; 
 and :oal was drenched with turpentine, whiskey, or 
 other sp'irits. A negro was sent to sit on the safety 
 valve, or if he could TiOt be ^spared fvom his 
 work weights wer^^ placed upon it to hold it down. 
 There is an ariecdote of an old lady who took pas- 
 
222 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 sage on a steamboat at Cincinnati, but before doing 
 so she exacted a solemn promise from the captain 
 that there should be no racing. I'm afraid of my 
 life," said she, and I don't want to be on any boat 
 that races. Besides," she added, I 've a hundred 
 barrels of bacon on board as freight, that I'm 
 taking to market, and I don't want any thing to 
 happen to thatr 
 
 During the downward trip they overhauled a rival 
 boat and tried to pass it. The old lady became 
 excited over the contest, forgot all about her 
 scruples on the subject of racing, and urged the 
 captain not to be left behind. ''I can't beat that 
 boat, " was the captain's reply, ''witlv the sort of 
 stuff we 're burning. If I only had some bacon I 
 could do it." 
 
 Well, captain," said the old girl I 've got a 
 hundred barrels of bacon down there, and you can 
 jest use it up if you '11 only get ahead." 
 
 The captain took her at her word, :u.^ also took 
 the bacon. The other boat was distanced, aid, as 
 no accident happened, everybody on the wirming 
 craft was happy. 
 
 In the race between the Eclipse and Shotviell it 
 was stipulated that both boats should make certain 
 landings for passengers, but they were not required 
 to carry freight. Tue landings were made by means 
 of the local ferry-boats, which came out in the river 
 to meet them, fastened alongside, ;ind exchanged 
 
RACING ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 223 
 
 passengers without the necessity of the rival racers 
 slackening speed. Wood was taken at the wood- 
 yards in the same way. Flat-boats laden with 
 wood dropped into the river as they saw the 
 steamers coming, and were made fast against the 
 rapidly moving boats. The wood was hastily 
 thrown on the deck, and then the flat was cast off 
 and drifted back to its yard, and this process was 
 repeated at all the wood-yards where either boat 
 was supplied. 
 
 The engines hardly ceased their pulsations from 
 the beginning to the end of the voyage, and on the 
 part of the river between Natchez and New Orleans, 
 where the current is sluggish, the boats made 
 eighteen miles an hour. No accidents happened 
 to either of the boats, but this is by no means the 
 uniform history of races on Western rivers. Over- 
 pressure of steam has caused explosions in which 
 many lives have been lost, and boats have taken 
 fire from the carelessness and excitement conse- 
 quent upon a race. Of late years this form of sport 
 is rarely heard of, and it is possible for two steam- 
 boats to travel along the same course without en- 
 deavoring to outstrip each other. 
 
 The following table shows the progressive 
 improvement made in the speed of the boats 
 from New Orleans to Louisville from 181 5 to 
 1853, the year when the highest speed was 
 reached : 
 
224 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 DATE. 
 
 NAME OF STEAMER. 
 
 DAYS. 
 
 HOURS. 
 
 MINUTES. 
 
 May, 
 
 1815 
 
 - 
 
 Enterprise. 
 
 25 
 
 2 
 
 40 
 
 April, 
 
 1817 
 
 Washington. 
 
 25 
 
 GO 
 
 00 
 
 Sept., 
 
 1817 
 
 oneiDy. 
 
 20 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 May, 
 
 i8tq 
 
 Paragon. 
 
 T 8 
 
 I 0 
 
 10 
 
 GO 
 
 Nov., 
 
 1828 
 
 Tecumseh. 
 
 Q 
 
 0 
 
 4 
 
 GG 
 
 April, 
 
 I 
 
 Tuscarora. 
 
 7 
 
 10 
 
 OG 
 
 Nov., 
 
 1837 
 
 General Brown. 
 
 0 
 
 22 
 
 GG 
 
 Nov., 
 
 1837 
 
 Kanaolpn. 
 
 /: 
 0 
 
 22 
 
 GG 
 
 Nov., 
 
 1837 
 
 Empress. 
 
 0 
 
 ^ 7 
 
 GG 
 
 Dec, 
 April, 
 
 1837 
 
 Sultana. 
 
 0 
 
 ^5 
 
 GG 
 
 1840 
 
 Edward Shippen. 
 
 •5 
 
 14 
 
 GG 
 
 April, 
 
 1842 
 
 jjeiic 01 me vv ebi. 
 
 5 
 
 14 
 
 GG 
 
 April, 
 
 I 04 2 
 
 uuKe 01 wneanb. 
 
 5 
 
 23 
 
 GG 
 
 April, 
 
 1844 
 
 Sultana. 
 
 5 
 
 1 2 
 
 GG 
 
 May, 
 
 1849 
 
 Bostona. 
 
 5 
 
 8 
 
 GG 
 
 June, 
 May, 
 
 1851 
 
 Belle Key. 
 
 4 
 
 23 
 
 GG 
 
 1852 
 
 Reindeer. 
 
 4 
 
 20 
 
 45 
 
 May, 
 
 1852 
 
 Eclipse. 
 
 4 
 
 18 
 
 GG 
 
 May, 
 
 1853 
 
 A, L. Shotwell. 
 
 4 
 
 10 
 
 2G 
 
 May, 
 
 1853 
 
 Eclipse. 
 
 4 
 
 9 
 
 30 
 
 The race between the EcHpse and Shotwell was 
 the last great one in the history of steamboating on 
 Western waters, and the time made by the Eclipse 
 has never been beaten. 
 
 The Robert E. Lee, in June, 1870, made a run 
 from New Orleans to St. Louis in 3 days 18 hours 
 and 14 minutes. The Natchez left New Orleans 
 at the same time and ran to St. Louis in 4 days and 
 47 minutes. The distance is 1,170 miles, or 310 
 miles less than from New Orleans to Louisville. 
 
 Steamboating on the Mississippi and its great 
 tributaries was at its height between 1850 and i860. 
 
THE MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOAT. 
 
 225 
 
 In 1858 there were on the Mississippi and its trib- 
 utaries eight hundred and sixteen steamboats, with 
 an aggregate capacity of 326,443 tons. The Enter- 
 prise and her sisters had a capacity of from seventy- 
 five to one hundred tons ; the boats of 1 850-60 often 
 exceeded two thousand tons in measurement, and 
 could carry cargoes of more than three thousand 
 tons each, in addition to several hundred passen- 
 gers. Since that time steamers of even greater 
 capacity have been built, chiefly for the conveyance 
 of freight. The steamboat passenger business has 
 declined owing to the extension of railways in every 
 direction, and their reduction of the time required 
 for a long journey. Ordinarily the best of the 
 steamboats require five or six days for the trip from 
 New Orleans to St. Louis or Louisville, which the 
 railway can easily make in three. The American is 
 generally in a hurry, and consequently the steam- 
 boat cannot compete favorably with the railway for 
 through passenger travel. 
 
 The Mississippi steamboat is so unlike that of 
 any other river system of the world that it merits a 
 special description. Her bottom is flat, as she 
 must draw the least possible amount of water ; 
 — some of the enormous craft capable of carrying 
 three thousand tons of freight can pass a shallow of 
 five or six feet with ease and safety, while the 
 smaller boats — with wheels at the stern — for the 
 navigation of the tributaries of the upper Missis- 
 
226 
 
 nODEkT PULTON. 
 
 sippi and Missouri require only fifteen or eighteen 
 inches. 
 
 Some of the captains of the stern-wheelers boast 
 that they can run where there is a heavy dew, and 
 others profess an ability to navigate the moisture 
 on the outside of an ice-pitcher in a muggy day. 
 Stories have been told of sending a deck hand out 
 with a sprinkling-pot in order to dampen the bed of 
 the river enough to allow a boat to proceed, but 
 they cannot be received as entirely truthful. 
 
 A first-class boat on the Mississippi will measure 
 about three hundred feet in length by sixty in 
 width. From her keel to the roof of the upper 
 cabin is about forty feet, and above this cabin is the 
 
 Texas," which contains the quarters of the officers 
 and servants, and is somewhat shorter and nar- 
 rower than the cabin. Above the Texas " is the 
 pilot-house, a room from ten to twenty feet square, 
 and sixty feet above the keel. It contains an 
 enormous wheel, and is equipped with speaking 
 tubes and bell ropes for communication with the en- 
 gineer, and it has glass windows all around so that 
 the pilot can see in every direction. 
 
 The main deck is only two or three feet above 
 the water, and below it is the hold where a large 
 amount of freight can be stored. The boilers and 
 engines are on this main deck ; freight is also piled 
 upon it, and the steerage passengers have their 
 quarters there. The main cabin is above all the 
 
THE MISSISSIPPI STEAMBOAT. 
 
 227 
 
 machinery, and is a broad saloon with a row of 
 roomy cabins on either side ; the cabins have doors 
 opening into the saloon and other doors opening 
 upon the ''guards," which form a pleasant loung- 
 ing place where the scenery of the banks can be 
 studied or the time whiled away in reading or other 
 occupations. 
 
 The forward part of the saloon is called the 
 Social Hall," and it is there that the bar is located, 
 cards are played — generally for money and often 
 for high stakes, — and masculine passengers cultivate 
 each other's acquaintance. The ladies' saloon is at 
 the stern ; it is divided from the Social Hall by a 
 curtain which is drawn at niofht and sometimes in 
 the day, but on many of the smaller boats the 
 division between the two is by an imaginary rather 
 than by a real line. 
 
 At the hours of meals the whole saloon or such 
 part as may be needed is utilized as a dining hall, 
 and in the evening it may form a temporary danc- 
 ing hall, the music for which can be readily supplied 
 by the colored servants of the boat. The price of 
 passage is inclusive of meals and lodgings ; on the 
 best of the boats the table is not inferior to that of 
 first-class hotels on shore and many travellers have 
 pronounced it superior. 
 
 There are two engines on all the side-wheel 
 boats, and the wheels are independent of each 
 other. A few boats have low-pressure engines, but 
 
228 
 
 ROBERT RULTOjV, 
 
 the great majority are high pressure, and discharge 
 the steam directly into the air, sometimes through 
 steam-pipes, and sometimes through the enormous 
 chimneys that rise through the double line of 
 cabins, so that their presence is not noted by the 
 sojourners in the saloon. The boilers are usually 
 tested for 1 50 or 200 pounds pressure to the 
 square inch, and the engines are worked with from 
 90 to 120 pounds. When racing, a boat carries 
 all the steam that the inspectors permit, and some- 
 times a good deal more. Hence the fearful explo- 
 sions, generally with heavy loss of liie, that are re- 
 corded in the annals of Western navigation. 
 
 But explosions and conflagrations are not the 
 greatest of the dangers of Western steamboating. 
 Snags and sawyers have brought many boats to 
 grief, especially on the Missouri, where they are 
 more numerous than elsewhere. A snaof is the 
 trunk of a tree whose roots have become firmly 
 imbedded in the bottom of the river, while the 
 top is at or near the surface, either above or just 
 below it, the greatest danger being in the latter 
 case. A sawyer is similar to a snag, but the roots 
 of the tree, instead of being firmly, are loosely 
 fixed, so that the top has a sawing motion. The 
 current carries it below the surface, until the ten- 
 sion of the roots causes it to rise, when it slowly 
 appears above the water, and as slowly disappears 
 again. 
 
SN-AGS AND SAIVYERS, 
 
 229 
 
 Snags and sawyers are the great dread of steam- 
 boatmen, and in fact of all classes of navigators of 
 the Western rivers. When a boat runs fairly on 
 either of them her destruction is almost a cer- 
 tainty. In one instance on the Missouri River a 
 boat was impaled on a snag like a fly on a pin. It 
 entered her hull just forward of the engines, rose 
 through all her decks, and killed her pilot as he 
 stood at the wheel. The snag may point either 
 up or down the stream, but the direction of the 
 sawyer is always with the current. 
 
 A great deal of money has been spent — partly 
 by the General Government, and partly by the State 
 authorities, and the cities and counties interested 
 in river navigation, in the removal of snags and 
 other obstructions. Snag-boats, built especially for 
 this work, are employed. They are provided with 
 suitable machinery and tackle for lifting a snag 
 from its bed or cutting it off far below the surface 
 of the water. The greatest work of this kind has 
 been in the Red River raft," a tangle of trees 
 and smaller driftwood that formerly filled the 
 Red River for a distance of nearly forty miles. It 
 was a formidable barrier to navigation. The 
 United States Government began work upon it 
 more than fifty years ago, and large sums of 
 money have been spent upon it from time to 
 time. 
 
 Captain Shreve opened a channel through the 
 
230 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Red River raft in 1 835-1 839, but it steadily ex- 
 tended at its head from the annual accumulation 
 of drifting timber. A channel was opened in 
 the newly formed raft between 1840 and 1850, but 
 in 1 87 1 the foot of the raft was at a point above 
 that where the head had been when Captain 
 Shreve began his work. It has since been opened 
 through its whole length, but must be watched 
 and worked upon every year to keep it from clos- 
 ing again. 
 
 The oldest existing steamboat company in the 
 West, and probably in the world, is the United 
 States Mail Line between Cincinnati and Louisville. 
 It was organized in 1818, seven years after the 
 people of those cities predicted that neither 
 Roosevelt's boat nor any other could ever ascend 
 the Ohio, and has owned a great many boats. 
 It built the first steamboat, the General Pike, 
 designed for passengers exclusively. This boat 
 made the trip from Louisville to Cincinnati in 
 thirty-one hours, a journey which was reduced to 
 nine hours before the middle of the century. 
 Owing to the competition of the railways, the 
 business of the steamboats on this and most other 
 river lines is less profitable than it was thirty years 
 ago. 
 
 The Missouri was first ascended by steamboats in 
 1 8 19, when three small boats chartered by Gov- 
 ernment were sent there with an exploring party. 
 
THE FIRST STEAM WHISTLE, 
 
 231 
 
 The members of the party travelled along the shore, 
 while the boats carried their baggage and sup- 
 plies. Sometimes the explorers were separated 
 from their boats for days, and on one occasion they 
 were robbed by the Pawnee Indians and left 
 hungry and half-naked, until relieved by the 
 friendly Kaws and conducted to the boats. One 
 of the steamers had the figure-head of a serpent at 
 the prow, which was utilized as an escape pipe. 
 When the Indians saw this hideous object breath- 
 ing steam, they fled in terror, as they imagined 
 that the evil spirit had come and was ready to 
 swallow them. 
 
 Progress with these boats was very slow, as their 
 engines were weak, and they frequently ran on 
 sandbars. On their return journey they dropped 
 down the stream stern foremost, as they could 
 thus be more easily managed than if coming head 
 on. At that time the use of the stilts, by which 
 steamers are lifted off from sandbars, was unknown, 
 and when boats ran aground, especially in descend- 
 ing, it was a very serious matter. 
 
 Steam whistles were introduced on the Missouri 
 River in 1844, and on the Mississippi two or three 
 years earlier. The first steam whistle on a steam- 
 boat was on the King Philip," running on Narra- 
 gansett Bay, in 1837. Stephen D. Collins, engi- 
 neer of the King Philip, had seen a whistle on a 
 locomotive, and ordered one for his boat. At first 
 
232 
 
 1^0 BERT FULTON'. 
 
 the innovation was unpopular, on account of its 
 noise, but its usefulness for signalling purposes led 
 to its rapid adoption as soon as it became known. 
 
 In the autumn of 1844, the new steamboat Lex- 
 ington started from St. Louis for the Missouri 
 River. She had a steam whistle, the first on the 
 Missouri, and the fact was known only to Theo- 
 dore Warner, one of the passengers. While the 
 passengers were playing cards in the evening, after 
 leaving St. Louis, Warner turned the conversation 
 to steamboat explosives, and remarked that he felt 
 perfectly safe on the Lexington. 
 
 Why so ? " inquired Mr. Yocum, a planter from 
 Platte County. 
 
 ''Because," was the reply, ''she's got a new 
 patent safety-valve that tells the passengers when 
 she 's going to blow up. It makes a most unearthly 
 noise, and when you hear it, it 's time to get aft or 
 jump overboard." 
 
 He said this with a most solemn countenance 
 while studying his cards, but in spite of his serious- 
 ness some of the passengers were skeptical, though 
 Yocum was not. While the passengers were at 
 breakfast next morning, the steamboat was ap- 
 proaching Washington, Missouri, and the whistle 
 was blown for the first time. Horror was depicted 
 on some of the faces, and the words of Warner 
 were remembered. Yocum sprang from his seat, his 
 face blanched and his hair in bristles, and shouted : 
 
WHAT THE FIRST STEAM WHISTLE DID, 233 
 
 Run for your lives ; the darned thing 's going 
 to bust ! 
 
 Everybody ran for the stern of the boat, and it re- 
 quired considerable exertion on the part of the 
 knowing and cooler ones to keep Yocum and a 
 few others of the excited passengers from jumping 
 overboard. 
 
 The New Orleans and others of the earlier boats 
 on the Western rivers had their boilers in the hold, 
 and were propelled by single upright engines, pat- 
 terned after those of the Clermont and other Hud- 
 son River boats. In 1816, Captain Shreve built the 
 Washington, at Wheeling, Virginia, and introduced 
 several novelties. He placed the boilers on the 
 main deck, built a hurricane deck over them, used 
 two horizontal direct-acting engines, driven by high- 
 pressure steam without condensation, and attached 
 them, one on each side of the boat, to cranks 
 placed at right angles. He also adopted a cam 
 cut-off for expanding the steam, and introduced 
 the flue-boiler of Oliver Evans. The arrangement 
 of boilers and decks became popular at once, and 
 thus the Mississippi steamboat received the shape 
 it has at the present day. 
 
 During the Civil War there was a considerable 
 fleet of light-draft gunboats on the Mississippi, some 
 specially built for the purpose, and others altered 
 from existing craft. Several were of the ''Monitor " 
 pattern, with revolving turrets, and so constructed 
 
234 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 that they could be easily handled in the tortuous 
 river. 
 
 Our illustration shows the Ozark, which was built 
 at Mound City in 1863. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Introduction of steamboats on the great lakes — The " Walk-in-the- 
 Water " — Growth of the northern lake fleet — First steamers on the 
 Pacific — Early steamers to and in California — The Senator and the 
 Golden Age — Steam lines across the Pacific — Chinese steamer at San 
 Francisco — P'irst steamships around the world. 
 
 WE will now leave the Mississippi, and turn to 
 other inland waters beyond the valley of 
 the Hudson. 
 
 The advantages of steamboats on the great 
 lakes of the United States were not Hkely to es- 
 cape attention, but nothing was undertaken in that 
 direction until several years after the successful 
 navigation of the Mississippi by Roosevelt and his 
 successors. 
 
 In 1816, the steamer Ontario was built at Sack- 
 ett's Harbor for the navigation of the lake whose 
 name it bore. 
 
 The pioneer steamboat of the great lakes above 
 Niagara Falls was the Walk-in-the-Water " (three 
 hundred and sixty tons), which was launched at 
 Black Rock, below Buffalo, on the 28th of May, 
 1818. Her hull was built by Noah Brown, of New 
 York; her engine and boilers were made in New 
 
236 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 York, and hauled overland by teams from Albany 
 to Black Rock. There was only a small popula- 
 tion on the shores of the lakes at that time, and 
 the cargoes of the new boat were chiefly supplied 
 by the American Fur Company. 
 
 There is a tradition that she was named after a 
 Wyandotte chief, Walk-in-the-Water," and an- 
 other that her appellation came from a remark 
 by an Indian as he saw the boat in motion on the 
 day she was launched. For two or three years she 
 was considered sufficient for transacting the com- 
 mercial business of the lakes ; in 18 18 she did not 
 go beyond Lake Erie, but in 18 19 she was sent to 
 Mackinaw with a cargo of goods for the American 
 Fur Company. 
 
 Navigation was confined to Lakes Erie and 
 Huron until 1827, when the waters of Lake Michi- 
 gan were first plowed by steam. The first steam- 
 boat to visit Chicago was in 1832 (some say it was 
 in 1 831), with a detachment of government troops 
 sent to garrison the fort and aff'ord protection to 
 the few inhabitants against the Indians. In 1831, 
 there were eleven steamboats navigating the lakes, 
 with an aggregate capacity of 2,260 tons, so that 
 the average size was not large. In 1836 there 
 were forty-five steamboats of 9,119 tons, and in 
 1847 steam fleet of the lakes comprised sixty- 
 seven side-wheel boats and twenty-six screw steam- 
 ers. In 1840 the trip between Buffalo and Chicago, 
 
STEAMBOATS ON THE GREAT LAKES. 237 
 
 including stoppages at Detroit and other interme- 
 diate ports, occupied fifteen days, and there were 
 forty-eight steamboats engaged in the trade. 
 
 In 1884 the steam fleet of the northern lakes 
 comprised 1,296 vessels of all classes, with an aggre- 
 
 The Side-Lever Engine. 
 
 gate measurement of 257,083 tons. What an enor- 
 mous growth since the launch of the Walk-in-the- 
 Water in 181 8 ; 5,410 licensed officers, including 
 masters, mates, engineers, and pilots, were required 
 for the management of this fleet. It must be borne 
 in mind that these figures do not include the 
 
238 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Steamers belonging to ports in the British do- 
 minions which He along one side of all the great 
 lakes, with the single exception of Lake Michigan, 
 the only one of the chain which is wholly within 
 the United States. 
 
 As on the ocean the screw has largely supplanted 
 the paddle-wheel for the propulsion of the steamer 
 on the lakes. The paddle is still in use on many 
 of the smaller coasting boats, but the steamers 
 making long courses and carrying heavy cargoes 
 are nearly all propellers. As early as 1854, side- 
 screw propellers were advocated as a substitute for 
 the paddle-wheel ; in that year the steamer Baltic 
 was thus altered at Buffalo. Her paddle-wheel 
 engines were removed and replaced with side- 
 propeller machinery ; the old engines were high- 
 pressure, while the new ones were low-pressure. 
 When altered she was run at her old speed with 
 half as much fuel as formerly, and was able to carry 
 much more cargo. She was the first steamboat on 
 the lakes to which this principle was applied, but 
 her success was not sufficiently marked as to lead 
 to its general adoption. Some of the boats on the 
 lakes at present have double screws, but the great 
 majority are equipped with the single screw at the 
 stern, as in the ordinary model of the ocean steamer. 
 
 The side propeller seems to have been tried for 
 the first time in 1845, ^^e steamer Iron Witch, 
 built by Ericsson, for R. B. F'orbes, for the naviga- 
 
FIRST STEAMERS ON THE PACIFIC, 
 
 tion of the Hudson. She was about three hundred feet 
 long, and the first 17^071 passenger steamer plying 
 between Albany and New York. The Iron Witch, 
 as originally equipped, proved a failure in speed ; 
 her machinery was removed to make place for 
 paddle engines, with which she was a prosperous 
 and profitable boat. 
 
 Previous to the discovery of gold in California 
 in 1848 steam navigation was practically unknown 
 on the Pacific coast of North America. In March, 
 1847, the Congress of the United States passed 
 an act for the establishment of a mail service 
 between New York and our Pacific coast, and a 
 contract was made with A. G. Sloo, by which a 
 steam line to cover the route in question should 
 be put in operation. The line was established by 
 Law, Roberts & Co., the principal parties in inter- 
 est being George Law and Marshall O. Roberts. 
 The Falcon, a chartered steamer, was the first to 
 carry the American flag to Chagres and open the 
 route. 
 
 The Ohio was the first steamer built under this 
 contract, and immediately following her were the 
 Georgia and the Illinois. The Ohio was 248 
 feet long, with 55 feet beam, and a measurement 
 of 2,397 tons; the Georgia, for the same propor- 
 tions, was 255 and 49 feet and 2,695 tons. The 
 Illinois was 267 feet long oa d(xk, 255 feet keel, 
 40 feet beam, and had 3 i feet depth of hold. The 
 
240 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 engines of the Ohio and Georgia were side-lever, 
 while those of the Illinois were oscillating ; the 
 average speed of the Ohio and Georgia was twelve 
 knots, while the average of the Illinois was twelve 
 and a half knots, with a maximum of thirteen 
 and a half. 
 
 About the same 'time the Pacific Mail Steamship 
 Company was organized, and for several years it 
 ran in opposition to the line already mentioned. 
 Steamers were built with great rapidity in 1848 
 and the few succeeding years, as the rush for gold 
 developed an enormous business which was highly 
 remunerative. The steamer California, 1,086 tons, 
 built by W. H. Webb, left New York on the 6th of 
 October, 1848, for the Pacific Ocean by way of the 
 Straits of Magellan. She was the first American 
 steamer on the Pacific, and her advent was the 
 cause of much rejoicing among the dwellers on our 
 Western shores. 
 
 She was followed by the Panama, 1,088 tons, 
 and the Oregon, 1,699 tons, and not long after by 
 the Tennessee, Golden Gate, 2,068 tons ; Colum- 
 bia, 778 tons; John L. Stephens, 2,189 tons; 
 Sonora, 1,614 tons; Republic, 850 tons; North- 
 erner, 1,010 tons; Fremont, 576 tons; Tobago, 
 189 tons ; St. Louis, 1,621 tons ; and Golden Age, 
 2,280 tons. A corresponding number of steamers, 
 with about the same tonnage, was built for the 
 Atlantic service. It will be observed that none of 
 
EARLY STEAMERS TO CALIFORNIA, 24I 
 
 the ships on the Pacific side exceeded 2,300 tons, 
 while most of them were below 2,000 tons ; the 
 measurements on the Atlantic side were somewhat 
 larger on the average than for the Pacific service, 
 but down to i860 there were few, if any, steamers 
 exceeding 3,000 tons. 
 
 The steamers that went to the Pacific in the 
 
 City of Peking. 
 
 early days found nothing ready for them, and the 
 companies were obliged to establish their own re- 
 pair shops at Panama, and also at the California 
 terminus. The Pacific Mail Company built a dry 
 dock at Benicia, California, a few miles from San 
 Francisco, and also established there a foundry 
 and machine shop, which is capable of construct- 
 ing a marine engine of the first class, or perform- 
 
242 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 ing any other work required on their largest 
 steamers. 
 
 All the company's steamers are built on the 
 Atlantic coast, and sent around by way of the 
 Straits of Magellan ; the price of labor on the 
 Pacific coast, and the high cost of materials for the 
 machinery, render this plan more economical than 
 it would be to build and equip the vessels at 
 Benicia or San Francisco. In the early days, the 
 cost of coal on the western side of the continent 
 was very great ; at one time the Pacific Mail Com- 
 pany paid fifty dollars a ton for its coal at Panama 
 and San Francisco, and for a considerable period 
 the price averaged from twenty-five to thirty-five 
 dollars. In the early days, coal was carried in 
 sailing ships from the Atlantic coast ; afterwards it 
 was brought from Australia, and still later coal 
 mines were opened in California and along the 
 coast of Oregon, Washington, and British Colum- 
 bia. All the coal now needed there for steamship 
 use is supplied from the mines of California and 
 the northern coast, and the high prices of former 
 days exist only in tradition. 
 
 All the early steamers of the Pacific Mail Line 
 were built of wood, and propelled by side-wheel 
 engines ; at present all its vessels are of iron, and 
 propelled by screws, the old wooden steamers 
 having been wrecked, burned, sold, or broken up. 
 In 1867, the company established a line from San 
 
PACIFIC MAIL STEAMSHIP COMPANY, 
 
 243 
 
 Francisco to Japan and China, in accordance with 
 a contract with the United States Government for 
 the transportation of the mails ; four steamers, the 
 Great RepubHc, China, Japan, and America were 
 built for this service, all of them wooden vessels of 
 about four thousand tons capacity, with walking 
 beam engines and paddle-wheels. 
 
 In 1874 the company added the City of 
 Peking and City of Tokio, two magnificent 
 screw steamships of iron, and the largest ever 
 built in America. They were each of 5,560 tons 
 burthen, 423 feet long, 48 feet beam, and 38 feet 
 depth of hold. 
 
 After the establishment of the line to Japan and 
 China the Pacific Mail Company established lines 
 to Australia and the Sandwich Islands, and also a 
 service along the coast of Central America and 
 Mexico. These lines are still maintained with 
 varying fortunes consequent upon questions con- 
 cerning compensation for the transportation of the 
 mails. 
 
 The voyage of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
 pany's steamer City of New York" from New 
 York to San Francisco in 1876 was remarkable. 
 The total distance, 13,552 miles, was performed in 
 59 days, the actual steaming time being 54 days, 
 14 hours. The entire passage was made on the 
 coal shipped at New York, none having been taken 
 on board en route. 
 
244 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 The figures were as follows 
 
 New York to Cape Virgin, east entrance of 
 
 the Straits of Magellan . . . miles, 7^074 
 
 Through the Straits ..... " 340 
 
 Cape Pillar, west entrance of Straits of Ma- 
 gellan, to San Francisco . . . 6,138 
 
 The total distance, by observation, run was, " i3>S52 
 
 The total distance by screw . . . i4>235 
 
 The total revolutions of the engines during 
 
 the voyage was o , . . . 3^33^? 105 
 
 Total amount of coal consumed for steam- 
 ing . . . . . . . tons, 1,440 
 
 Average consumption of coal per day . 26.4 
 
 " mile . pounds, 239 
 
 " revolutions per day, running time, 61,250 
 
 ^' per minute . . 42.53 
 
 " speed per day, running time . . miles, 248^ 
 
 The dimensions of the ''City of New York'' 
 were: Length, 353 feet; beam, \o\ feet; tonnage, 
 3,019 ; engines, 1,000 horse-power. 
 
 Steam navigation on the inland waters of Cali- 
 fornia followed closely upon ocean navigation to 
 the Pacific. As soon as it became certain that gold 
 had been discovered in California and that there 
 would be a rush of fortune-seekers to the Pacific 
 coast, enterprising Americans determined to utilize 
 the rivers flowing into San Francisco Bay. The 
 steamer. Senator, a boat of the North River pat- 
 tern, was stripped of her upper decks and sent from 
 New York to San Fremcisco by way of Cape Horn 
 in 1848. 
 
THE SENATOR AND THE GOLDEN AGE. 245 
 
 Early in the same year Capt. R. B. Forbes, of 
 Boston, sent out the Mint," an iron steamer sev- 
 enty-five feet long and fifteen feet beam. She did 
 not perform the voyage under steam, but was car- 
 ried on the deck of the ship Samoset. She was 
 stowed on the starboard side of the ship and the 
 deck-house was removed to the port side, in order 
 to balance the weight of the steamboat. Her en- 
 gines were all ready for work, and she was launched 
 soon after the Samoset's arrival in San Francisco. 
 
 The ship Edward Everett also took out a small 
 steamer, which was named the Edward Everett, 
 Junior. Steam was raised on her the day she was 
 launched, but she proved deficient in speed, and 
 was shortly afterwards sold to some circus men for 
 $5,5oo. The honor of being the first steamer on 
 the Sacramento River lies between the Mint and 
 the Everett, Junior, and the friends of each can 
 produce the most conclusive evidence in support 
 of their claim. Neither boat had a long career, as 
 both succumbed to the dangers of the river before 
 reaching a green old age. 
 
 Rarely, if ever, has there been such a successful 
 boat in a pecuniary sense as the Senator. During 
 the early years of the California gold fever she had 
 almost a monopoly of the steamboat business on 
 the Sacramento, and it was for a long time a cur- 
 rent saying in San Francisco that in 1849 ^^^^ 
 the Senator earned her weight in gold. She made 
 
246 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 daily trips each way (120 miles), and the price of 
 passage was $2 5, exclusive of meals. On single 
 trips from San Francisco to Sacramento her re- 
 ceipts often exceeded twenty thousand dollars, and 
 occasionally they reached the same figure on down- 
 ward trips, just before the departure of a steamer 
 for New York. An old Californian told the wri- 
 ter of this volume that drinks on board the Sena- 
 tor were one dollar each and the quality of the 
 whiskey was very bad. Coin was scarce," said 
 he, ''and when a miner called for a drink, he 
 opened his bag of gold-dust, out of which the bar- 
 tender took a pinch between the ends of thumb and 
 forefinger. A pinch a drink was the regular tariff, 
 and the owners of the boat sought for the men with 
 the broadest thumbs and fingers to engage as bar- 
 tenders. How much money the Senator made, I 
 don't know exactly, and nobody does, as the owners 
 kept their business to themselves, but it is safe to 
 say she cleared a million and a half of dollars in 
 five years." 
 
 The Senator was afterwards withdrawn from the 
 Sacramento trade, strengthened in hull and upper 
 works, and used as an outside steamer on the coast 
 route between San Francisco and San Diego. 
 Occasionally she was laid up when business was 
 light, but she was kept in that service off and on 
 until 1880 when she was dismantled. Her engines 
 were removed and she was rigged as a barque and 
 
248 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 sent on a voyage to Australia ; at last accounts she 
 was still in use as a sailing ship. 
 
 The New World, a Hudson River boat, was sent 
 to California a few years after the Senator, and 
 continued in active service on the waters flowing 
 into San Francisco Bay until she was broken up in 
 1883. Another New York boat which went to the 
 Pacific coast was the Wilson G. Hunt ; she is now 
 owned in Victoria, British Columbia, and is run as 
 a regular steam-packet between Victoria and Nan- 
 aimo. The California, which was the pioneer steam- 
 ship in the Pacific Ocean, is still in existence, but 
 not as a steamer ; — her engines were removed sev- 
 eral years ago and she is now a barque engaged in 
 the lumber trade between Puget Sound and San 
 Francisco. 
 
 Several fine steamboats have been built at San 
 Francisco and neighboring places, and also on 
 Puget Sound where lumber of the best quality is in 
 great abundance. The fastest river boat in San 
 Francisco waters is the San Rafael which was built 
 in New York and then sent in pieces to San Fran- 
 cisco where she was put together again. The 
 /ferry-boats plying between San Francisco and Oak- 
 land, on the opposite shore of San Francisco Bay, 
 are among the largest in the world ; one of them, 
 the Solano, has a capacity, as reported by the Gov- 
 ernment inspector, of 3,549 tons ! 
 
 In 1884 there were upon the Pc ^'fic coast a total 
 
STEAM LINES ACROSS THE PACIFIC, 249 
 
 of 387 steamers of all classes with an aggregate 
 measurement of 99,532 tons. The total of licensed 
 officers for these steamers (masters, engineers, 
 mates, and pilots) was 1,752. 
 
 The establishment of the Pacific Mail line 
 between San Francisco and Japan and China was 
 followed a few years later by that of a rival con- 
 cern, the Occidental and Oriental Steamship Com- 
 pany, consisting of British steamers chartered for 
 the purpose. After a period of opposition the two 
 companies became friendly, and for a decade or 
 more have been running in perfect harmony. They 
 have consolidated their offices in Japanese and 
 Chinese ports and make alternate departures from 
 either end of the route, so that travellers can count 
 upon a steamer across the Pacific every twelve or 
 fifteen days. 
 
 Ordinarily the voyage between San Francisco 
 and Yokohama occupies twenty days, but it has 
 been made inside of fifteen days, which is very 
 good progress for a distance of nearly five thousand 
 miles. The quickest trips are the eastward ones 
 when the steamers are laden with the new crop of 
 tea, which it is desirable to deliver in port as soon as 
 possible. 
 
 At such times the tea-train " is made up by 
 the Pacific Railway companies ; the cars are loaded 
 at the side of the steamer, and as soon as the train 
 is ready it is dispatched, with the right of way over 
 
250 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 every thing except passenger trains. Cargoes of 
 tea have been deHvered in New York in twenty- 
 nine days from Hong-Kong ; this allows twenty 
 days for the steamship voyage and nine for the 
 overland transit, making no deduction for the time 
 spent in transferring the cargo at San Francisco. 
 
 A trans-Pacific line from one of the ports of 
 Puget Sound is in contemplation and also another 
 from Victoria, the terminus of the Canadian Pacific 
 RaiKvay. The latter certainly and the other pos- 
 sibly will be under the English flag, though the 
 parties interested in the Northern Pacific Railway 
 declare their intention of sending out steamers fly- 
 ing the standard of the United States. 
 
 China has made a move in the direction of taking a 
 hand in the navigation of the Pacific. On the 3 1 st of 
 August, 1880, the Chinese steamer Hochung en- 
 tered the custom-house of San Francisco, paying 
 the regular tonnage dues of thirty cents per ton, and 
 one dollar per ton extra dues on alien ships, the 
 latter under protest. Extra duties of ten per cent, 
 on the cargo were also paid under protest, and the 
 whole matter was referred to the decision of the 
 Secretary of the Treasury. The Hochung was also 
 the first Chinese steamer that ever visited the Ha- 
 waiian Islands, which was in November, 1879, when 
 she carried to Honolulu 431 Chinese immigrants. 
 
 A San Francisco paper said of this arrival, under 
 the heading China s Debut upon the Sea " : 
 
CHINESE STEAM Ek. 
 
 The arrival at San Francisco on the 30th of August of 
 the first Chinese steamer that had ever crossed the Pacific 
 deserves commemoration. Tliis steamer, the Hochung, 
 appeared at the Golden Gate, seeking admision to a 
 foreign port, nearly forty years after the isolation in which 
 for ages China was encased was broken, and five of her 
 ports were opened to the commerce of the civilized world. 
 The treaty of 1842, by which this concession was secured 
 to foreign trade, has borne fruit slowly; but the tardiness 
 of the Chinese to undertake maritime enterprises is due 
 not so much to their love of seclusion as to the difficulty 
 of acquiring the art of navigation. This art is, and ever has 
 been, one of the later acquisitions of nations. . . . It is no 
 wonder, therefore, that the Chinese have taken forty years 
 to master the nautical skill requisite for the accomplish- 
 ment of this feat. But the beginning of ocean traffic is 
 now made, and this field of commercial competition once 
 fairly broken, there is reason to hope the Orientals 
 will find it profitable. ... In this maritime enter- 
 prise they are favored by the immense coal supply of the 
 Middle Kingdom. Baron Richthofen, who carefully ex 
 amined the coal-fields of China, says it is ' among the most 
 favored countries of the world as regards the distribution 
 of mineral fuel.' This able geographer computes from his 
 own inspection that the ' quantity of very superior coal 
 available for cheap extraction is so large that, at the pres- 
 ent rate of consumption, the world could be supplied 
 from Shansi alone for several thousand years.' This vast 
 coal-bed is reached by the Yang-tse-Kiang (river), China's 
 great commercial highway, navigable for large vessels 
 twelve hundred miles from its mouth, and easily ascended 
 by ocean steamers as far as Hankow, seven hundred miles 
 from the sea. With such a magnificent deposit of mineral 
 fuel suited for use on steam-vessels, the day is not distant 
 
252 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 when the Chinese, renowned for ages as dextrous mechan- 
 ics, Avill be able, with a Httle nautical training, to carve 
 out a bright future for their nation." 
 
 A telegraphic dispatch, dated London, December 
 7, 1 88 1, announced that ''the Meefoo, the first of 
 a regular line of steamers under the Chinese flag, 
 arrived in the Thames w^ith three thousand tons of 
 tea." 
 
 War steamers have followed commercial ones 
 into the Pacific. The naval flags of all the great 
 nations of the world are now a frequent sight on 
 the great ocean ; Chili and Peru have their fleets 
 of ironclads, and some of their ships are worthy of 
 most respectful consideration. 
 
 We will close this chapter on the history of 
 steam navigation on the Pacific coast by mention- 
 ing an exploit of one of the vessels that afterwards 
 became famous on the line between New York and 
 San Francisco. 
 
 The steamer Golden Age was sent from New 
 York to Liverpool in 1853; she was a paddle- 
 steamer of great size and power, and had all the 
 latest improvements in the science of steamship 
 building. Among other innovations she had no 
 bowsprit, which was then thought indispensable to 
 the successful performances of an ocean steamer. 
 Her owner decided to send her to Australia, and 
 she had no difficulty in securing freight and passen- 
 gers. She made the quickest passage on record 
 
ROBERT FULTOI^. 
 
 up to that time, 'and soon after her arrival at Syd- 
 ney it was determined to load her for Panama. 
 
 She sailed from Sydney May ii, 1854, and in 
 thirteen days reached Tahiti, where she coaled. 
 The work took six days, and required twelve hun- 
 dred tons of coal, at forty dollars a ton. On the 
 31st of May she sailed from Tahiti, and on the 
 19th of June reached Panama, just in time to 
 transfer two hundred passengers, five million dol- 
 lars in gold, and her Majesty's mails to the steamer 
 Magdalena, which was ready to sail from Chagres 
 for England. Letters by this trip reached London 
 in only sixty-seven days from Sydney, which was 
 by far the quickest passage then known. 
 
 The performance of the Golden Age was more 
 satisfactory as a thing to boast of than from a 
 pecuniary point of view, as the high cost of coal 
 consumed on the voyage entailed a heavy loss on 
 the owners. Had the Golden Age continued 
 down the Pacific coast and around through the At- 
 lantic to New York, she would have been the sec- 
 ond commercial steamship to circumnavigate the 
 globe, and possibly the first. 
 
 The first trip around the world by a merchant 
 steamer was made in the same year — 1854 — by the 
 English screw steamship Argo, of 1,850 tons meas- 
 urement. She made the passage out to Australia 
 via the Cape of Good Hope in sixty-four days, 
 and returned via Cape H orn in the same time. 
 
THE S7'EAMEk DRIVER. 
 
 An English paper, commenting on this voyage, said : 
 Since the ancient days of Jason and the Golden 
 Fleece several celebrated ships have borne the re- 
 nowned name of Argo, and certainly we consider 
 the present steamer not the least worthy of the 
 number to be chronicled in history. She has 
 proved herself one of the most notable pioneer 
 ships of the nineteenth century." 
 
 It is said that the steamer Driver of her Bri- 
 tannic Majesty's navy, circumnavigated the globe in 
 1842-43. No details of her voyage are at hand. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Early navigation of Long Island Sound — Prohibitory laws against Ful- 
 ton and Livingston — First steamboat to Providence and Newport — 
 Descri^Dtion of early boats — Contrast with those of to-day — The old 
 sailing packets— Steamboats at Boston and along the coast of Maine. 
 
 ALLUSION has been made in a previous 
 chapter to the navigation of Long Island 
 Sound by steamboats from New York under the 
 grant of Fulton and Livingston. 
 
 For a time no opposition was made to the run- 
 ning of Fulton's boats, but at length the spirit of 
 hostility broke out among the packet-owners and 
 others, and in 1821 the Legislature of Connecti- 
 cut enacted a retaliatory law that no vessel bear- 
 ing such a license [the monopoly of Fulton and 
 Livingston] should enter any of the waters of 
 that State." The Fulton and Connecticut were 
 thus driven away and compelled to look elsewhere 
 for occupation. The Fulton had been running be- 
 tween New York and New Haven, while the 
 Connecticut made regular trips between New York 
 and New London. 
 
 In August, 1 82 1, the Fulton made an excursion 
 from New York to Providence, carrying eighty 
 
258 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 passengers. Among them was Hon. John Ouincy 
 Adams, Secretary of State, who proceeded to Bos- 
 ton by land immediately on his arrival at Provi- 
 dence. The steamer left New York at 5 p.m. on 
 Thursday, and arrived at Newport at 7:45 p.m. on 
 Friday, thus occupying nearly twenty-seven hours 
 for a voyage which is now made in seven or eight. 
 At Newport, Bristol, and Providence the whole 
 population came out to visit the boat, and there was 
 the wildest excitement. The steamer reached Provi- 
 dence at nine o'clock on Saturday morning, and de- 
 parted at two in the afternoon on the return trip. 
 She was visited by thousands of people at Provi- 
 dence, and also at Newport. One of the pas- 
 sengers who kept a journal of the excursion, wrote 
 as follows concerning it : 
 
 We reached Newport at 8 p.m. on the return. 
 It was quite dark, but the interest appeared to 
 have increased rather than diminished. I took a 
 station at the gangway to assist the inhabitants, 
 and particularly the ladies, on board the ship, 
 notice having been given that none but ladies would 
 be allowed on board at first, and in the short space 
 of twenty minutes I handed in three hundred and 
 thirty-seven. I found that this number did not 
 seem to have thinned the crowd in the least degree, 
 and by nine o'clock there must have been on board 
 upwards of six hundred ladies." 
 
 In the following June, the steamer Connecticut 
 
EARLY NAVIGATION ON 7IIE SOUND. 259 
 
 went from New York to Providence, being the 
 first boat from the metropoHs after the visit of the 
 Fulton. The boats having been excluded from 
 Connecticut ports, it was announced (in the Provi- 
 dence Journal]uv\^ 3, 1822) that the steamers Ful- 
 ton and Connecticut would make regular trips be- 
 tween Providence and New York, touching at 
 Newport. A short time later the schedule was ad- 
 vertised ; the boats were to leave Providence 
 every Wednesday and Saturday at 6 a.m., and 
 New York at 4 p.m. on the same days. Fare 
 between New York and Providence ten dollars, 
 and between Newport and New York nine dol- 
 lars. 
 
 During the autumn of 1822, the rate of speed 
 and number of passengers are recorded as follows : 
 September 13th, Fulton, 2 7 hours from New York, 
 40 passengers ; October 4th, Connecticut, 32 hours, 
 40 passengers ; October 6th, Fulton, 24 hours, 26 
 passengers; October loth, Connecticut, 18 hours, 
 35 passengers. The Fulton was hauled off in No- 
 vember, but the Connecticut made weekly trips 
 until stopped by the ice. The following adver- 
 tisement appeared after the withdrawal of the 
 Fulton : 
 
 The Connecticut will leave Providence every Tuesday 
 evenin<^ to go dow n tlie river, in order to start from New- 
 port at an early hour on Wednesday morning. It will 
 therefore be necessary for passengers to be on board at 
 Providence at ten in the evening." 
 
26o 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 The Fulton has been elsewhere described. The 
 Connecticut was 150 feet long, 26 feet wide, and 
 about 200 tons burthen. She had a ''square" or 
 cross-head engine, and is said to have cost $80,000. 
 Neither she nor the Fulton had any upper saloon, 
 state-rooms, or hurricane deck. Both boats had 
 sails, to be used when the wind favored, and when- 
 ever a voyage was made without hoisting sail, the 
 captain boasted of it as something remarkable. 
 
 Admiral Preble tells the following romantic inci- 
 dent of one of the trips of the Connecticut : 
 
 ''As she approached Nyaot Point one June morning in 
 1823, two skiffs were observed making for the steamer. 
 The occupants seemed to signal the vessel to stop, and 
 such interest was aroused that Captain Bunker steered 
 towards the foremost skiff and hailed her. There was re- 
 turned no answer, but from the rear boat came oaths and 
 shouts, from which those on the steamer gathered that the 
 occupants of the foremost boat were runaways in pursuit 
 of some Gretna Green. As their boat came within a few 
 yards of the steamer, a young man looked up and said : 
 'Will you take us on board, sir?' An enthusiastic re- 
 sponse from the passengers and a score of hands lent their 
 aid. Captain Bunker seemed unconscious of what was going 
 on, but tradition says that the instant the young man's 
 feet touched the deck of the steamer, the engineer re- 
 ceived an order to 'go ahead ' with a suddenness that 
 took away his breath ; and in a very few seconds a wide 
 stretch of water lay between the steamer and the empty 
 boat." 
 
 But it must not be supposed that the Fulton was 
 
THE OLD SAILING PACKETS. 
 
 261 
 
 the first steamboat on Narragansett Bay. The ex- 
 periment of Ormsbee and Wilkinson in 1792, which 
 has been described, does not count in the history of 
 the practical steamboat, and we hear nothing fur- 
 ther of steam navigation in the waters once ruled 
 by King Philip until 1817. In May of that year 
 the steamer Firefly (Captain Smith) arrived at 
 Newport in twenty-eight hours from New York. 
 She had experienced a rough sea while rounding 
 Point Judith, which came near sending her to the 
 bottom. She was intended as a regular packet be- 
 tween Providence and Newport, and made her first 
 trip from the latter to the former city on the 28th 
 of May, 181 7, being three hours on the way. She 
 arrived about noon, and as her coming had been 
 announced by a sloop, the wharves and banks of the 
 river were crowded with people anxious to see her. 
 
 Her dimensions are not given, but she is de- 
 scribed as ''an ugly little thing, full of machinery, 
 awkward in her motions, and with a terrible 
 wheeze." On the 28th of June, the Governor and 
 his staff went in the Firefly from Providence to 
 Newport, to meet President Monroe, and escort 
 him to Providence. The President boarded the 
 boat at Bristol, and the Firefly with her distin- 
 guished passenger reached Providence about nine 
 in the evening. July 26th she made a ''cherry ex- 
 cursion " to Fall River, at two dollars a head for 
 fare and dinner. 
 
262 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 The opposition that Fulton had encountered 
 when he started the Clermont was shown to the 
 Firefly by the packet-men engaged in the trade be- 
 tween Providence and New York, with the excep- 
 tion that no attempts seem to have been made to 
 destroy the innovation by running her down. Any 
 fast sloop, with a favorable wind, could beat her, 
 even though she spread the huge square-sail with 
 which she was provided. The packet captains used 
 to stand on the Firefly's wharf at Providence, just 
 before she started, and offer to carry passengers to 
 Newport for twenty-five cents in case they arrived 
 there ahead of the Firefly, and for nothing if they 
 were beaten by her. By this kind of opposition 
 they rendered her occupation unprofitable, and in 
 less than four months she retired from the rei^ular 
 passenger business between Providence and New- 
 port, and devoted her energies to excursions. 
 
 The packets of those days were finely-modelled 
 sloops, of from seventy to one hundred tons meas- 
 urement, and had comfortable cabins for passengers. 
 One of them. The Huntress, occasionally made the 
 voyage between New York and Providence in 
 eighteen hours, but sometimes, when adverse 
 winds blew, she was a week on the way. Fare, in- 
 clusive of meals, was ten dollars, and the meals in- 
 cluded liquid stimulants during breakfast and din- 
 ner. There was a weekly service of packets each 
 way, and the departure of a packet from Provi- 
 
THE BRISTOL, 
 
 263 
 
 dence was as serious an affair as is that of an ocean 
 steamer to-day. Passengers were accompanied on 
 board by their friends, there were solemn leave- 
 takings with copious tears, and just before casting 
 off the captain brought out his decanters, and 
 everybody was asked to drink to the success of 
 the voyage. 
 
 The packet captains opposed the Fulton and 
 Connecticut in 1822 and 1823, but their opposition 
 did not succeed as in the case of the Firefly. 
 Steam navigation between Narragansett Bay and 
 New York was firmly established and has been 
 maintained ever since. As time has rolled on the 
 steamers have increased in size and carrying capaci- 
 ty ; contrast with the Fulton and Connecticut the 
 Bristol and Pilgrim of the present Fall River line, 
 which perform a daily service each way between Fall 
 River and New York throughout the year, and an/ 
 extra service daily in summer between New York 
 and Newport. They may be regarded as the best 
 types of steamers intended for combined inland 
 and coast naviration, both in their construction 
 and the elaborate character of their fittings through- 
 out. 
 
 The Bristol was built in 1867, and her gross 
 measurement is 2,962 tons; she is 373 feet in 
 length, 83 feet beam over all, and has 16 feet depth 
 of hold. Her machinery was built by John Roach 
 & Son, and her hull by Wm. H. Webb. 
 
264 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 The Pilgrim was built at Chester, Pennsylvania, 
 in 1882, and the following are her principal dimen- 
 isions : Length on deck, 390 feet; beam of the hull 
 proper, 50 feet ; beam over guards, 87.6 feet ; depth 
 of hold proper, 18.6 feet ; depth from floor to top 
 of dome, 60 feet ; measurement, 3,483 registered 
 tons. Her motive power consists of a vertical 
 beam engine, with a cylinder iio inches in diame- 
 ter; stroke of piston, 14 feet, working under a 
 maximum steam pressure of 50 pounds to the 
 square inch. She has twelve boilers made of steel, 
 developing in all 5,500 horse-power. 
 
 The hull of the Pilgrim is built on the longitudi- 
 nal bracket system throughout ; that is, she is a 
 ship within a ship, and has 103 water-tight com- 
 partments. It would be impossible to sink her by 
 staving in her bottom. Twenty-five feet from her 
 stem is the water-tight collision bulkhead, fifty feet 
 abaft the stem is another bulkhead, and thirty feet 
 forward of her stern is another bulkhead, all of 
 iron. Her engines and boilers are enclosed in iron 
 bulkheads, rendering it impossible for fire fi^om 
 boilers or kitchen to reach any other part of the 
 boat. The introduction of electricity has reduced 
 the chances of fire to the most infinitesimal point, 
 there being no fire in any part of the vessel except 
 in the boiler-room and kitchen. 
 
 The electric plant " on the Pilgrim is Edison's, 
 and consists of 912 lamps, one L " and two K " 
 
266 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 dynamos, with a capacity of 11,382 candle-power, 
 and two Armington and Sims engines, one 8-^- x 10 
 B " engine, and one 9^^ x 1 2 C " engine, belted 
 direct to the dynamos. Steam is furnished by 
 a special boiler of 150-horse power, with 80 pounds 
 pressure, and in case of necessity connections can be 
 made with the main or donkey boilers. 
 
 The following is condensed from a description in 
 ''The Fall River Line Journal " : 
 
 The quarter-deck is 29.4 feet deep, 50 feet wide, and 
 10.8 feet in height. Its floor is inlaid in cherry and maple, 
 and furnished with richly carved mahogany library chairs 
 upholstered in maroon leather. Its after end is the ladies' 
 parlor bulkhead, and its forward confines is marked by 
 the grand saloon vestibule. Its sides are embellished with 
 alternate panellings of exquisite tintings and the richest of 
 mahogany. The decorated panels in the wall are of the 
 Tuscan style, with a rich blending of bronze and burnished 
 gold. The mahogany panels are of the richest selections 
 as to grain and color, and are set with plate-glass mirrors. 
 A jewelled electrolier adorns the quarter-deck, and the 
 emerald, ruby, sapphire, garnet, and amethyst blend their 
 rich tints under the mellowing light of electricity. The 
 semicircular vestibule leading to the grand staircase has 
 four large doors. Through these doors you ascend to the 
 grand saloon, or, passing beneath the staircase, the 
 descending stairway leads to the dining saloon. The 
 staircase is of the richest mahogany, is broad, of easy tread 
 and attractive design, and leads up to a landing where a 
 very heavy plate mirror gives back a most pleasing effect. 
 Stairs lead from the landing to each side of the saloon. 
 
 Before we leave the deck let us pass aft through thq 
 
THE PILGRIM. 
 
 267 
 
 saloons leading from the quarter-deck. The after one is 
 the ladies' saloon. Beneath this saloon, reached by a 
 staircase in the centre, is the ladies' cabin which is richly 
 carpeted, and is well lighted and ventilated by large dead- 
 lights in the transom. From this cabin is a passage-way 
 through the iron bulkhead and into the dining saloon. 
 Ascending to the main deck, passing through the after 
 
 Walking- Beam of the Pilgrim. 
 
 ladies' saloon, we enter the ladies' parlor, which is 70 feet 
 long and the w idth of the boat (excepting the guards), and 
 contains 33 state-rooms and 6 alcove passage-ways to the 
 guards. The parlor is a most luxuriantly fitted-up apart- 
 ment, with Wilton carpets, carved mahogany furniture 
 covered with maroon velvet, gorgeous electroliers, rich 
 centre tables and " conversation " chairs. The state-rooms 
 are large, lofty, and exquisitely upholstered and carpeted. 
 To outfit the Pilgrim 6,000 yards of carpeting have been 
 used. 
 
 The grand saloon is 320 feet in length. Its dome 
 
268 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 roof is 20.6 feet from the saloon-deck, and is 280 feet long. 
 The sides of the saloon are 9.3 feet high, and of the gal- 
 lery 6.7 feet high. This grand apartment will hold, with its 
 gallery-balcony, her allowance of 1,400 passengers, with- 
 out crowding, a gathering which would require over 23 
 ordinary railway cars to seat. The general style of finish 
 on the quarter-deck is carried out in the grand saloon, the 
 pilasters being decorated with ornamental stucco work, 
 gilded and copper-bronzed, and tinted in the most chaste 
 colors. The ceiling overhead and under the gallery-deck 
 is frescoed in parti-colors. In this grand saloon are 103 
 state-rooms, seven bridal rooms, and two family bridals, 
 with a connecting room. The bridal rooms each have 
 folding bedsteads, so that the room is a drawing-room 
 until the time of retiring. Every state-room is furnished 
 in black walnut, with , an electric light, electric call-bell, 
 wash-stand with handsomely decorated basin and toilet 
 set, lace curtains and berth coverlets of handsome design. 
 Many of the rooms have folding upper berths. The Pil- 
 grim has sleeping accommodations for 1,200 passengers. 
 
 The gallery-deck contains 80 state-rooms for passen- 
 gers ; the president's room, nearly treble the size of the 
 ordinary rooms, with bathroom attached ; the captain's 
 room, two rooms for the pilots, and a room for the quar- 
 termasters. Forward of this is the pilot-house, finished 
 in cherry, with inlaid floors. 
 
 The grand dining hall and its cabin extend from the 
 engine bulkhead to the after watertight bulkhead, and 
 contain 27 state-rooms, with three berths in each room. 
 The dining hall has 16 tables, capable of seating 170 persons. 
 It is a spacious apartment, airy, and lighted profusely. 
 Forward of this saloon is the servants' quarters, where 54 
 men are berthed nightly." 
 
 Contrast the magnificence of the Pilgrim with 
 
OTHER ROUTES ON THE SOUND. 
 
 269 
 
 the meagre accommodations of the Fulton and 
 Connecticut, and then bear in mind that the price 
 of passage to-day is less than half the cost of a 
 ticket in 1822. Competition occasionally brings 
 it to a very low figure. Tickets are sometimes 
 sold for a continuous passage between Boston and 
 New York for one dollar, including a berth in the 
 general cabin, and the winter rate is usually three 
 dollars. 
 
 Other steamboat routes on Long Island Sound 
 are from New York to Stonington, from New York 
 to New London, and another by propellers from 
 New York to Providence. Then there are routes 
 from New York to New Haven, Bridgeport, Nor- 
 walk, and other smaller ports on the north side of 
 the Sound, as well as to several places on the 
 southern shore. All these lines have histories, 
 but none of them are so closely connected with 
 the inauguration of steamboating as are those 
 whose details have just been given. 
 
 An incident of 1829 is worthy of record here. 
 At a meeting of the directors of the Chancellor 
 Livingston Steam Packet Company in that year a 
 resolution was adopted prohibiting the stewards of 
 the boats from putting decanters of brandy and 
 other spirits on the table. There was great indig- 
 nation at their action. The passengers held meet- 
 ings and protested, and some of the newspapers 
 sustained them. The directors found it necessary 
 
270 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 to publish a letter in defence of the resolution, in 
 which they set forth that they were ''not influenced 
 by petty motives of economy or gain, but hoped to 
 do a little to aid the cause of reform." The letter 
 closed in the following words : 
 
 '' The tables are now supplied with red wines of good 
 quality and pleasant flavor, as well as a good tendency in 
 its effects upon those who may be affected by the motion 
 of the boat. In addition to all this, whenever any person 
 may choose to order brandy or spirits from a belief of their 
 necessity, it will be immediately and cheerfully supplied 
 from the bar, and the gentleman will hear no more about 
 it unless he pleases.*' 
 
 This concession to the growing feeling in favor 
 of temperance was not long in finding general ap- 
 proval, and no further complaint was heard from 
 the old-time drinkers. 
 
 From Narragansett Bay, our next step eastward 
 will be to the Kennebec, which was ascended in 
 18 1 6 by the steamboat Alpha — a long, narrow, 
 flat-bottomed craft of fifteen tons, propelled by a 
 screw in the stern. She was built by Jonathan 
 Morgan, of Wiscasset, Maine, who had expected 
 to make a fortune out of his invention. 
 
 According to the accounts which have been 
 given, the Alpha was a strange afTair. Her boiler 
 was built of pine plank, hooped stoutly together 
 with iron hoops, and about the size of a molasses 
 cask, and with a fire-box of iron in its centre. The 
 
FII^ST STEAMBOATS IN MAINE. 
 
 271 
 
 engine was connected to the propeller by an end- 
 less chain, but the power was insufficient to stem 
 the current of the river at more than a snail's pace. 
 The Alpha ascended the Kennebec to Augusta on 
 her first trip. She landed at Hallowell, where 
 many people visited her. When she left the 
 wharf to continue her journey, she was carried 
 down a considerable distance before she got suffi- 
 cient headway to proceed on her course. Morgan's 
 enterprise was unsuccessful, and after vainly trying 
 to raise capital for a steamboat company, he turned 
 his attention to other matters. His boat was sold 
 by a constable of Wiscasset at public vendue " for 
 eighty-seven dollars, and her machinery was re- 
 moved. The waggish purchaser converted the 
 Alpha into a fishing-vessel, and is said to have re- 
 named her the Omega. 
 
 The first advertisement of a steamboat in Maine 
 is in the Portland Argus, of August 13, 1822, as 
 follows : 
 
 The steamboat ' Kennebec ' will leave Union Wharf at 
 four o'clock for North Yarmouth, to spend the day. Will 
 return on Thursday to take passengers to the island as 
 usual. If required, will stop at Week's Wharf to land and 
 receive passengers. Will also, should sufficient number of 
 passengers apply, go to Commencement the day preced- 
 ing, and also on the day of Commencement." 
 
 A local poet of Portland thus writes concerning 
 the steamboat : 
 
272 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 " A fig for all your clumsy craft, 
 Your pleasure boats and packets, 
 The steamboat lands you safe and soon, 
 At Mansfield's, Trott's, and Brackett's." 
 
 The Kennebec was an old flat-bottomed craft, in 
 which Captain Seward Porter had placed a steam 
 engine of light power, in order to fit her for excur- 
 sions in the bay. He made money by the enter- 
 prise, and early in 18.24 went to New York to pur- 
 chase a steamer of less modest aspirations. The 
 following is from the Portland A^^gus, of July 8, 
 1824: 
 
 ^'The steamboat 'Patent,' Captain Seward Porter, ar- 
 rived here yesterday in four days from New York, having 
 touched at a number of places to land passengers. She is 
 intended to ply between this place and Boston, is strong 
 and commodious, and elegantly fitted for passengers. 
 Her engine has been proved, is of superior workmanship, 
 and propels the boat about ten miles an hour. From the 
 perseverance of Captain Porter we have no doubt but he 
 will meet with good encouragement, and find it profitable. 
 We wish him every success." 
 
 The boat was described in a report to her stock- 
 holders as of two hundred tons burthen, and costing 
 twenty thousand dollars. She had no hurricane 
 deck, and was quite low in the water ; her boiler 
 and engines were below, and she had a heavy bal- 
 ance-wheel half above her deck, and an arrangement 
 for disconnecting the machinery from the wheels. 
 All her cabins were below, the ladies' cabin being 
 
STEAM NA VIGA TION A T BOSTON, 
 
 at the stern, and entered by passing through the 
 gentlemen's cabin. The Boston Courier, of Au- 
 gust 12, 1824, mentions her arrival in seventeen 
 hours from Portland, with seventeen passengers. 
 Fare between Boston and Portland was five dollars, 
 including meals, and it remained at that figure until 
 reduced by competition. For some time boats car- 
 ried passengers free between Boston and Portland, 
 without charge for meals or lodging. 
 
 In 1826 there were three or four boats on the 
 coast of Maine. One of them, the New York, was 
 fitted with masts and sails like a brig, and was gen- 
 era;lly called The Steam-brig." She was destroyed 
 by fire in 1829, but happily without loss of life. 
 
 Steam navigation at Boston began in 181 7 with 
 the steamboat Massachusetts, of 230 tons measure- 
 ment and 30-horse power. She was intended 
 to run between Boston and Salem, and her 
 owners had great hopes concerning her. She 
 made a few trial trips in the latter part of June. 
 On the fourth of July she left Salem at 8 a.m. and 
 reached Boston at 11 a.m., her greatest speed be- 
 ing eight miles an hour. In the afternoon of 
 the same day she took a party of ladies and 
 gentlemen down the harbor — unquestionably the 
 first fourth-of-July steamboat excursion ever known 
 to the Bostonians. 
 
 Her machinery was defective, and on two or 
 three occasions she broke down when on excur- 
 
274 
 
 l^OBERT FULTON. 
 
 sions, and her passengers had to find their way 
 back in other ways than by steam. She ran dur- 
 ing the summer at a heavy loss. In the autumn 
 she was sent south to be sold and was wrecked 
 on the voyage. The stage companies are said to 
 have been active in their opposition to her, and 
 much of the distrust which existed in the public 
 mind concerning the Massachusetts was fostered 
 by them. 
 
 In spite of the failure of the Massachusetts, 
 another and laro-er boat — the Eaofle — ran in Bos- 
 ton harbor as an excursion boat in 1818, and later 
 she was plying between New Bedford and Nan- 
 tucket. She seems to have been more successful 
 than her predecessor, and from that time onward 
 Boston was never unprovided with steam facilities, 
 unless at rare periods, or when the harbor was 
 sealed with ice. A few years after the advent of the 
 Eagle, boats were sent from New York to ply be- 
 tween Boston and Portland. The service between 
 these ports was at first weekly, then semi-weekly, 
 and afterward daily each way. In time it was ex- 
 tended to Eastport, and between 1848 and 1850 the 
 coast of Maine was provided with frequent and 
 rapid communication with the New England 
 capital. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Early steamboats on the Clyde, Thames, Humber, and in other British 
 waters — The Comet and Enterprise — First steamboat at London — 
 Opposition of the Watermen — Oldest steamboat in existence — Steam- 
 boats in Canada and Java in 1809 and 1 8 10. 
 
 WE will now leave American waters, and, with 
 a single bound, carry ourselves across the 
 Atlantic, and back to a time before the death of 
 Fulton. Steamers are not yet traversing the ocean, 
 and our journey of three thousand miles over the 
 broad waters will be made by sail in the old way, 
 or on the speedier wings of imagination. 
 
 Allusion has been made in Chapter V. to the ex- 
 periments of Miller, Taylor, and Symington in 
 Scotland, and to those of the Marquis de Jouffroy 
 in France, in the latter part of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury and the beginning of the nineteenth. Another 
 inventor deserves mention here, though he never 
 seems to have gone so far as to make a working 
 model of his proposed vessel. 
 
 According to the Repository of Arts," volume 
 X., one Edward Thomason laid before the British 
 Admiralty, in 1796, a detailed description of a fire- 
 ship for naval purposes. It had vertical wheels at 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 the sides, propelled by steam-engines, and was in- 
 tended to move without any person on board in 
 whatever direction it was started. Thus propelled, 
 it was to enter an enemy's harbor, and, by means 
 of clock-work, explode several barrels of gun- 
 powder, by which the enemy's shipping would be 
 set on fire and destroyed." The same idea is car- 
 ried out to-day in the form of torpedo, which is 
 directed from shore or from a ship by means of 
 electricity, and exploded through the same agency. 
 
 The English Monthly Magazine for July, 1797, 
 contains the following : 
 
 Lately the Newton-Common, in Lancashire, a vessel 
 heavily laden with copper slag, passed along the Sankey 
 Canal without the aid of haulers or rowers, the oars per- 
 forming eighteen strokes a minute by the application of 
 steam only. After a course of ten miles, the vessel re- 
 turned the same evening by the same means to St. 
 Helen's, whence she had set out. This ingenious dis- 
 covery by the original form and motion of the oars may 
 be ranked among the most useful of modern inventions, 
 and, in particular, promises the highest benefits to inland 
 navigation.'* 
 
 The same publication, in 1801, gives an account 
 of an experiment on the Thames in January of that 
 year, by Messrs. Hunter & Dickinson, for propel- 
 ling a boat by steam. It says : The performance 
 was very creditable to them, and exceeded any thing 
 ever before accomplished ; the vessel was moved 
 at the rate of three miles an hour through the 
 
EARLY STEAMBOATS IN BRITISH WATERS, 27/ 
 
 water." Another experiment in July of the same 
 year moved a barge at the rate of two and a half 
 miles an hour. 
 
 The boat of Lord Dundas, mentioned in Chap- 
 ter v., appears to have been the first steam tow- 
 boat ever intended, built, and tised for towing, and 
 she fell just a little short of being a practical suc- 
 cess. Her machinery is still in existence, and was 
 exhibited in London a few years ago. 
 
 Nothing further seems to have been done in the 
 interest of steam navigation in Great Britain until 
 ten years after the failure of the Charlotte Dundas 
 and five years after the Clermont had successfully 
 plowed the waters of the Hudson, and taken her 
 place as a regular packet between New York and 
 Albany. Henry Bell, of Helensburgh, a watering- 
 place on the river Clyde, where he kept a hotel 
 and bathing establishment, opened a correspond- 
 ence with Mr. Fulton, and, on learning of the 
 success of steam navigation in America, determined 
 to establish i* in Scotland. 
 
 Bell caused several models of a steamboat to be 
 made, and finally obtained one that suited him. 
 He contracted with John Wood & Co., ship- 
 builders at Glasgow, to build a steam-vessel after 
 the model he selected ; it was forty feet long and 
 ten feet six inches beam, and was propelled by a 
 Watt engine on the ''bell-crank'' principle, as it 
 was then known. The fire was on the outside of 
 
278 
 
 ROBERT FULTON: 
 
 the boiler, and the furnace was inclosed by brick- 
 work to prevent the destruction of the boat by a 
 conflagration. The boiler was on one side of the 
 engine, and the funnel was bent so as to carry it up 
 to the centre of the boat, where it was utilized as a 
 mast for spreading a sail when the wind favored. 
 
 The boat was named the ''Comet," not in con- 
 sequence of her meteoric speed, but because she was 
 built in i8i I, which has been mentioned heretofore 
 as the year of the comet. Her speed was about 
 five miles an hour ; she was of twenty-five tons 
 measurement, and her engine is said to have been 
 of three-horse power. She made her first trip in 
 January, 1812, and was profitably employed as a 
 passenger boat during the entire summer. The fol- 
 lowing is Mr. Bell's advertisement concerning her : 
 
 Steam Passage Boat — The Comet — Between Glas- 
 gow, Greenock, and Helensburgh ; for passengers only. 
 The subscriber having at much expense fitted up a hand- 
 some vessel to ply upon the river Clyde between Glasgow 
 and Greenock, to sail by the power of wind, air, and steam, 
 he intends that the vessel shall leave the Broomielaw on 
 Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, about mid-day, or 
 at such hour thereafter as may answer from the state of 
 the tide ; and to leave Greenock on Mondays, Wednesdays, 
 and Fridays, in the morning, to suit the tide. 
 
 ^' The terms are for the present fixed at 4^. for the best 
 cabin and 3^. for the second ; but, beyond these rates, 
 nothing is to be allowed to servants or any other person 
 employed about the vessel. 
 
EARLY STEAMBOATS TV BRITISH WATERS. 279 
 
 The subscriber continues his establishment at Helens- 
 burgh Baths the same as for years past, and a vessel will be 
 in readiness to convey passengers in the Comet from 
 Greenock to Helensburgh. 
 
 Passengers by the Comet will receive information of 
 the hours of sailing by applying at Mr. Housten's office, 
 Broomielaw, or Mr. Thomas Blackney's, East Quay Head, 
 Greenock. Henry Bell. 
 
 Helensburgh Baths, A\\^. 5, 1812." 
 
 The " Comet," 1812. 
 
 Greenock is about twenty-seven miles from 
 Glasgow by the river, and as the Comet made only 
 three round trips weekly between the two places, 
 she could not have been hard pushed. James 
 Watt, the inventor of the form of the steam-engine 
 that bears his name, was born at Greenock, and in 
 1838 a marble statue of him was erected there by 
 public subscription. Helensburgh is nearly opposite 
 
IWBERT FULTON-. 
 
 Greenock, and is now connected with it by a steam 
 ferry. 
 
 Admiral Preble says the Comet was wrecked in 
 1825 on a return trip from the Western Highlands, 
 and many of her passengers Vv^ere drowned. He 
 adds that Bell became as great a wreck as his ves- 
 sel, and the Clyde trustees, out of gratitude, settled 
 upon him an annuity of one hundred pounds ster- 
 ling, which he enjoyed until his death in 1830. 
 
 As the success of the Clermont led to competi- 
 tion in New York waters, so did that of the Comet 
 on the Clyde. Bell had employed an engineer 
 named Thompson to assist in making the plans for 
 the Comet ; they quarrelled, and Thompson en- 
 gaged Mr. Wood, the builder of the Comet, to 
 construct another boat, which was fifty-one feet 
 keel, twelve feet beam, and five feet deep. Her 
 measurement was about thirty-three tons, and her 
 engine ten-horse power. She was named the Eliza- 
 beth, and her performance is thus described by her 
 owner : 
 
 ^' The Elizabeth was started for passengers on the 9th 
 of March, 181 3, and has continued to run from Glasgow 
 to Greenock daily, leaving Glasgow in the morning and 
 returning the same evening. The passage, which is 
 twenty-seven miles, has been made, with a hundred pas- 
 sengers on board, in something less than four hours, and 
 in favorable circumstances in two and three quarters. 
 The Elizabeth has sailed eighty-one miles in one day, at 
 an average of 7tine miles an hour. The Elizabeth meas- 
 
EARLY STEAMBOATS I AT BRITISH WATERS. 
 
 281 
 
 ures aloft fifty-eight feet ; the best cabin is twenty-one 
 feet long, eleven feet three inches at amidships, and nine 
 feet four inches aft, seated all round, and covered with 
 handsome carpeting. A sofa clothed with maroon is 
 placed at one end of the cabin, and gives the whole a warm 
 and cheerful appearance. There are twelve small win- 
 dows, each finished with maroon curtains, with tassels, 
 fringes, and velvet, cornices ornamented with gilt orna- 
 ments, having altogether a rich effect. Above the sofa 
 there is a large mirror suspended, and on each side book- 
 shelves are placed, containing a collection of the best 
 authors, for the amusement and edification of those who 
 may avail themselves of them during the passage. Other 
 amusements are likewise to be had on board. 
 
 The engine stands amidships, and requires a consid- 
 erable space in length and all the breadth of the vessel. 
 The forecastle, which is rather small, is about eleven feet 
 six inches by nine feet six inches ; not quite so comfort- 
 able as the after one, but well calculated for a cold day, 
 and by no means disagreeable on a warm. All the 
 windows in both cabins are made in such a way as to shift 
 up and down like those of a coach, admitting a very free 
 circulation of fresh air. From the height of the roofs of 
 both cabins, which are about seven feet four inches, they 
 will be extremely pleasant and healthful in the summer 
 months for those who may favor the boat in parties of 
 pleasure. 
 
 ^'Already the public advantages of this mode of convey- 
 ance have been generally acknowledged ; indeed, it may 
 without exaggeration be said that the intercourse through 
 the medium of steamboats between Glasgow and Green- 
 ock has, comparatively speaking, brought those places 
 ten or twelve miles nearer each other. In most cases the 
 passages are made in the same time as by the coaches ; and 
 
282 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 they have been, in numerous instances, done with greater 
 rapidity. In comparing the comfortableness of these con- 
 veyances, the preference will be given decidedly to the 
 steamboat. Besides all this, a great saving of expense is 
 produced ; the fare in the best cabin being only four 
 shillings, and in the inferior one, two shillings and six- 
 pence, whereas the inside of a coach costs not less than 
 twelve shillings and the outside eight shillings." 
 
 The greater speed of the Elizabeth compared 
 with that of the Comet caused her to be the favor- 
 ite, and she is said to have been much more profit- 
 able to her owners than was her predecessor. One 
 account says the Comet was never a remunerative 
 boat, as the competition began before she had made 
 any appreciable return for her cost. 
 
 A third steamer, the Clyde, was built the same 
 year (1813) by Mr. Wood for Mr. Robinson, of 
 Port Glasgow. She was 76 feet long on deck, 
 about 14 feet beam, measured 75 tons, and had an 
 engine of 14-horse power. Her speed is said to 
 have been six miles an hour. 
 
 While the Clyde was on the stocks, a joint-stock 
 company for steam navigation — the first ever organ- 
 ized in Great Britain — was formed at Glasgow for 
 the transportation of both passengers and freight. 
 Its first boat was the Glasgow, of 72 feet long, 15 
 feet beam, 74 tons measurement, and with engines 
 of 16-horse power. Afterwards she was lengthened 
 by adding five feet to her bow which increased her 
 
EARLY STEAMBOATS IN BRITISH WATERS, 283 
 
 speed considerably. She was launched late in 1813 
 and was not in service until the following year. 
 
 The next Clyde-built steamer was the Dumbar- 
 ton Castle, in 181 5, 81 tons, 107 feet long, 17 feet 
 beam, and engines of 32-horse power. She ran to 
 Rothesay,and in the following year went through the 
 Kyles of Bute and up Lochfyne to Inveraray, mak- 
 ing the trip in sixteen hours, which was then consid- 
 ered something extraordinary. 
 
 The Britannia, somewhat smaller than the Dum- 
 barton Castle, was built in 181 5, and the Rob 
 Roy, also smaller, in 181 8. The latter was the 
 first steamer to cross the Channel to Belfast. The 
 Robert Bruce, 90 tons measurement, 94 feet long, 
 18 feet beam, and i r feet deep, was built in 18 18, 
 and was the first steamer to run between Glasgow 
 and Liverpool. 
 
 From this time forward the business of buildinor 
 steamers on the Clyde progressed rapidly. At 
 present a considerable part of the river front be- 
 tween Greenock and Glasgow is occupied by ship- 
 yards, and as many as two hundred steamers have 
 been built there in a single year. In the foundries 
 and machine-shops of Glasgow from five to eight 
 thousand men are employed in the construction of 
 marine steam-engines, and there is a proportionate 
 number in the ship-yards where the hulls are built. 
 The Clyde ship-yards may justly be considered the 
 first in the world. y\ll the fine packets of the 
 
284 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Cunard Company were built there, and so were 
 many other steamers that have made a reputation 
 for speed and safety. 
 
 With the estabHshment of Hues from Glasgow to 
 Belfast and Liverpool we will leave the Clyde for 
 the present and turn our attention elsewhere. 
 
 In 1818 a steamer was launched at Manchester 
 and another at Bristol ; in 18 14 one was in opera- 
 tion on the Humber, and in December of that year 
 the first steamer on the Thames gave the initial 
 turn of her wheels on the canal at Limehouse. 
 The boatmen made a keen opposition to the inno- 
 vation, and she was taken elsewhere after a few 
 weeks. But very soon other boats were running at 
 London, and the Company of watermen found it 
 useless to try to stop them. 
 
 Extracts from the papers and other publications 
 of the time show that the builders of boats were 
 everywhere busy. By the beginning of 181 5 there 
 were five steamboats on the Thames, the best of 
 them being the Thames, of fourteen-horse power ; 
 she was built at Glasgow and was originally called 
 the Argyle, her name being changed when she 
 was sent to London. 
 
 Cleland's ''Annals of Glasgow" says that be- 
 tween the years 181 2-1 5, inclusive, twenty steam- 
 boats of various sizes were built at Glasgow and 
 its vicinity. Of these boats, the Margary went to 
 London in 18 14, the Argyle in 181 5, and the Cale- 
 
EARLY STEAMBOATS IN BRTTISIT WATERS. 285 
 
 donia and Greenock in 1816. Two of the steam- 
 boats ran regularly between London and Margate 
 during the bathing season. 
 
 The British Naval Ch^^oiiicle for July, 18 15, 
 says: ''The 'Thames' steam yacht is said lately 
 to have accomplished a voyage of fifteen hundred 
 miles. She twice crossed St. George's Channel, 
 and sailed round Land's End, and is the first steam 
 vessel that ever traversed those seas. The advan- 
 tages of a vessel enabled to proceed either by sail 
 or steam or both united, must be sufficiently obvi- 
 ous, and especially in the certainty of reaching its 
 place of destination in a given time." 
 
 During her voyage the Thames had a narrow es- 
 cape from being wrecked. She was being driven 
 on a lee shore by a strong gale. Her captain put 
 her head to windward and steamed directly into the 
 teeth of the gale at the rate of three miles an hour, 
 thus saving the boat. She stopped at Dublin and 
 Portsmouth. At the latter place she attracted 
 much attention, and so numerous were the boats 
 around her, that it was necessary for the captain 
 of the port to send a guard to preserve order. A 
 naval court-martial adjourned its session in order 
 to visit her, and one day (the 10th of June) the 
 port-admiral sent his band and a guard of marines 
 on board, and followed soon after in person accom- 
 panied by three admirals, eighteen post-captains, 
 and a large party of ladies. With her distin- 
 
286 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 guished visitors the boat made an excursion 
 around the harbor and to the Isle of Wight. 
 The naval officers expressed themselves highly 
 pleased with the steamer, and some of them pre- 
 dicted that steam would soon be employed for pro- 
 pelling ships of war. 
 
 A log of the voyage was kept by Mr. Weld, a 
 passenger from Dublin to London, and from this 
 log an account was condensed and published in 
 Chambers's Journal, in April, 1857. Mr. Weld 
 says the boat steamed seven hundred and fifty-eight 
 miles in one hundred and twenty-one and a half 
 hours, with an expenditure of one ton of coal for 
 every hundred miles. Whenever they passed a ship 
 the sailors mounted the rigging or crowded the rail 
 to look at the novelty, and sometimes their remarks 
 were the reverse of complimentary. The harbor- 
 master of Plymouth had never seen a steamboat, 
 and was as much astonished at the strange vessel 
 as a child with a new plaything. In ascending the 
 Thames they passed every thing in the river, in- 
 cluding all the fast-sailing pleasure boats. East In- 
 diamen, and other craft. 
 
 Sir Rowland Hill, who obtained celebrity for his 
 reforms in the post-office, mentions in his autobiog- 
 raphy the steamboat plying between London and 
 Margate in 181 5. On the third of July of that 
 year he and his brother ''went to see the steam- 
 boat come in from London ; generally performing 
 
STEAMBOATS IN CANADA. 
 
 287 
 
 the voyage in about twelve hours. It is surpris- 
 ing," he continues, *'how most people are preju- 
 diced against this packet. Some say that it can- 
 not sail against the wind if it is high, but when it 
 entered the harbor at Margate, the wind and tide 
 were both against it, and the former rather rough 
 — yet I saw it stem them both. There was a great 
 crowd and much enthusiasm, though carpers pre- 
 dicted failure and sneered at the ' smoke-jacks.' " 
 
 Probably the oldest existing steamboat in the 
 world, though not in use, is the Industry — the 
 seventh steamer on the Clyde, which was built in 
 1814. She was fifty-four tons measurement, and 
 ran successfully for some years. By an accident she 
 was sunk in the East India docks at Greenock, 
 where she lay until 1872, when she was floated and 
 restored to her old condition as nearly as possible. 
 In 1876 she was presented by her owners, Steele 
 & Company, to the Glasgow Chamber of Com- 
 merce, to be preserved as a memorial of the early 
 days of steam navigation in the United Kingdom. 
 As before stated, the oldest steamboat engines in 
 existence are those of the Charlotte Dundas con- 
 structed in 1801, and of Col. Stevens' boat at Ho- 
 boken, built and operated in 1804. 
 
 Before the establishment of steam navigation on 
 the Clyde and in other British home waters, steam- 
 boats were in successful operation in two of the Brit- 
 ish colonies on opposite sides of the world from each 
 
288 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Other. In 1809 the steamboat Accommodation 
 made the passage from Montreal to Quebec in 
 sixty-six hours, of which thirty hours were passed 
 at anchor. She was 85 feet long on deck, 75 feet 
 keel, and had berths for twenty passengers in her 
 cabins. The price of passage was nine dollars up 
 the river and eight dollars down, which included 
 meals and lodgings. Her first trip was made with 
 ten passengers. 
 
 In the spring of 1813a second boat, the Swift- 
 sure, was launched on the St. Lawrence, and began 
 running between Montreal and Quebec. Her meas- 
 urements were 130 feet keel, 140 feet deck, and 34 
 feet beam, and she made the voyage from Montreal 
 to Quebec in twenty-two hours, in face of a strong 
 wind from the east. That her owners hesitated to 
 defy the breezes is shown by her advertisement in 
 the Quebec Mercuryy which announced that the 
 boat would ''sail as the wind and passengers may 
 suit." 
 
 In 181 1 Java was in the hands of the English, 
 where it remained until 18 16, when it was ceded to 
 Holland, which formerly owned it, and has re- 
 mained in Dutch control ever since. In the latter 
 part of 1 8 10, or early in 181 1, some English mer- 
 chants at Batavia built a steamboat, the ''Van der 
 Capellan," which they leased to the government, at 
 the handsome remuneration of ten thousand dollars 
 a month. She was in that employ for two years, 
 
STEAMBOATS IN JAVA. 
 
 289 
 
 and was of great service in the transportation of 
 soldiers and war material from one part of the 
 island to another. After the expiration of the 
 government contract, she was in private hands for 
 some years, and again as a government boat. She 
 was used as a dredging boat about 1822, and later 
 as a gunboat, and was lost in a gale in the Java 
 seas after a career of twenty years. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Further history of steam navigation in foreign waters — Steamers in Russia, 
 France, and other countries — First steamer on Lake Baikal, Siberia — 
 Inauguration of steam-tovving — Description of a steam-collier — Steam 
 navigation to Belfast, Dublin, and Havre — New steamers between 
 Holyhead and Dublin — David Napier — Present steam fleet of Great 
 Britain. 
 
 ACCORDING to the Dictionnaire Larousse," 
 Steamboats were introduced into France in 
 1816, but their success was not sufficiently demon- 
 strated at the outset, and steam navigation did not 
 begin to develop fairly until 1825. The same dic- 
 tionary awards to Fulton the honor of building the 
 first successful steamboat, and does not seek, like 
 most of the English encyclopedias, to ignore that 
 inventor and give the distinction to a Briton. 
 
 Steam navigation was adopted in Russia soon 
 after its success on the Clyde. Mr. Baird, an Eng- 
 lish engineer in the employ of the Russian Govern- 
 ment, built a small steamboat of four-horse power 
 in 181 5, with which he made a trip from St. 
 Petersburg to Cronstadt and back without accident. 
 In 1 816 he built a larger boat of twenty-horse 
 power and fitted for carrying passengers between 
 those cities, and in the summer of that year it was 
 in successful operation. 
 
STEAMERS IN RUSSIA. 
 
 291 
 
 Russia is the land of monopolies, and Mr. Baird 
 received from the government a monopoly for 
 twenty years on the waters around St. Petersburg 
 for all steamboats for commercial purposes. In the 
 same year the government built a steamboat of 
 thirty-two-horse power at its yard at Ishora. It 
 was designed as a transport, and was appropriately 
 named the Rapid," though doubtless in these days 
 it would be called Slow." Several other steam 
 transports were built at this and other yards, and 
 in 1826 the Russian Government built its first steam 
 gunboat. Steamboats were placed on the rivers of 
 Russia at varying dates between 1820 and 1840. 
 In 1844 there were four steamboats on the Caspian 
 Sea and others on the Black Sea ; most of them, 
 if not all, having engines from the Baird works at 
 St. Petersburg. 
 
 In 1843 enterprising merchant of Irkoutsk, 
 Eastern Siberia, built a steamboat for the naviga- 
 tion of Lake Baikal. The hull was built on the 
 shore of the lake, while the engines and boilers 
 were made at the Baird works and transported over- 
 land four thousand miles from St. Petersburg in 
 wagons and sleighs. Mr. Baird sent an engineer 
 to superintend the work, but all the labor on the 
 hull, and of putting the engines in place, was per- 
 formed by Siberian peasants who had never seen 
 any thing of the kind. The boat crossed the lake 
 for the first time in a strong gale, which she faced 
 
292 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 SO boldly as to astonish everybody who looked at 
 her from the shore. When the natives on the east- 
 ern shore saw the monster approaching they fled in 
 dismay, and could not for some time be induced to 
 come back. The boat was of thirty-two-horse 
 power, and was called the Emperor Nicholas. 
 
 Returning to Liverpool and to 18 16, we fmd 
 that the first steam ferry-boat built there was in 
 that year, and was called the Etna. It is probable 
 that her construction was begun in the previous 
 year, as the records show that she commenced her 
 services in April, 18 16, between Liverpool and 
 Traumere. She was sixty-three feet long and 
 twenty-eight feet broad ; she had a paddle-wheel in 
 the centre, and her ends were connected by strong 
 beams. The Etna may be regarded as the pioneer 
 of the vast fleet of small steamboats that ply on 
 the Mersey between Liverpool, Birkenhead, and 
 other points, and render the passenger arriving 
 from America exceedingly miserable with their lack 
 of accommodations. Landing or embarking at 
 Liverpool is a wretched beginning or ending of a 
 transatlantic voyage. The steam-tenders provided 
 by the great companies are a disgrace to modern 
 civilization and its locomotive triumphs. Save in 
 the matter of speed and dimensions, these Liver- 
 pool boats of to-day are probably no improvement 
 upon the Etna and her immediate followers. 
 
 In the same year that the Etna began her work 
 
INAUGURATION OF STEAM TOWING, 
 
 in the Mersey the EngUsh Channel was crossed 
 from Brighton to Havre by steam for the first 
 time. The feat was accomplished by the steam- 
 boat Majestic, which was built at Ramsgate and 
 had engines of twenty-five-horse power. She car- 
 ried two hundred passengers, who must have been 
 packed very closely, but they seem to have enjoyed 
 their journey, which was made without accident. 
 The Majestic passed several of the sailing packets, 
 and reduced the time required for the trip more 
 than one half. This single boat demonstrated the 
 superiority of steamboats over sailing packets, and 
 in a very few years the passenger business had 
 gone over to the steamers, with the exception of a 
 few conservatives who had fears regarding the 
 safety of boats with boilers and huge fires. 
 
 In October, 18 16, the ship Harlequin was towed 
 out of the Mersey by the steamer Charlotte, which 
 had been built as a passenger boat to ply between 
 Liverpool and Eastham. A Liverpool tradition 
 says the Charlotte was the first steam tow-boat, 
 and there is no positive proof to the contrary. It 
 will be remembered that the steamboat of Jonathan 
 Hulls, in 1736, and the Charlotte Dundas, in 1801, 
 were intended for towing purposes. The former 
 never went beyond the plans of the architect, and 
 the latter was abandoned as a failure. 
 
 The inauguration of steam towing has had sev- 
 eral claimants, and it is not very easy to reconcile 
 
294 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 them. Mr. Rennie, who planned the breakwater 
 at Plymouth, was an ''advising engineer'' to the 
 Admiralty and an early advocate of the application 
 of steam-power to ships of war. In 1819 he en- 
 deavored to demonstrate the feasibility of his theo- 
 ries by hiring, at his own expense, the steamer 
 Eclipse, and employing her to tow a seventy-four- 
 gun ship (the Hastings) from Woolwich to Graves- 
 end. The feat was successfully accomplished, as 
 the Hastings was moved against the tide without 
 difficulty. Several naval officers who had previ- 
 ously opposed the application of steam to naval 
 vessels, or had remained neutral on the subject, 
 now came forward to advocate it. Among them 
 were Lord Melville and Sir George Cockburn. 
 
 Another claimant for the honor was Joseph 
 Price, a glass manufacturer of Newcastle-on-Tync. 
 In 1838 he delivered an address, from which the 
 following is an extract : 
 
 In July, 18 1 8, I conceived that good might be 
 done with steamboats by towing vessels to sea. In 
 furtherance of my idea, I applied to the late Mr. 
 Robson, Wharfinger of Newcastle, for leave to try 
 an experiment with one of his loaded vessels, 
 which was granted. I gave notice to Captain 
 Copeland, of the 'Friends' Adventure,' Hull trader, 
 to have all ready from an hour to an hour and a 
 half before high water. At the time appointed I 
 requested him to throw a line on board the steamer. 
 
IiVAUGURATIOJ^ OF STEAM TO WING. 
 
 The tide was against us the first three miles. Every 
 thing answered as well as I could wish, and the ves- 
 sel was towed two miles over the bar in two hours and 
 ten minutes, a distance of thirteen miles, the wind 
 against us all the way. This was the first time a 
 sailing-vessel was ever towed by a steamboat. The 
 public did not at first appreciate my endeavors for 
 expediting the sailing of ships in adverse winds ; 
 on the contrary, I was told I had ruined the port, 
 I continued my two steamboats, the Perseverance 
 and the Eagle, in this employ, with little benefit to 
 myself, for my captains were so timorous they 
 would not stir but in moderate weather. They 
 once had an offer to tow two ships with one boat ; 
 they would on no account undertake so heavy a 
 task." 
 
 Another account of steam towing at Newcastle 
 says : 
 
 Mr. Price's example led the way to general 
 traction by steam. After a considerable interval 
 other owners of steamboats saw the advantage of 
 the towing system, and employed theirs in a similar 
 manner, receiving pay according to the depth of 
 water the sailing-vessels drew. The advantage 
 to the ship-owner was great. Previously no vessel 
 over two hundred and forty tons register ever at- 
 tempted to come up to Newcastle. After the in- 
 troduction of the towing system vessels of four 
 hundred tons were brought up, and vessels that 
 
296 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 previously averaged only eight voyages in the year 
 between the Tyne and the Thames, were able to 
 average thirteen voyages, thereby keeping the coal 
 market regularly supplied and preventing those 
 great fluctuations in prices which formerly had 
 such a serious effect in increasing the miseries of 
 the poor." 
 
 According to Mr. Price the towing system was 
 adopted between Gainsborough and Hull in 1821, 
 and four years later at Liverpool. Afterwards it 
 was adopted at Montreal, and he records that a 
 large steamboat towed three or four ships to that 
 city from Quebec in forty-eight hours. Before that 
 time sailing vessels between Quebec and Montreal 
 required two or three weeks for the voyage. 
 
 The achievements of Mr. Price were recorded by 
 a local poet of Newcastle in the following lines : 
 
 Steam neist cam' puffin' into play 
 
 And put an end to rowin' ; 
 When Price said, in his schemin' way, 
 
 ^ Let *s try the chep at towin'.' " 
 
 Steam was not satisfied with towing the Newcas- 
 tle colliers in and out of port. A few years after 
 'the successful experiment of Mr. Price, a coal ves- 
 sel was fitted with a steam-engine and made the 
 trip to London and back so quickly as to astonish 
 the owners of sailing craft. The first regular steam 
 collier was built in 1844, was bark-rigged. 
 
 Since then steam colliers have been built in con- 
 
STEAM COLLIERS. 
 
 297 
 
 siderable numbers, and at present they have nearly 
 driven the saihng-vessels out of the business. The 
 colHers are built with more regard to capacity than 
 speed. Few men are required for their manage- 
 ment, and the cost of the fuel consumed on the 
 voyage is more than compensated by the great 
 saving in time and the consequent transporting 
 ability of a vessel in a given number of months. 
 
 One of the latest of the steam colliers is the 
 King Coal, which cost, when ready for sea, sev- 
 enty-five thousand dollars, and may be taken as a 
 type of this kind of vessel. She can carry one 
 thousand tons of coal, and has arrangements for 
 ballasting herself with water when she has no coal 
 on board. Her speed is from eight and a half to 
 nine and a half knots an hour — the former being 
 her progress when fully laden and with the wind 
 against her. Her engines are ninety-horse power, 
 nominal. All the work of hoisting sails and lifting 
 anchors is done by steam-power, and her entire 
 complement of men is seventeen. There is no 
 accommodation for passengers, with the exception 
 of four berths in the captain's saloon for persons 
 who may be interested in the cargo. They mess 
 with the officers during the voyage, and are not 
 provided with a separate table. 
 
 A voyage of a steam collier from Newcastle to 
 London and back occupies from six to eight days. 
 A vessel of this sort can deliver fifty thousand tons 
 
298 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 of coal in London annually, while the ordinary sail- 
 ing collier could not deliver under favorable circum- 
 stances more than three thousand five hundred tons. 
 The Reading and other coal companies in the Uni- 
 ted States have a good many steam colliers in use. 
 Few of these boats in Atlantic waters have any ac- 
 commodations for passengers, but on the Pacific 
 coast, between Puget Sound and San Francisco, 
 they are fitted for the transportation of passengers, 
 and also for general cargoes on their return trips to 
 the mines. 
 
 The first steam vessel employed regularly in the 
 Irish trade from Liverpool was the Waterloo, built 
 at Greenock in 18 19, and intended to run between 
 Glasgow and Belfast. After a few trips in that ser- 
 vice she was placed on the line between Belfast and 
 Liverpool, arriving for the first time in the latter 
 port on the 23d of July of that year. The Liver- 
 pool Mercury described her as ''a beautiful steam 
 packet of 201 tons, 98 feet long, 37 feet wide on 
 deck, and having two highly-finished engines of 30 
 horse-power each, which work without noise or vi- 
 bration, and are, on the low-pressure construction, 
 quite safe from accident." The paper adds that 
 ''her interior accommodations are as complete and 
 elegant as skill and expense can make them. She 
 has a handsome dining-room, capable of accommo- 
 dating all the cabin passengers, a separate and 
 neatly decorated cabin for ladies, two apartments 
 
Navigation from Dublin to iiolyhead. 299 
 
 for private families, twenty -two well -furnished 
 beds, and a comfortable place for steerage passen- 
 gers/' The fare was £\ \\s, 6d. for the first cabin 
 and los. for steerage. Passengers were informed 
 that they were not under the necessity of taking 
 provisions, as every thing could be had on board 
 at moderate prices. She was to accomplish the 
 journey in thirty hours, and would sail every Mon- 
 day and Friday from Liverpool. 
 
 Afterwards the Waterloo was placed on the line 
 between Dublin and Liverpool. Compare the de- 
 scription of this steamer with that of one of the 
 latest boats plying across St. George's Channel. 
 The Waterloo may be considered the pioneer of 
 the lines that connect England with Ireland, and 
 have obtained the reputation of including the fast- 
 est steamers in the world. The most noted of 
 these lines is that of the Dublin Steam Packet 
 Company, and its most noted vessels are those 
 that carry the mails between Dublin and Holy- 
 head. About twenty-five years ago a service of 
 fast steamers was established on this route. Four 
 vessels — the ''Ulster," ''Munster," Leinster," and 
 ''Connaught" — made regular trips daily each way 
 regardless of weather, and the contract required 
 them to perform the journey in four hours under 
 a penalty of twenty-five dollars a minute for all 
 time they fell short of that schedule. 
 
 Quite recently a new packet, the '' Ireland," has 
 
300 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 been placed on this route, and her owners claim that 
 she is the fastest steamer afloat. The following de- 
 scription of this boat and her performance was 
 published in October, 1885 • 
 
 The Ireland attained a speed of twenty-one knots an 
 hour, or between twenty-four and twenty-five statute 
 miles, in her trial run across the Channel. The distance in 
 a straight line from Holyhead to Kingstown is fifty-six 
 knots ; but, however well a ship may be steered, it is im- 
 possible for her to keep an absolutely straight course, 
 and the distance actually traversed must have been in- 
 creased accordingly ; yet taking no account of this, and 
 reckoning the distance at fifty-six knots, the ship must 
 have maintained an average speed of 20.2 knots per hour 
 from point to point ; a performance which is without a 
 parallel in rough-water steaming. The actual time was 
 2h. 46 min. 15 sec, with a mean of 6,337 indicated horse 
 power, under draught moderately forced by fans, the 
 mean pressure of steam being 27 lbs., and the engines 
 making 27.17 revolutions a minute. Another trip, under 
 natural draught without fans, gave an average speed of 18.9 
 knots, the whole time being 2h. 57 min. 45 sec. The 
 Ireland has a length over all of 380 ft., between perpen- 
 diculars 360 ft., with 38 ft. beam, and a depth in hold of 
 19 ft. 3 in., her tonnage being 2,590 tons old measure- 
 ment. She is fitted with jet condensing oscillating en- 
 gines, capable of developing 5,000-horse power with boil- 
 ers working under natural draught, and at least 6,000- 
 horse power with the boilers under air pressure in the 
 stokeholes. The ship is built entirely of Siemens steel, in 
 order that the greatest strength may be secured with the 
 minimum of weight, and is subdivided by steel water- 
 
302 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 tight bulkheads to the upper-deck into eleven compart- 
 ments, one bulkhead between the engine-room and each 
 boiler-room, so that the engines and each set of boilers are 
 in separate compartments. 
 
 The Ireland has a clipper stem with shield head, and a 
 short bowsprit, a light elliptic counter, two raking masts 
 and two funnels, a spacious bridge deck amidships, a long 
 poop aft, and hurricane deck forward. The passenger 
 accommodation is the same as in the Company's present 
 steamers as now fitted, with every comfort and luxury. 
 In the poop is a saloon 80 ft. in length, panelled in pol- 
 ished hard wood, with state cabins at each side. On the 
 deck below is the spacious dining-saloon, richly decorated 
 in gold and color, with a commodious serving-room and 
 pantry. Forward are the upper and lower ladies' saloons, 
 which are elegant apartments. The saloons have a height 
 of 10 ft. 6 in. from deck to ceiling ; the stairways are 
 roomy and well arranged, the ventilation and light being 
 all that can be desired ; forward is additional sleeping 
 accommodation for first-class, so that in all there will be 
 accommodation for 200 first-class passengers. Handsome 
 and convenient smoking-cabins are provided amidships ; a 
 spacious saloon and cabins forward for second-class. The 
 arrangement of pantries, lavatories, and such offices is ex- 
 tensive and complete, and the ship is lighted with the 
 electric light." 
 
 The predecessors of the Ireland frequently made 
 the passage at the rate of twenty-iwo miles an hour, 
 but they seem to be left behind by this latest addi- 
 tion to the fleet. Improvements are being made in 
 the old boats, and new ones will follow and proba- 
 bly pass the Ireland before this book has gone 
 
DAVID NAPIER. 
 
 through the press. The time between London 
 and DubHn has been reduced to ten and a half 
 hours and it is possible that by the end of the 
 century it may be brought down to ten or even to 
 nine hours. In his wildest moments Fulton never 
 dreamed that a steamboat would be able to pass 
 through the water at the rate of twenty-four miles 
 an hour ! 
 
 Admiral Preble says England owes to David 
 Napier the establishment of deep-sea communica- 
 tion by steam packets. When steamboats were 
 established on the Clyde they did not venture out 
 of the rivers and friths except in fine weather ; 
 Napier conceived the idea of establishing steam 
 communication on the open sea, and as a first step 
 in this direction he wished to know the difficulty he 
 would have to encounter. With this object he 
 took passage on a sailing packet — then the only 
 means of communication — between Glasgow and 
 Belfast, at a stormy period of the year. The sail- 
 ing voyage usually occupied a week ; the journey 
 by steam is now made in nine hours. 
 
 During the voyage Napier used to stand for 
 hours together on the bow of the packet, watching 
 the waves breaking at the stem. He occasionally 
 left his post to ask the captain if the sea might be 
 considered a. rough one ; when told it was nothing 
 unusual he resumed his studies with an air of dis- 
 appointment. He did not mind being drenched 
 
304 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 with the spray, and as the breeze freshened into a 
 gale he again asked if the sea could be called rough. 
 He was again disappointed and resumed his place. 
 
 At last he had a storm that satisfied him. The 
 sea broke over the bows and swept the ship from 
 stem to stern ; as he made his way aft and stood 
 dripping before the captain he repeated his inquiry : 
 
 Do you consider it rough now ? " 
 The captain answered that he did not re- 
 member to have faced a worse sea in the whole 
 course of his experience. 
 
 " Oh! If that s all," said Napier, I think I can 
 manage it"; and with these words he went to his 
 cabin, and did not trouble himself much about the 
 waves after that. 
 
 Afterwards he experimented with models of 
 boats in tubs of water, in order to find the shape 
 of bow that would go through the liquid with the 
 least resistance. He had a theory that the round, 
 bluff bow of a sailing vessel was not adapted to a 
 boat with its own power of propulsion, and his 
 experiments confirmed him in his belief. This 
 led him to adopt the fine wedge-shaped entrance 
 for which his boats were distinguished, and which 
 has been generally adopted for steamers all over 
 the world. 
 
 Napier established steam communication be- 
 tween Greenock and Belfast in 1818 with the 
 steamer Rob Roy, which has been mentioned else- 
 
DAVID NAPIER. 
 
 where. She ran for two winters between these 
 ports, and was afterwards placed on the route be- 
 tween Dover and Calais. The Rob Roy was of 
 90 tons burthen and 30-horse power. In 1819, 
 Napier superintended the building of the Talbot, 
 150 tons, and 60-horse power, which was placed 
 between Dublin and Holyhead about the time the 
 Waterloo began running between the Irish capital 
 and Liverpool. Napier introduced surface con- 
 densers on the steamer Post Boy in 1822. They 
 consisted of small copper pipes, surrounded by 
 cold water, the steam passing through the pipes 
 being condensed while on its way to the air-pump. 
 The experiment was a failure, and he returned to 
 the old system of jet condensation. Some years 
 later he tried flat plates instead of tubes, and was 
 more successful. 
 
 In 1826 Napier built what was then considered 
 a leviathan steamer for the trade between London 
 and Edinburgh. She was named the United 
 Kingdom, and her immense size attracted thou- 
 sands of people to see her. 
 
 The measurements of this embryo Great 
 Eastern " were 160 feet long, 26^ feet beam, and en- 
 gines of 200-horse power. Some of the wise 
 ones shook their heads, and said she was too large 
 to be profitable to her owners, and they feared 
 her great size would make her unwieldy at sea in 
 rough weather. 
 
3o6 
 
 ROBERT FVJ.TON. 
 
 Down to 1823, eleven years after Bell's success- 
 ful experiment with the Comet, one hundred and 
 sixty-seven steam vessels were launched in Great 
 Britain. The largest of these was the Soho, of 
 510 tons — smaller than the Chancellor Livingston, 
 520 tons, which was running in New York waters 
 in 18 1 6. A still larger boat, the Lady Sherbrooke, 
 787 tons, was running on the St. Lawrence at the 
 time the Soho began her career. 
 
 In 1836 France had only eighty-two steam- 
 boats, the most of them being small affairs, and 
 only intended for the rivers of the country. 
 Twenty-one were tow-boats, forty for passengers, 
 and seventeen for carrying freight. They averaged 
 a measurement of 180 tons and 35-horse power 
 each. At the same time the French navy contained 
 twenty-seven steam vessels, while fifty-four steamers 
 were in course of preparation for the use of the 
 French Postal Department in carrying mails in the 
 Mediterranean. 
 
 In that year, 1836, while France had eighty-two 
 steamboats of all kinds, England possessed three 
 hundred and ninety-seven. One hundred and fifty- 
 three were below fifty tons each in measurement 
 and one hundred and eighteen more were under one 
 hundred tons. The largest was the Monarch, of 
 London, which measured 587 tons, and there were 
 only two or three others that exceeded 500 tons. 
 The newspapers of 1836 spoke of an 'M'mmense 
 
STEAM FLEET OF GREAT BRITAIN, 307 
 
 Steam frigate to be called the ' Gorgon/ to be 
 built in London. She is to be eleven hundred 
 tons, and will carry twelve guns." 
 
 In 1837, one year later than the above, the 
 United Kingdom had 6i8 steamers. Of these 
 there were 432 belonging to England, showing an 
 increase of thirty-five in a twelvemonth. From 
 this point we will drop the annual record of steam 
 navigation in England, to avoid pages of figures 
 which might be dreary, and come, at a single 
 bound, to the present time. Observe the rapid 
 growth of the steam interest on the water under 
 the flag of St. George and the Dragon. 
 
 The United Kingdom now employs a total of 
 4,753 steamers ; 3,047 of these vessels are en- 
 gaged in ocean navigation, 137 in what may be 
 called the long coasting trade," and 1,569 in har- 
 bors, rivers, and short coasting." The aggregate 
 measurement of this enormous fleet is 3,656,000 
 tons. The total number of registered steam 
 vessels in Great Britain and its colonies — which 
 comprise the British Empire — is 8,206, with an 
 aggregate measurement of 4,013,000 tons. These 
 figures do not include the navy of Great Britain, 
 of which we will speak on another page. 
 
 Elsewhere will be found a table showing the 
 number and tonnage of the steam vessels of the 
 principal countries of the globe. It must be under- 
 stood that, while approximately correct, these fig- 
 
3o8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 ures cannot be so exactly. New vessels are con- 
 stantly being added to the fleets of the various 
 maritime nations, and at the same time old 
 ones are withdrawn from service, and both new 
 and old ships are lost at sea or upon inland waters. 
 
 The Earliest Tow-Boat. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 First steamboat in India — An eventful career of sixty years — Steamers in 
 Chinese waters — The P'o-Shune " — The mails to India — Steam navi- 
 gation in Japan and China — Early steamers on the Atlantic — The log- 
 book of the Savannah — The Siriiis, Great Western, and British Queen — 
 Prospectus of the British and American Steam Navigation Company, 
 
 FROM Europe we will turn our eyes to Asia. 
 The first steamer in India was tKe Snake, 
 built in Bombay, in 1820, for the navigation of the 
 Indus River. Her engines were designed and built 
 by a Parsee, after drawings which he had obtained 
 from London ; they were evidently well constructed, 
 if we may judge by the life of the boat. The 
 Snake was employed in the first and second Bur- 
 mese wars (1824 and 1852), in an expedition to 
 the Persian Gulf in 1826, in the war with China 
 ( 1 841-2), the Persian war of 1856, the Mutiny of 
 1857, the Chinese expedition of 1859, several 
 other campaigns of lesser note. She was wrecked 
 twice, — in a hurricane in 1837 and a cyclone in 
 1854, — but managed to survive all her ills and ad- 
 ventures until 1880, when she was broken up, after 
 an eventful career of sixty years. 
 
 In 182 1, a steamer of sixteen-horse power, and 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 called the Diana, was sent to China for use on the 
 Canton River, but she was not successful there. In 
 1823 she was sent to Calcutta, and partially rebuilt ; 
 then she was sold to the Bengal Government, and 
 used to navigate the Irrawaddy. She carried the 
 British Resident, Sir James Crawford, five hundred 
 miles up that stream, but as she only succeeded in 
 making about thirty miles a day, she disappointed 
 her owners and soon after disappeared from his- 
 tory. 
 
 A sailing ship, the Falcon, was fitted with aux- 
 iliary engines, and sent to India in 1820, making 
 part of the voyage under steam. She returned in 
 the same way, but the saving of time was not 
 enough to encourage her owners to continue the 
 experiment. In 1825, the steamship Enterprise, 
 commanded by Lieutenant Johnson, of the Royal 
 Navy, was despatched from London for Calcutta. 
 She was of 470 tons burthen, with engines of 120- 
 horse power. She was built by an association of 
 gentlemen who sold her for forty thousand pounds 
 to the Bengal Government. The purchase money 
 added to what had been received for passengers 
 and freight reimbursed them well for the cost of 
 the boat. 
 
 The distance from London to Diamond Harbor, 
 at the mouth of the Hoogly, is 13,700 miles, via 
 the Cape of Good Hope, the only route then avail- 
 able. The Enterprise sailed on the i6th August, 
 
FIRST STEAMBOAT IN INDIA. 
 
 1825, and made the voyage to Diamond Harbor in 
 113 days ; she was at anchor 10 days, under steam 
 64 days, and under sail 39 days. Lieutenant, or 
 ''Captain," Johnson received ten thousand pounds 
 sterHng for making the first steam voyage to India ; 
 many a modern shipmaster would willingly make it 
 for fifty pounds. The Enterprise was employed 
 to great advantage by the East India Company in 
 the Burmese and other wars. At the time of the 
 treaty of Malwa she saved the government no less 
 than sixty thousand pounds sterling by arriving at 
 Calcutta in season to prevent the march of troops 
 from the northern provinces of Bengal. 
 
 The Enterprise may be considered the pioneer 
 of the numerous steam lines that now connect 
 England with India, a few by way of the Cape 
 of Good Hope, but the greater number through 
 the Suez Canal. Five years after her voyage, the 
 British Government sent the steamer Meteor to 
 the Mediterranean in the postal service, and this is 
 said to have been the first use of steam in the 
 transportation of the foreign mails. In March of 
 the same year (1830), the armed steamer, Hugh 
 Lindsay, left Bombay for Suez, carrying the mails 
 from India, and a single passenger, Colonel Camp- 
 bell, the only one for which she had room. The 
 Hugh Lindsay was of 411 tons, and had two en- 
 gines of 80-horse power each. On leaving Bom- 
 bay she was so deeply laden with coal that her 
 
312 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 deck was almost level with the water, and her 
 wheels could hardly revolve. She could only carry 
 coal enough for six days' steaming, and on reaching 
 Aden, she had less than a hundred bushels remain- 
 ing. She made the voyage from Bombay to Suez 
 in thirty-three days, having lost twelve days while 
 coaling at Aden, Mocha, Jiddah, and Kosseir. 
 Consequently her time under steam was twenty-one 
 days, making an average of i 55 miles a day. When 
 she left Bombay the deck was piled with coal and 
 the cabin filled with it. 
 
 The letters sent by the Hugh Lindsay reached 
 England in less time than any previous mail from 
 India, and the success of the trip, in spite of its 
 great cost, led to the opening of the so-called 
 
 Overland Mail Route." The only land journey 
 on the line when it was first established was from 
 Alexandria to Suez, a distance of 250 miles; the 
 rest of the route from London to Bombay, 6,126 
 miles, was upon the sea. It is sad to record that 
 Lieutenant Waghorn, the founder of the overland 
 mail route, spent much time and energy in that 
 work, and died in poverty after its success was 
 assured. Through his exertions was founded the 
 Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany, popularly called the ''P. and O.," and one of 
 the largest steamship companies in the world. It 
 will be mentioned more extensively in a later 
 chapter. 
 
STEAMERS IN CHINESE WATERS. 
 
 After the experiment with the Diana at Canton 
 nothing seems to have been done in the navigation 
 of Chinese waters by steam for several years. 
 Rev. E. C. Bridgeman, one of the pioneer mis- 
 sionaries from America to China, says in his diary 
 under date of April 19, 1832: ''Arrived here 
 (Macao) in the steamer Forbes — the first ship of 
 this kind that has ever visited these shores. She 's 
 a wonder to the Chinese. They call her Fo-Shune 
 — 'The Fire-ship.'" 
 
 The Forbes was sent out in pieces from Boston 
 and put together near Whampoa anchorage, below 
 Canton. In 1835 some of the English merchants 
 attempted to run a small steamer — the Jardine — 
 upon the Canton River, connecting the ports of 
 Lintin, Macao, and Whampoa. The Chinese op- 
 posed it so energetically that there was danger of 
 international trouble, and the project was given 
 up. There was a voluminous correspondence be- 
 tween the foreign merchants and the Chinese au- 
 thorities upon the subject. The governor of Can- 
 ton ordered the forts to open fire upon the steamer 
 if she attempted to pass up to the city, and he was 
 evidently afraid that the foreigners had some other 
 motive than that of establishing speedy communi- 
 cation from place to place. 
 
 The Jardine was sailed out from Scotland as a 
 schooner, carrying her engines carefully packed 
 and stowed in her hold. On her arrival the ma- 
 
314 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 chinery was put in working order, and she made 
 several trips between Macao and Lintin before the 
 appHcation was sent for the authorization of the 
 Chinese governor. After the war of 1841 a new 
 treaty enabled the foreigners to secure their steam- 
 boats against molestation. The Jardine was eighty- 
 five feet long, seventeen feet beam, and drew six 
 feet of water. The power of her engines is not 
 known. 
 
 Between 1841 and i85o several English and 
 American steamboats were sent to China — some 
 going under steam, and others being shipped in 
 pieces that were put together on arrival. Among 
 these vessels was the schooner-rigged screw steamer 
 Midas, Captain Poor, which went from New York 
 to China in 1843, probably the first voyage of that 
 length ever undertaken by a steamer. One of the 
 earlier boats — the Spark — is still running between 
 Canton, Macao, and Hong-Kong, or was doing so at 
 last accounts. She was sent from Boston in pieces 
 somewhere about 1847, and has been rebuilt and 
 lengthened within the last few years. About 1876 
 she was captured by Chinese pirates, and all the 
 Europeans on board were killed, but the vessel 
 escaped serious injury. Between i85o and 1870 
 a considerable number of large steamboats was 
 sent out, generally by way of the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and an excellent service was established on 
 the rivers of China and along the coast. 
 
STEAMERS IN CHINESE WATERS. 
 
 In i860 the Yang-tse-Kiang was temporarily 
 opened to foreign trade, and an English steamer 
 went to Hankow, six hundred miles above the 
 mouth of the river, to load a cargo of teas direct 
 for London. At present a good many tea-steam- 
 ers are loaded at Hankow every year for London 
 direct, and some of them have made the trip from 
 port to port in less than forty days. Not infre- 
 quently there is a race between rival ships, and it 
 is vigorously maintained for the whole distance of 
 eleven thousand miles. 
 
 The formal and permanent opening of the Chi- 
 nese ports to foreign commerce did not take place 
 until the spring of 1861. An American steamer — 
 the Fire Dart — proceeded up the Yang-tse as soon 
 as the treaty was proclaimed. Her owners thought 
 she would be the first on the spot, but on 
 reaching Hankow, she found the Saint Theodo- 
 sius, a German steamer, quietly anchored in front 
 of the town. In a few days the British steamer 
 Governor-General arrived, and, since then, the navi- 
 gation of the great river of China has never been 
 interrupted. Three years after this formal open- 
 ing there was a daily service each way between 
 Shanghai and Hankow, performed alternately by 
 the boats of an English and an American com- 
 pany. In 1877 an American naval vessel — the 
 Monocacy — steamed up the Yang-tse to Ichang, 
 four hundred miles above Hankow and one thou-- 
 
3l6 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 sand from the sea. She carried Mr. I. F. Shepard, 
 American consul at Hankow, who formally opened 
 the river to American commerce as far as Ichang. 
 
 In 1 858 Lord Elgin presented the steam yacht 
 Emperor to the Chinese authorities after they had 
 signed the treaty of Tien-Tsin. This was the first 
 steamer owned by Chinese, but since that time they 
 have bought foreign-built steamers in great num- 
 bers, and have also learned to build for themselves. 
 
 In 1874 some Chinese capitalists organized a 
 steamship enterprise, which they called the "China 
 Merchants' Steam Navigation Company." They 
 bought several steamers belonging to an American 
 firm in China, and started a line between Shanghai 
 and Hankow. An English company had aline on 
 the river, and a fierce competition began between 
 the two concerns. The rates of freight and passage 
 fell to a ruinous figure ; the Chinese company ob- 
 tained most of the business, and, finally, the for- 
 eigners were obliged to sell out their twenty-six 
 boats and their wharf property to the Orientals. 
 
 Before the sale of the river line, the Chinese had 
 established coast lines to Foo-Chow, Hong-Kong, 
 Tien-Tsin, and other places, and they have several 
 other lines in operation in the Eastern seas. Dur- 
 ing the difficulties with the F^rench in recent times, 
 the steamship enterprises of the Chinese were con- 
 siderably restricted ; some of their boats passed 
 into the hands of Americans, but it was clearly 
 
STEAM NA VIGA TION IN JAPAN. 
 
 understood that the transfer was only temporary. 
 China possesses enormous coal fields and iron 
 mines, and it is quite possible that she may yet 
 become one of the leading nations in navigating 
 the ocean by steam-power. 
 
 The Japanese Government bought several steam- 
 ships in 1 859-1 860. In 1 86 1, two steamers were 
 
 The Stonewall.'' 
 
 purchased by the Prince of Satsuma, and were the 
 first vessels of the kind owned by Japanese, except 
 by the government. Considering their former se- 
 clusion from the rest of the world, this Oriental 
 people have made remarkable progress in steam 
 navigation. They have steamship lines of their 
 
318 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 own ; they have ship-yards, where they build and 
 equip steamers on the European model ; and they 
 have foundries where first-class marine engines 
 are turned out. Japanese men-of-war, wholly built, 
 armed, equipped, and manned by Japanese, have 
 appeared in foreign waters, and demonstrated the 
 ability of the people of Nippon to adopt the ways 
 of the Occidentals. One of the first iron-clads 
 owned by the Japanese Government was the Rebel 
 ram. Stonewall, which was surrendered to the 
 United States by Spain at the close of the Civil 
 War. She was of twelve hundred tons burthen, 
 and carried three guns. 
 
 The first steamer to Australia has been men- 
 tioned elsewhere, and so has the first steamer to 
 pass the Straits of Magellan. We will now turn to 
 a subject of special interest — the inauguration of 
 steam navigation upon the Atlantic. 
 
 The Atlantic Ocean was first crossed by a 
 steamer in 1819, and the feat was performed by an 
 American vessel, the Savannah. English writers 
 have patriotically attempted to falsify history 
 regarding this pioneer of transatlantic naviga- 
 tion. Woodcroft, in his work on steam naviga- 
 tion, pronounces the Savannah a myth ; the Il- 
 lustrated' London News, as late as 1858, says : It 
 is forced into the belief that she was merely an 
 after-thought of the Americans" ; and the writer of 
 the article upon steam navigation in Chambers's 
 
320 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Encyclopedia" (American edition, vol. ix., page 
 1 08) ignores the Savannah completely, and says 
 the first transatlantic voyage was made by the 
 Sirius in 1838. 
 
 The Savannah was of three hundred and eighty 
 tons burthen ; built at New York, to run between 
 that port and Liverpool as a sailing packet. She 
 was launched August 22, 18 18. About the time 
 she came from the ways she was bought by several 
 gentlemen of Savannah, at the suggestion of Cap- 
 tain Moses Rogers of that port, and fitted up as a 
 steamer. 
 
 No change was made in her rigging, as it was in- 
 tended that she should make use of her sails when 
 ever she could do so. She was fitted with engines 
 and the proper machinery for working a pair of 
 paddle-wheels, which were so constructed that they 
 could be shipped or unshipped at pleasure. The 
 wheels folded up like a fan, and were easily brought 
 in upon the deck when not in use, and the shaft 
 had a joint to facilitate the operation. 
 
 The Savannah made a trial trip from New York 
 to Savannah and back again in April, 18 19, going 
 part of the time under steam and the rest under 
 sail. In May she left New York for Savannah 
 under sail only ; from Savannah she went to 
 Charleston, S. C, and invited the President of the 
 United States to go in her to Savannah, but the 
 President declined. However, he was shortly 
 
FIRST TRANSATLANTIC STEAM VOYAGE, 32 1 
 
 afterwards in the latter city, and made an excursion 
 on the steamer, accompanied by his staff and sev- 
 eral officers of the army and navy. He told Mr. 
 Scarborough, one of her owners, to bring her to 
 Washington on her return from Liverpool, as he 
 thought the government would purchase her for 
 use as a cruiser in the Caribbean Sea. 
 
 On the 26th of May, 1819, she sailed from 
 Savannah for Liverpool. She was commanded by 
 Captain Moses Rogers and navigated by Stephen 
 Rogers, both natives of New London, Connecticut, 
 and carried seventy-five tons of coal and twenty-five 
 cords of wood. The passage from Savannah to 
 Liverpool was made in twenty-six days, eight under 
 sail and eighteen under steam. An article in Har- 
 per s Magazine for February, 1877, says Captain 
 Moses Rogers ''commanded the first steamboat on 
 the Hudson, the first steamboat on the Delaware, 
 the first steamboat on the Chesapeake, the first 
 steamboat between Charleston and Savannah, and 
 the first steamship that crossed the Atlantic." On 
 his return from Europe he was engaged in navigat- 
 ing the Great Pedee River in South Carolina, and 
 died of malarial fever at the early age of forty-two 
 years. Stephen Rogers, the sailing-master of the 
 Savannah, died at New London, Connecticut, in 
 1868, at the age of seventy-four years. 
 
 Any British reader who has doubts concerning 
 the performance of the Savannah is referred to the 
 following : 
 
322 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 The log-book of the Savannah, which is still in 
 existence and in the possession of the descendants 
 of Captain Rogers. 
 
 The London Times of May ii, 1 819, which con- 
 tains the following paragraph : 
 
 ''Great Experiment. — A new steam vessel of 
 300 tons has been built at New York for the express 
 purpose of carrying passengers across the Atlantic. 
 She is to come to Liverpool direct." 
 
 The New York Register of August 21, 1819, 
 which contains the following : 
 
 The steamship Savannah, Captain Moses 
 Rogers, the first that ever crossed the Atlantic, 
 arrived at Liverpool in twenty-five days from 
 Savannah, all well, to the great astonishment of 
 the people of the place. She worked her engines 
 eighteen days." 
 
 The sworn statement of Stephen Rogers, the 
 sailing-master of the Savannah, made at New 
 London, Connecticut, May 2, 1856. 
 
 Paragraphs in the London Times, June 2 1 and 30, 
 18 19, and Loyd's List, June 20, 18 19. 
 
 Several paragraphs in other London and Liver- 
 pool papers of the months of June and July, 
 1 819. Also paragraphs in English and American 
 papers recording the movements of the vessel in 
 her further voyage to Copenhagen, Stockholm, and 
 St. Petersburg. 
 
 The log-book of the Savannah contains ninety- 
 
FIRST TRANSATLANTIC STEAM VOYAGE, 323 
 
 six pages of coarse paper, nineteen and one half 
 inches long and twelve inches wide. The book is 
 not bound, but the sheets are stitched together and 
 sewn into a cover of sail-cloth, which is bound at 
 its upper and lower edges. The cover bears the 
 words Steamship Savannah's Log-Book " in large, 
 square letters. Fifty pages are written upon and 
 the remainder are blank. The handwriting is that 
 of Stephen Rogers, sailing-master, and, though 
 somewhat dimmed by age, the ink is still black and 
 the entire journal is legible. The first page has 
 the caption : 
 
 A journal of a voyage from New York towards 
 Savannah on board steamship Savannah ; Moses 
 Rogers, Master." 
 
 The caption is the same on the second, third, 
 and fourth pages. On the fifth page it changes to 
 
 A harbour journal on board steamship Savannah ; 
 Moses Rogers, Master." A few pages further on 
 it changes again, and reads: A journal of a voyage 
 from Savannah towards Liverpool on board steam- 
 ship Savannah ; Moses Rogers, Master." 
 
 Judging by the log-book of the Savannah, Ste- 
 phen Rogers was better versed in the teachings of 
 Bowditch's Navigator than in those of Murray's 
 Grammar or Webster's Spelling-Book. The first 
 entry in the log is as follows : 
 
 ''Sunday March 28th 1819. These 24 hours be- 
 gins with fresh breezes at N. W. At 10 a.m. got 
 
324 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 under way for Sea with the crew on board. At 
 I P.M. the pilot left the Ship at Sandy hook light." 
 The second entry reads : 
 
 ''Remarks on board Monday March 29th 1819. 
 These 24 hours begins with fresh breezes and clear. 
 At 4 P.M. the Hilands of Neversink bore N. b. W. 
 6 leagues distant from which I take my departure. 
 At 10 P.M. took in Topgallant Sails. At 6 a.m. 
 Set Topgallant Sails. At 8 a.m. Tacked Ship to 
 the Westward. Saw a brig and Schooner Steering 
 to the Westward. At 11 a.m. took in the Mizon 
 and Fore Top gallant Sails. At 11 a.m. got the 
 steam up and it come on to blow fresh we took the 
 Wheels in on deck in 30 minute. At meridian 
 fresh breezes and Cloudy. Lat. by Obs. 39° 
 
 19. 
 
 On the vSaturday following the departure from 
 New York the book says : '' These 24 hours begins 
 calm and pleasant. Used Wheels middle of the 
 Day." 
 
 The sailing-master was not inclined to rhetorical 
 phrases, as the book is singularly laconic in style. 
 An entry on May 12th says : Daniel Claypit cut 
 his left thum off, the Doctor done it up and then 
 bled James Monroe." On May 19th it tells us that 
 ''John Western comeing on board from the shore 
 fell of the Plank and was Drounded. He was a 
 native of Massachusetts, Town of Gray. At 10 
 a.m. cought John Western with a boat-hook and 
 
FIRST TRANSATLANTIC STEAM VOYAGE, 325 
 
 jury was held over him braught in accerdental Deth 
 took him on board the Ship and put him in a 
 Coffin." 
 
 The departure on May 2 2d for the first transat- 
 lantic steam voyage is recorded in the brief words, 
 ''Got steam up and at 9 a.m. started." The daily 
 records from this time on usually open with the 
 words, '' These 24 hours begins with," etc. On the 
 22d June they ''stopped the Wheels to clean the 
 clinkers out of the furnice, a hevy head sea, at 6 
 P.M. started Wheels again ; at 2 a.m. took in the 
 Wheels." 
 
 The coast of Ireland was sighted on the 17th of 
 June, and on the 17th the Savannah "was boarded 
 by the King's Cutter Kite, Lieutenant John 
 Bowie." In a subsequent letter to the New Lon- 
 don Gazette Stephen Rogers says : " She [the 
 steamer] was seen from the telegraph station at 
 Cape Clear, on the southern coast of Ireland, and 
 reported as a ship on fire. The admiral, who 
 lay in the Cove of Cork, despatched one of the 
 king's cutters to her relief. But great was their 
 wonder at their inability, with all sail on a fast 
 vessel, to come up with a ship under bare poles. 
 After several shots were fired from the cutter the 
 engine was stopped, and the surprise of her crew 
 at the mistake they had made, as well as their curi- 
 osity to see the singular Yankee craft, can be easily 
 imagined. They asked permission to go on board, 
 
326 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 and were much gratified by the inspection of this 
 naval novelty." 
 
 Two days later they ''shipped the wheels and 
 furled the sails and run into the River Murcer, and 
 at 6 P.M. come to anchor off Liverpool with the 
 small bower anchor." 
 
 The steamer caused a great deal of excitement 
 not only among the sailors and ship-owners, but 
 the entire population of Liverpool. She was com- 
 pelled to wait at the bar several hours for the turn 
 of the tide, and the news of her coming was spread 
 through the streets. As she came to anchor the ship- 
 ping, wharves, and roofs of houses were crowded 
 with people anxious to see the steamship from 
 America. During her stay in Liverpool the Savan- 
 nah was visited by great crowds, and among them 
 were merchants and naval officers who made many 
 inquiries about her speed, destination, and other 
 particulars. She left on the 23d of July, ''getting 
 under way with Steam, and a large fleet of Vessels 
 in company." Touching at Copenhagen and Stock- 
 holm on her way to St. Petersburg, the Savannah 
 attracted much attention. At Stockholm she was 
 visited by the king, and also by "the i\merican 
 Minister and Lady and all the Furran Minersters 
 and their Ladyes." 
 
 At St. Petersburg she was visited by the Lord 
 High Admiral of the Russian navy and by other 
 distinguished officials, with whom she made an 
 
FIJ^Sl' TRAh^SATLANTIC STEAM VOYAGE, 327 
 
 excursion to Cronstadt. She sailed from St. Peters- 
 burg on her return to Savannah on the loth of Oc- 
 tober and reached her destination November 30th. 
 
 After her return it was not deemed advisable to 
 continue her as a steamship ; her engines and 
 boiler were removed and sold to the proprietors 
 of the Allaire Works, of New York, for $1,600. 
 The engine w^as used for other purposes for a good 
 many years, and at the time of the World's Fair 
 in New York (1856) the original cylinder of the 
 Savannah was on exhibition, and with it the log- 
 book of the ship. Before the removal of the 
 engines the Savannah was sent to Washington, as 
 appears from the log, but the government did not 
 buy her. She afterwards ran as a sailing packet 
 between New York and Savannah, and was ulti- 
 mately lost on the south side of Long Island, 
 where so many ships have laid their bones to rest. 
 
 Among the souvenirs of the voyage retained by the 
 descendants of the captain and sailing-master are 
 a gold snuff-box, presented to the latter by the Em- 
 peror of Russia, and a massive gold-lined tea-kettle, 
 whose story is told by the following inscription : 
 
 Presented to Captain Moses Rogers, of the 
 steamship Savannah (being the first steam vessel 
 that had crossed the Atlantic), by Sir Thomas Gra- 
 ham, Lord Lynedock, a passenger from Stockholm 
 to St. Petersburg, September 15, i8ig." 
 
 There is a popular tradition that on the day the 
 
328 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Steamship Savannah entered the harbor of Liver- 
 pool, a pamphlet was published by Dr. Lardner in 
 which that gentleman demonstrated the impossi- 
 bility of crossing the Atlantic with a steamship. 
 The London Nautical Magazine for March, 1837, 
 uses the following words : 
 
 The time is fast approaching when the famous 
 prophecy of the Rev. Dr. Dionysus Lardner, de- 
 livered in Dublin and re-delivered in Bristol, ' that 
 it is as easy to go to the moon as to go direct from 
 a port in England to New York,' will be tested." 
 Then follows an account of the efforts that the 
 rival companies, the Great Western and the British 
 and North American, were making to establish 
 steam navigation across the Atlantic. 
 
 In the Museum of Sciences and Arts," vol. x. 
 (1856), Dr. Lardner emphatically denied the use 
 of the language imputed to him. What I did 
 affirm in 1836-37," said he, ''was that the long sea 
 voyages by steam which were contemplated could 
 not at that time be maintained with the regularity 
 and certainty which are indispensable to commer- 
 cial success, by any revenue which could be expected 
 from the traffic alone, and that without a govern- 
 ment subsidy of a considerable amount such lines 
 of steamers, although they might be started, could 
 not be permanendy maintained." 
 
 Dr. Lardner was born in 1 793, and, conse- 
 quently, was but twenty-six years old at the time 
 
TRANSA TLA N TIC NA VIGA TION. 
 
 of the Savannah's voyage. He had graduated 
 from Trinity College, Dublin, two years before, 
 and was still a resident member of the university, 
 devoting his attention to mathematics. In 1828 
 he published Popular Lectures on the Steam-En- 
 gine,'' for which the Royal Society of Dublin gave 
 him a gold medal. In this volume he used the fol- 
 lowing words : 
 
 Among the various ways in which the steam- 
 engine has ministered to the social progress of our 
 race, none is more important and interesting than 
 the aid it has afforded to navigation. Before it 
 lent its giant powers to that art, locomotion over 
 the deep was attended with a degree of danger and 
 uncertainty, which seemed so necessary and so in- 
 evitable, that, as a common proverb, it became the 
 type and representative of every thing else which 
 was precarious and perilous. The application, 
 however, of steam to navigation, has rescued the 
 mariner from much of the peril of the winds and 
 waves ; and even in its actual state, apart from the 
 improvements it is still likely to receive, it has ren- 
 dered all voyages of moderate length as safe and 
 regular as journeys over land. 
 
 We are even now upon the brink of such im- 
 provements as will probably so extend the powers 
 of the steam-engine as to render it available as the 
 means of connecting the most distant points of the 
 earth." 
 
330 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 When we remember that this was written before 
 any ship propelled entirely by steam had crossed 
 the Atlantic, we should commend Dr. Lardner for 
 his prophetic vision, rather than censure him for 
 words which he declares most positively never to 
 have uttered. 
 
 In 1827 a company of merchants of Amsterdam 
 and Rotterdam united for the purpose of establish- 
 ing a steam line to the West Indies. They ordered 
 from a Scotch builder on the Clyde a steamer of 
 three hundred and fifty tons burthen and one hun- 
 dred horse-power, which they called the Curacoa. 
 She was despatched from Amsterdam in the sum- 
 mer of 1829 (another account says from Antwerp 
 in August, 1828) for Curacoa in the Dutch West 
 Indies. She made several voyages, but the enter- 
 prise was not commercially successful, and was 
 abandoned in 1830 or '31. This was the second 
 steamer to make the transatlantic voyage. 
 
 The third steamship to cross the Atlantic was the 
 Royal William, built at Quebec for the Quebec and 
 Halifax Steam Navigation Company. She was 
 towed to Montreal and fitted with side-lever ma- 
 rine engines built by Bennett & Henderson, and 
 soon after they were ready, she returned under 
 steam to Quebec and started on her voyage. 
 While steaming through the Gulf of St. Law- 
 rence, she was fired upon by one of the British 
 frigates, and was compelled to lie to until she 
 
EARLY STEAMERS ON THE ATLANTIC. 
 
 could be examined to show there was nothing 
 diabolical about her. She carried a few passen- 
 gers, but no cargo, as all her storage room was re- 
 quired for coal. She reached the Thames in safety, 
 and was there sold to the Spanish Government. She 
 was re-christened Isabella Second, and became the 
 first war steamer of the Spanish navy. 
 
 His Britannic Majesty's steamer Rhodamanthus 
 is said to have reached Barbadoes May 17, 1832, 
 from Portsmouth, England. Previous to her de- 
 parture the Portsmouth Herald said: ''We are 
 anxious to learn what may be the effect of the 
 climate on the engines, fittings, etc." 
 
 The above statement is from Admiral Preble's 
 record, and would indicate that the Rhodamanthus 
 was the fourth steam vessel to cross the Atlantic- 
 But as she was a war vessel, and not a commercial 
 steamer, we will leave her out of consideration, and 
 reofard the British steamer Sirius as entitled to the 
 fourth place on the list. The Sirius sailed from 
 Cork April 4, 1838, and arrived at New York on 
 the morning of April 23d. 
 
 The steamship Great Western sailed from Bris- 
 tol four days later than the Sirius, and reached New 
 York in the afternoon of the 23d of April, thus 
 making herself the fifth on the list. The Sirius 
 was of 700 tons and 2 5o-horse power, and the 
 Great Western of 1,340 tons and 450-horse power. 
 The latter was built expressly for the transatlantic 
 
332 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 service, while the Sirius was chartered by a com- 
 pany then engaged in building the British Queen, 
 which was intended to be the most wonderful craft 
 afloat. 
 
 The company which sent out the Sirius was or- 
 ganized by Dr. Junius Smith, an American, who 
 graduated at Yale College in 1802, and spent the 
 most of his life in London. Crossing the Atlantic 
 in 1832, he was fifty-four days from London to 
 New York, and thirty-two from New York to 
 Plymouth on his return. Writing to a friend in 
 New York under date of London, June 28, 1833, 
 he says : 
 
 Thirty-two days from New York to Plymouth 
 is no trifle. Any ordinary sea-going steamer 
 would have run it, with the weather we had, in fif- 
 teen days, with ease. I shall not relinquish the 
 project unless I finci it absolutely impracticable." 
 
 He introduced the subject to the merchants and 
 bankers of London, but did not receive much en- 
 couragement. Most of those to whom he talked 
 scouted the idea as visionary, and he further had 
 the opposition of all who were interested in sailing 
 ships, of every name and kind. He was ridiculed 
 as a dreamer, and more than one respectable man 
 of wealth suggested that his proper place was a 
 lunatic asylum. It was the story of Fulton over 
 again, and the story of many an inventor in 
 England and America. 
 
EARLY STEAMERS ON THE ATLANTIC. 333 
 
 Dr. Smith issued a prospectus proposing a 
 capital of one hundred thousand pounds sterHng 
 for building ships of one thousand tons each. No 
 one was inclined to invest, and then he issued a 
 second, and afterwards a third prospectus, calling 
 for more money, and proposing larger ships. The 
 third prospectus called for a million pounds, and 
 proposed ships of two thousand tons. He accom- 
 panied his proposal by a careful calculation based 
 upon known facts in the commerce of the two 
 countries that were to be united by the new mode 
 of navigating the ocean. 
 
 As a last resort, he borrowed the use of the 
 names of influential gentlemen to serve as di- 
 rectors, a plan not unknown at the present time, 
 and in this way floated his company into existence. 
 In July, 1836, he opened the subscription books 
 of the company. The stock was subscribed, and 
 as soon as enough had been allotted for building 
 a steamer, the contract was made for the first ves- 
 sel. Curling & Young, of Blackwall, were the 
 contractors, and the ship is thus described in a let- 
 ter from Dr. Smith to a New York correspondent : 
 
 " I have the pleasure to inform you that the directors 
 of the ' British and American Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany ' have contracted for the building of the largest, and 
 intended to be the most splendid, steamship ever built, ex-^ 
 pressly for the New York and London trade. She will 
 measure one thousand seven hundred tons, two hundred 
 feet keel, forty feet beam, three decks, and every thing in 
 
334 
 
 ROBER T FULTON. 
 
 proportion. She will carry two engines, of 225-horse power 
 each, 76-inch cylinder, and nine-feet stroke. The expense 
 of this steam frigate is estimated at ^60,000. These large 
 undertakings require time to mature, but I think the busi- 
 ness will at last be done effectually." 
 
 The contract for the engines was taken by a 
 Glasgow firm, Claude, Girdwood, & Co., that 
 failed when the work was about two thirds corn- 
 completed. A new contract was made with 
 Robert Napier, of Glasgow, and the plans were 
 changed, so as to make the steamer of 2,400 tons. 
 The failure and bankruptcy of the engine-makers 
 and the changes in the plans for the ship caused a 
 year's delay. The Great Western Steamship 
 Company, a rival concern, had arisen and built the 
 steamer Great Western, and for fear of losing the 
 prestige of being the first to cross the Atlantic, 
 the British and North American Company char- 
 tered the Sirius and sent her on the voyage al- 
 ready mentioned before their own steamer was 
 ready for the water. 
 
 The new steamer was the British Queen. She 
 started on her first voyage in July, 1839, made 
 the passage from London to New York in fourteen 
 and a half days, without accident or detention. 
 Both the Great Western and the British Queen 
 were followed by other steamers of their respective 
 companies, and thus was fairly inaugurated the 
 
 steam bridge over the Atlantic." 
 
PROSPECTUS, 
 
 335 
 
 We will close this chapter with the final pros- 
 pectus of the British and American Steam Navi- 
 gation Company, issued during the summer of 
 1838. Considered in its relations to the immense 
 business of transatlantic navigation, the paper 
 possesses much interest. 
 
 ^' British and American Steam Navigation Company. 
 "Capital, ^i, 000,000, in 10,000 Shares of ;^ioo Each. 
 
 " DIRECTORS : 
 
 Henry Bainbridge, Esq., Chairman. 
 " Chas. Enderby, Esq. Col. Aspinwall, U. S. Consul. 
 
 Capt. Thomas Larkins. Junius Smith, Esq. 
 " Capt. Robert Locke. Jos. Robinson Pirn, Esq., 
 
 [Liverpool. 
 
 Capt. Robl. Isaacke. Jas. Beale, Esq., Cork. 
 
 Paul Twigg, Esq., Dublin. 
 Bankers — Messrs. Puget, Bainbridge & Co., 12 St. 
 Paul's Churchyard. 
 
 Secretary — Macgregor Laird, Esq. 
 
 The object of this company is to establish a regular 
 and certain communication by steamship between Great 
 Britain and the United States. The vessels are intended 
 to depart alternately from London and Liverpool to New 
 York ; their average passage will not exceed fifteen days. 
 The company's first vessel, the British Queen, has capaci- 
 ty for five hundred passengers, twenty-five days' fuel, and 
 eighty tons measurement goods, exclusive of provisions, 
 stores, etc. 
 
 The successful voyages of ' Sirius ' and ^ Great Western ' 
 steamships having placed the success of the undertaking 
 beyond a doubt, the directors are now preparing contracts 
 
336 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 for other vessels of similar description to the ^ British 
 Queen/ and will be able in 1839 despatch their vessels 
 for New York on the 1st and i6th of each month from 
 London and Liverpool alternately. 
 
 Applications for shares may be made to Macgregor 
 Laird, Esq., at the company's office, 78 Cornhill ; to Bux- 
 endale, Tathem, Upton, and Johnston, 7 Great Man- 
 chester Street, London ; to Isaac Miller, Esq., Liverpool; 
 and to Boyle, Low, Pain, & Co., Duane Street, Dublin.'* 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 How the Great Western Steamship Company was organized — Samuel Cunard 
 and his enterprises — The Cunard Company — Cutting out the Britannia 
 — Iron taking the place of wood for ship-building — Adoption of the 
 screw — Growth of steamers — Umbria and Etruria compared with Britan- 
 nia — Steamers never heard from — American steamship lines. 
 
 THE Sirius made two voyages to America and 
 was then hauled off and put into other em- 
 ployment. The Great Western ran regularly be- 
 tween Bristol and New York for eight years, when 
 she was sold to the West India Royal Mail Steam- 
 Packet Company, and continued in its service until 
 1856. She was broken up in 1857 at Vauxhall, as 
 she could not then compete favorably with the 
 new class of steamships. 
 
 The Great Western Steamship Company, of 
 which the initial ship bore the name, is said to 
 have been organized at the suggestion of Mr. 
 Brunei, the famous engineer who built the tunnel 
 under the Thames. At a meeting of the directors 
 of the Great Western Railway Company, one of 
 those officials spoke of the great length of the pro- 
 posed line from London to Bristol. Brunei re- 
 marked : Why not make it longer, and have a 
 
338 
 
 KOBERT FULTON, 
 
 Steamboat to go from Bristol to New York and 
 call it the Great Western ? " 
 
 Brunei's suggestion was at first regarded as 
 a joke, but after reflection some of the directors 
 took it in sober earnest. The idea grew as they 
 pondered on it ; the British and American Steam- 
 ship Company was getting into shape and it was 
 thought a good scheme to enter the same field. A 
 committee was appointed to visit the great ship- 
 building ports in the kingdom and collect informa- 
 tion. In the report of this committee Mr. Brunei 
 suggested that the larger the steamer the greater 
 would be its carrying capacity in proportion to the 
 expense of running her. According to his figures 
 a vessel twice the size of another would encounter 
 four times the resistance at a given speed but 
 would have eight times the carrying capacity. On 
 this principle the Great Western " was built, and 
 the same idea was carried out in the construction of 
 the British Queen belonging to the rival company. 
 
 The Great Western was launched July 19, 1837. 
 The following are her dimensions, which the non- 
 nautical reader may skip : 
 
 Length between perpendiculars, 212 feet ; length of 
 keel on the blocks, 205 feet; length of saloon, 75 feet; 
 length over all, from figure-head to taffrail, 235 feet; 
 breadth between paddle-wheels, 34 feet 4 inches ; depth 
 under deck to the top of floors, 23 feet 3 inches ; scantling 
 floors on side of keel, 15 inches, sided ; ditto, moulded, 16 
 
THE GREA T WESTERN STEAMSHIP, 
 
 339 
 
 inches ; length of floors, 24 feet ; thickness of bends, 7 
 inches ; bottom plank, 5 inches ; diagonal riders, 5 inches, 
 3 feet apart ; sheer streaks, 5 inches ; upper-deck clamps, 
 8 inches; iron diagonals, 4 inches by f ; bilge planks, 6 
 inches; keelson, 20 by 21 inches. 
 
 '^Tonnage, 1,320 tons; best berths, 150; berths for 
 crew, 26 ; berths for engineers, firemen, and officers, 40 ; 
 two engines, by Maudsley & Field, 400-horse power, 200 
 each ; diameter of cylinder inches ; length of stroke, 
 7 feet ; coal stowage, 600 tons, or enough for thirty tons 
 per day for twenty days. 
 
 HerAvhole cost amounted to about ^50,000; ^21,373 
 15^. \od. was expended for ship-building, ^13,500 for en- 
 gines, about ^1,000 for furniture, painting, bedding, and 
 fittings generally for the grand saloon, and the remainder 
 for rigging, equipment, coal, and stores." 
 
 The foregoing description is from the New York 
 Express of April 24, 1838. The same paper says : 
 
 " The * Sirus ' is a beautiful model, 700 tons, 320-horse 
 power, schooner-rigged. Notwithstanding rough weather 
 she came over with perfect safety. Passengers w^ere de- 
 lighted with her performance. Her boilers were supplied 
 with fresh water by a distilling apparatus which converted 
 the salt into fresh water. The distilling worms (small 
 copper tubes) measured, as reported, nearly four miles ! " 
 
 The two companies that estabHshed transatlantic 
 navigation were not to have the field to themselves. 
 A Liverpool merchant, Sir John Tobin, built a 
 steamer called the Liverpool, and despatched her 
 for New York on October 20, 1838. She put 
 back to Cork on the 26th of the same month, and 
 
340 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 sailed again on the 6th of November. She made 
 the voyage in sixteen and a half days, reaching 
 New York November 23d. The Liverpool was 
 originally of 1,150 tons, but she was afterwards in- 
 creased to 1,543 tons. She made six voyages to 
 New York and back, and was then transferred to 
 the Peninsular and Oriental Company, in whose 
 service she was wrecked in 1846 off Cape Finis- 
 terre. After her increase in length and tonnage 
 she was called the Great Liverpool. Her speed 
 was never equal to that of the Great Western, 
 which once made the voyage from New York to 
 Liverpool in twelve and a half days. 
 
 The earliest of the transatlantic lines now in ex- 
 istence was also one of the earliest that was formed 
 at all. Samuel Cunard, a merchant of Halifax, had 
 a line of sailing packets between that port and Eng- 
 land ; they were not famous for speed, and the en- 
 terprising Cunard thought and dreamed of repla- 
 cing them by steamers. In 1838 he went to Eng- 
 land with the viev/ of carrying out his plans, and 
 obtained an introduction to David Napier, the cele- 
 brated marine engineer. Cunard gave an order for 
 the building of four steamers of 800 tons each ; 
 Napier recommended larger ships, and it was 
 finally agreed to make them of about 1,200 tons 
 burthen and 440-horse power. But this required 
 more money than Cunard could command at the 
 time, and he decided to form a company. 
 
THE CUNARD COMPANY. 
 
 There had formerly been two rival lines of coast- 
 ing steamers between Liverpool and Glasgow, one 
 owned by the Messrs. Maclver of Liverpool, and 
 the other by Messrs. Burns of Glasgow. After 
 years of keen competition these firms were amalga- 
 mated, and the combined concern was very pros- 
 perous when Cunard appeared with his proposal to 
 form a steamship company for navigating the At- 
 lantic. Burns & Maclver ''caught on " at once, 
 and in 1839 the ''British and North American 
 Royal Mail Steam-Packet Company" was formed. 
 The time of an ordinary citizen is too brief for the 
 frequent pronunciation of the foregoing title in full, 
 so custom has abbreviated it to " Cunard Line," by 
 which it is universally known. Samuel Cunard may 
 be considered the father of the line which bears his 
 name and has been in steady operation since 1840. 
 
 About the time of the formation of the company 
 the British Government advertised for tenders for 
 carrying the mails by steam from England to Hali- 
 fax. The Cunard Company obtained the contract 
 for a fortnightly service each way between Liver- 
 pool and Halifax, Boston, and Quebec ; the contract 
 was to run for seven years, at ^60,000 a year. 
 The original plan had been to run between Liver- 
 pool and Halifax, and send a branch steamer to 
 Boston, but in making the contract the plans were 
 changed, and the latter city was made the western 
 terminus of the line. The keels of the four 
 
342 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Steamers then on the stocks were broken up, and 
 new steamers of larger size were put into construc- 
 tion. The first four ships of the Cunard line were 
 the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia, and Columbia. 
 The Britannia sailed from Liverpool July 4, 1840, 
 and reached Boston on the 1 8th of the same month, 
 fourteen days and eight hours between the two 
 ports. 
 
 The Britannia was not, however, the pioneer ship 
 of the Cunard Company in its transatlantic enter- 
 prise. The chartered steamer Unicorn was sent 
 from Liverpool May 15, 1840, with orders to 
 visit Halifax and proceed to Boston. She had 
 twenty-seven cabin passengers for the former place 
 and twenty-four for the latter, and brought Paris 
 papers of the 13th of May, of London the 15th, 
 and of Liverpool the i6th. 
 
 Boston went wild on the 2d of June over the ar- 
 rival of the Unicorn, and she repeated the perform- 
 ance on the day the Britannia came in sight of 
 Long Wharf and the crowds that covered it. Mr. 
 Cunard was a passenger by the Britannia, and re- 
 ceived eighteen hundred invitations to dinner 
 within twenty-four hours after he arrived ! The 
 cannon of the forts and of the war-ships in the har- 
 bor thundered a welcome, there was a notable 
 gathering in Fanueil Hall, fireworks were let off in 
 the evening, and the entire city was in a blaze of 
 glory. 
 
CUTTING OUT THE BRITANNIA, 
 
 343 
 
 The Acadia arrived on the 1 7th of August, 
 twelve days and eighteen hours from Liverpool. 
 Three days after her arrival the event was cele- 
 brated by a public banquet at which Hon. Josiah 
 Quincy presided. Before the end of 1840 all four 
 .ships were running regularly between Boston and 
 Liverpool, touching at Halifax each way, and for 
 seven years the terms of the contract were per- 
 formed to the satisfaction of the British Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 There was not the best of feeling between Bos- 
 ton and New York in regard to the transatlantic 
 service, envious inhabitants of the latter village 
 having predicted that the harbor of Boston would 
 freeze in winter and imprison such of the Cunarders 
 as might be there at the time. Three years passed 
 without any accident of this kind, but in February, 
 1844, the Ice King made his appearance, and the 
 whole harbor was frozen over. The people had a 
 good time on the ice ; skaters and sleighing parties 
 were out in large numbers ; booths were established 
 for the sale of refreshments of solid and liquid 
 nature, and the scene was a pleasing one to the 
 multitude. But the agent of the Cunard Line was 
 in dismay, as the Britannia was at her dock and her 
 sailing day was approaching. Unless she could 
 get out at the appointed time the contract would 
 be broken and serious consequences might follow. 
 
 The pride of Boston was roused as the prophecy 
 
344 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 of New York seemed about to be verified, and the 
 enterprising merchants in sight of Bunker Hill 
 Monument determined that something must be 
 done. They met one day and resolved to cut a 
 channel for the steamer. The contract for the job 
 was taken by an ice-cutting firm of Boston, who 
 agreed to open the way for the steamer for ten 
 thousand dollars. A channel one hundred feet 
 wide and nearly nine miles long was made through 
 the ice, and at her appointed day and hour the 
 Britannia steamed away on her regular voyage. 
 The job was completed only one hour before the 
 sailing-time of the ship. Since that time ice-boats 
 have been employed to prevent the possibility of 
 another mail-steamer being in a similar predica- 
 ment. Whenever there is any likelihood that the 
 harbor will be frozen, ice-boats and the numerous 
 tugs belonging to the port are set in motion, and 
 the ice is broken up. 
 
 At the expiration of the first contract for a fort- 
 nightly service each way a new contract was made. 
 The service was increased to a weekly one and New 
 York and Boston were made the ports of departure 
 on alternate Wednesdays. The amount of the 
 subsidy was greatly increased and the company 
 was required to build larger and faster steamers. 
 
 The four steamers with which the Cunard Com- 
 pany began its service in 1840 were of about 1,20c 
 tons burthen and 500-horse power each. As add* 
 
IRON TAKING THE PLACE OF WOOD, 345 
 
 tions were made to the fleet the size and power of 
 the steamers were increased, and this has been the 
 case with nearly every addition to the Hne. The 
 fifth steamer was the Hibernia, 1,400 tons, 550- 
 horse power ; then followed the Cambria of the 
 same measurement ; then the America, Canada, 
 Niagara, and Europa, each 1,800 tons and 700- 
 horse power ; and then the Asia and Africa, each 
 2,250 tons and 800-horse power. All these were 
 paddle steamers ; the six largest of them varied in 
 length from 275 to 300 feet, and their beams were 
 from 40 to 42 feet. The paddle-wheels were from 
 32 to 36 feet in diameter ; the cylinders were 90 
 inches in diameter, and the length of stroke was 
 from 8 to 9 feet. 
 
 Down to 1852 the Cunard fleet consisted entirely 
 of wooden paddle-ships, but in that year the iron 
 ships Andes and Alps were added. They had 
 screw engines instead of paddles, and were followed 
 by the Jura and Etna, both iron screws. 
 
 We will leave for a time the Cunard Company 
 and trace the history of the iron screw steamship. 
 The screw was tried by many persons in the early 
 days of steam navigation, and one experiment at 
 least — that of John Fitch in the Collect Pond, New 
 York — belongs to the last century. The credit of 
 the successful application of the screw to marine 
 propulsion and its consequent adoption belongs to 
 Captain John Ericsson and to the year 1836, though 
 
346 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 it did hot come into general favor for more than a 
 decade after that time. 
 
 Captain Ericsson s patent was granted in Eng- 
 land July 13, 1836. The captain experimented 
 with a model boat in a bath tub, the engine being 
 supplied with steam by a flexible pipe leading from 
 a steam-boiler over the centre of the tub. The 
 boat moved in a circular direction, in accordance 
 with the set " of the rudder, at the rate of three 
 miles an hour. 
 
 Kis next trial was with a boat 45 feet long, 8 feet 
 beam, and 3 feet draft, and named the Francis B. 
 Ogden," in honor of the American consul to Liver- 
 pool, who had encouraged his efforts in devising 
 this new mode of propulsion. It had two propel- 
 lers, each five feet in diameter, and attained a 
 speed of ten miles an hour upon the Thames, in 
 April, 1837. Afterwards she towed schooners of 
 140 tons seven miles an hour, and a ship of 650 
 tons five miles an hour. The invention was laid be- 
 fore the British Admiralty and rejected as impracti- 
 cable, all the naval engineers pronouncing against it. 
 
 Capt. R. F. Stockton, of the U. S. Navy, was 
 then in England, and on seeing the boat of Erics- 
 son and making a trial trip with it, was convinced 
 of its practicability. I do not want," said he, 
 ''the opinions of scientific men ; what I have seen this 
 day satisfies me." He ordered on his own account 
 two iron boats with screws for the navigation of the 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCREW, 
 
 347 
 
 Delaware, and immediately brought the matter be- 
 fore his government. 
 
 The first of the two boats was named the Robert 
 F. Stockton, and was about 70 feet long, with 10 
 feet beam. She came to the United States, under 
 sail, in April, 1839 I ^ special act of Congress was 
 passed to allow her to run in American waters, and 
 her name was changed to New Jersey. She may 
 be regarded as the first screw steamer ever practi- 
 cally used in the United States, though not the 
 first that had been tried. She remained in service 
 several years and was the only steamboat capable 
 of towing through drift ice. 
 
 Captain Stockton's influence was sufficient to 
 induce the United State Government to try the ex- 
 periment of the screw for propelling ships of war, 
 and in 1843 orders were given for the construction 
 of the Princeton, the first screw-propelled war 
 steamer the world ever saw. Ericsson designed 
 the engines and machinery so that every thing was 
 below the water-line and out of the reach of shot, 
 and the furnaces were made for anthracite instead 
 of bituminous coal. The funnels were telescopic, 
 and consequently the ship could have all the ap- 
 pearance of a sailing vessel when the engines were 
 not in use. 
 
 The Princeton was a second-rate sloop-of-war, 
 164 feet long and 30 feet beam. She carried two 
 225-pound wrought-iron guns and twelve 42-pound 
 
348 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 carronades, and was considered in her day a most 
 efficient ship. Shortly after going into commission 
 she raced with the steamship Great Western as the 
 latter was leaving for a transatlantic trip. She 
 easily passed the Great Western, steamed around 
 her, and passed her again before the latter was wil- 
 ling to acknowledge defeat. The captain of the 
 Great Western was aware of the intended trial of 
 speed, and exerted his ship to her fullest power, 
 but to no purpose. 
 
 Not long after the successful trial of the Prince- 
 ton, the English and French governments roused 
 themselves to the advantages which the new style 
 of ship possessed. The English Government 
 brought out the Rattler and the French the Po- 
 mone — their first screw war-steamers, — and both 
 governments ordered some of their old sailing 
 ships to be fitted with screws. The Rattler was 
 originally designed for a paddle steamer, but was 
 changed to a screw soon after her keel had been 
 laid. 
 
 Previous to making their determination concern- 
 ing the Rattler, the Admiralty experimented with a 
 screw steamer — the Archimedes, — which was built 
 at government expense, but was not armed for na- 
 val service. The screw that propelled her was the 
 invention of Francis P. Smith, whose patent was 
 taken out in the same year as that of Ericsson, and 
 who built an experimental boat about the same 
 
ADOPTION OF THE SCREW. 
 
 349 
 
 time. Smith obtained the speed of his screw by 
 means of gearing, while Ericsson coupled the en- 
 gine immediately to the 
 propeller. 
 
 Inventors have busied 
 themselves in improv- 
 ing the form of the 
 screw, and the varieties 
 in use are numerous. 
 The number of blades 
 or arms varies from two 
 to five or six. Probably 
 there are more four- 
 bladed screws than of 
 any other form, and 
 these are mostly in the 
 merchant service. On 
 
 Hodgson's Screw Propeller. 
 
 naval vessels the two-bladed screw is more frequent 
 than any other, as this form al- 
 lows the screw to be lifted out of 
 water and suspended in a w^ell " 
 at the stern of the ship, when it 
 is desired to make use only of 
 the sails. 
 
 The ''pitch" is the distance 
 that the screw would advance 
 in making a complete revolution 
 in a solid substance ; the ''thread" 
 is the distance along the edge of the blade ; the 
 
 Ordinary Form of Screw 
 Propeller, 
 
350 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 ''angle" is the inclination of the thread of the 
 screw to the horizon; the *'area" is the surface 
 of the blade ; ''length " is the fraction of the pitch 
 that is used ; "diameter'' is the perpendicular dis- 
 tance between the extreme outside points of two 
 blades opposite each other. 
 
 In perfectly smooth water and with just the 
 proper immersion of a vessel, the advantages of 
 the screw and paddle are about equal, but in rough 
 water, where the paddles have a constantly vary- 
 ing immersion, it is apparent that the screw is su- 
 perior. So also when the ship is lightened or 
 deepened, the paddle will be too deeply buried or 
 raised too much out of the water, which is not the 
 case with the screw. For inland navigation in 
 shallow water the paddle-wheel still holds the first 
 place, but the screw has completely driven the pad- 
 dle from the ocean. Taking into consideration all 
 the conditions of a transatlantic voyage, of rough 
 weather, where the paddles are alternately buried 
 in water or whirling in the air ; of head winds, 
 where the paddle-boxes present a large resisting 
 surface ; and the greater capacity of a screw steamer 
 for freight, it was found that the expense of a pad- 
 dle steamer was nearly twice as much as that of a 
 screw steamer of the same capacity crossing the 
 ocean in the same time. The first successful trans- 
 atlantic voyage of a screw-propelled vessel was the 
 doom of the ocean paddle steamer. 
 
IRON STEAMERS, 
 
 Though not altogether confined to steam navi- 
 gation in the advantages it presented, the invention 
 of the iron ship marked an important step in ad- 
 vance. It was made quite early in the history of 
 steam navigation, as a steamboat called the Cale- 
 donia was built of iron in Dundee in 18 18, to run 
 on the river between that city and Perth. Two 
 years later an iron steamboat, the Aaron Manby, 
 was built in sections at the Horsley Iron Works and 
 put together in London. She went direct from 
 that city to Paris, and was the first steam vessel 
 to make that voyage. She was broken up in 1855, 
 after being steadily in service for thirty-five years. 
 
 Iron steamboats followed with considerable 
 rapidity. The names of the earliest iron steam- 
 ships in the transatlantic and other ocean traffic 
 are mentioned elsewhere. 
 
 The most energetic builder of iron steamers in 
 the early days was William Fairbairn, of Glasgow. 
 In 1830 and 1831 he built three iron vessels for the 
 trade between Liverpool and Glasgow, and in the 
 succeeding four years he built several iron steam- 
 boats and steamships intended for different routes. 
 He then became associated with the Lairds of 
 Birkenhead, and between 1835 and 1848 the firm 
 had constructed upwards of one hundred first-class 
 ships. Their example was contagious, and the use 
 of iron in place of wood became general through- 
 out the British Isles. 
 
3S2 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Though more expensive than wood in ship-build- 
 ing, it is found that iron is cheaper in the end, as 
 an iron steamship, barring wrecking, colHsions, etc., 
 will last three times as long as one of wood, and 
 have greater carrying capacity in proportion to her 
 weight and displacement. In the last ten years 
 steel has encroached upon iron and threatens to 
 drive it out of the ship-building field. A steel ship 
 weighs from ten to twenty-five per cent, less than 
 an iron ship of the same displacement and speed, 
 and consequently furnishes so much more space for 
 the stowage of cargo. 
 
 We will now return to the history of the 
 Cunarders. 
 
 In 1 855, stimulated by American competition, the 
 company had its first iron paddle steamer, the Persia 
 which was 390 feet long, 45 feet broad on the hull, 
 and 71 feet across the paddle-boxes. Her measure- 
 ment was 1,200 tons more than that of any existing 
 Cunarder of the time, and her owners claimed that 
 she was by far the finest ship that had ever floated. 
 She was built with seven water-tight compartments, 
 and great stress was laid upon the advantages of this 
 novel mode of construction. Its novelty is less ap- 
 parent to those who have read the travels of Marco 
 Polo and learned that the people of Cathay built their 
 ships after this fashion six centuries ago.^ 
 
 * " The Travels of Marco Polo," pages 409, 418, 419, published by G. P. 
 Putnam's Sons, New York, 
 
THE CUNARDERS. 
 
 353 
 
 In 1862 appeared the Scotia, which was to the 
 Persia and her compeers what the latter had been 
 to the Britannia and Acadia. She was of iron and 
 with paddles like the Persia, but was more splendid 
 in her fittings and of greater dimensions. Wood 
 as a material for ship-building was abandoned by 
 the Cunard Company, and iron took its place, to 
 be followed in its turn by steel. The Scotia was 
 notable as being the last paddle steamer of the 
 Cunard line. She was retired in the height of her 
 popularity on account of the excessive cost of run- 
 ning her in comparison with a screw steamer of 
 equal capacity. She was sold, and for a long 
 time lay neglected at Birkenhead, opposite Liver- 
 pool. In 1879 she was bought by the British Tele- 
 graph Construction and Maintenance Company. 
 Her paddle engines were removed, and she was 
 fitted with twin-screw engines and sent to Asiatic 
 waters. 
 
 The service of the Cunard Company includes the 
 lines between Liverpool and Boston and Liverpool 
 and New York, the latter employing the largest 
 and newest of the company's ships. Both these 
 lines are weekly each way throughout the year. 
 In summer the New York and Liverpool service 
 is semi-weekly each way. Then there is a line 
 from Liverpool to all the principal ports of the 
 Mediterranean ; there are lines connecting Liver- 
 pool with most of the ports of the United King- 
 
354 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 dom ; steamers carrying the mails between Hali- 
 fax, Bermuda, and St. Thomas ; and other steam- 
 ers at work in various parts of the world. Since 
 its beginning to the present time the Cunard Com- 
 pany has built and owned more than one hundred 
 and fifty steamships, and has had fifty ships in ser- 
 vice at one time. 
 
 Note the growth in size and carrying capacity of 
 the Cunard steamships. The Britannia measured 
 1,139 toi^s, and could carry 225 tons of cargo. The 
 Bothnia, built in 1874, measured 4,335 tons, and 
 could carry 3,000 tons of cargo — fourteen times 
 the carrying capacity, with only four times the 
 measurement. The Britannia steamed knots 
 an hour and the Bothnia 13 knots, with less than 
 half the amount of coal per indicated horse-power, 
 and about the same quantity of coal for the dis- 
 tance run. The Persia burned six tons of coal to 
 carry one ton of freight across the Atlantic, while 
 the steamers of to-day will carry five tons of freight 
 for each ton of coal consumed. 
 
 But we have not space nor speed to follow 
 the history of all the steamers of the Cunard 
 or any other line. With a single bound we 
 will come down to the Umbria and Etruria 
 — the latest additions to the fleet — and the reader 
 will please make his own comparisons between 
 these ocean giants and the pigmies Britannia and 
 Acadia. 
 
THE CUNARDERS. 
 
 355 
 
 The Umbria and Etruria are sister ships, built 
 upon the same plans, and therefore a description 
 of one will answer for both. 
 
 The dimensions of the Etruria are : 
 Length overall, 5 20 feet ; breadth (extreme), 57 
 feet 3 inches ; depth to upper deck, 41 feet, and to 
 promenade deck, 49 feet, with a gross tonnage of 
 about 8,000 tons. She is entirely built of steel 
 throughout, and is divided into ten water-tight 
 compartments, most of the bulkheads being car- 
 ried up to the upper deck and fitted with water- 
 proof doors, giving access from one part of the 
 ship to the other. By this arrangement the dan- 
 ger of fire spreading, should it break out in any 
 division of the ship, is removed as far as possible, 
 and greater safety is obtained by being able to 
 isolate any department for sanitary purposes, or in 
 case of damage to the hull and the compartment 
 being flooded.' 
 
 The dining saloon is 76 feet long, extending 
 the full breadth of the vessel, the height from beam 
 to beam being 9 feet. The saloon is arranged 
 with a large cupola skylight, fitted on the prome- 
 nade deck, the total height from the saloon floor at 
 the cupola being over 20 feet. Altogether, accom- 
 modation can be provided for 720 first-class pas- 
 sengers, the largest number of which are arranged 
 for two-berth staterooms only, and replete with all 
 fittings usual in the highest class of passenger 
 
356 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Steamers, a number of the rooms being fitted e7i 
 suite for family use. The greatest care has been 
 taken in the Hghting, ventilation, and sanitary ar- 
 rangements throughout. The vessel is fitted with 
 three masts, full bark-rigged. 
 
 " The boilers are of steel, like all the rest of the 
 vessel, the hull, the crank shaft, and the more vital 
 parts of the engine. Compressed steel was used, 
 and in the course of the construction the close- 
 ness of the grain and the total absence of the least 
 indication of a flaw were remarked by the many 
 engineers who visited the works during their con- 
 struction. The boilers are all ''double-ended" — 
 that is, they are provided w^ith a set of furnaces at 
 each end. The flame passes to a chamber in the 
 centre, returns through the tubes, and thence to 
 the funnel. As steamers have increased in size 
 and speed the boiler has grown, but it has grown 
 in circumference, not in length. A stranger to the 
 necessities and objects of the structure would think 
 it disproportionate, but experience has shown that 
 a large steam space in the boiler is the best reser- 
 voir of power, and a sure preventive of priming. 
 The engines are the most powerful in the world. 
 They are compound, and indicate upwards of 
 14,000-horse power. The three inverted cylinders 
 each connect directly with the built crank below. 
 The centre high-pressure cylinder is 71 inches in di- 
 ameter, the two low pressure are each 105 inches. 
 
THE CUNARDERS, 
 
 357 
 
 They have a six-feet stroke, and turn a screw of 
 manganese bronze of equal deHcacy, strength, and 
 accuracy of pitch. The quaHties of manganese 
 bronze, combined with the development in practice 
 of the true proportions of the screw propeller, are 
 computed to add upwards of a knot per hour to 
 the performance of the old-fashioned cast-iron 
 blades." 
 
 Before taking her place on the line, the Etruria 
 made an experimental cruise around Ireland, run- 
 ning the entire distance of 805 knots in 46 hours ; 
 in one part of this trip she ran at the rate of 24 
 statute miles an hour. She was placed in service 
 between Liverpool and New York in May, 
 1885, and during the summer made the following 
 record : 
 
 WESTWARD. 
 
 D. H. M. 
 
 May, 1885, 7, 2, 8 
 
 June, 1885, 6, 22, 33 
 
 July, 1885, 6, 14, 14 
 
 August, 1885, 6, 5, 44 
 
 EASTWARD. 
 
 
 
 D. 
 
 H. 
 
 M. 
 
 May, 
 
 1885, 
 
 6, 
 
 12, 
 
 39 
 
 June, 
 
 1885, 
 
 6, 
 
 
 14 
 
 July, 
 
 1885, 
 
 6, 
 
 14, 
 
 6 
 
 August, 
 
 1885, 
 
 6, 
 
 9, 
 
 10 
 
 Sept., 
 
 1885, 
 
 6, 
 
 7, 
 
 30 
 
 Her westward trip in August, 1885, was the 
 best time made by any ocean steamship up to that 
 date, the best previous record having been made 
 by the Cunard steamship Oregon, in 6 days, 10 
 hours, and 4 minutes. 
 
358 
 
 ROBERT FULTOiV. 
 
 The Etruria's " first day's running, counting 
 from 2:26 P.M. till the following noon, was 424 
 knots, followed by 464, 450, 465, 464, 464, and 70 
 from noon to 3:35 p.m. on the day of her arrival. 
 
 The distance which she travelled shows that the 
 Etruria maintained a speed of 21^ miles per hour 
 continuous steaming for the entire voyage. 
 
 The best single day's run was made by the 
 Etruria on her second voyage to the westward, 
 on which occasion she steamed 481 nautical miles, 
 which is equal to 557 statute miles, and required 
 a speed of over 23 miles per hour. To accomplish 
 this speed, the Etruria and Umbria are said to 
 burn from 300 to 350 tons of coal every 24 hours. 
 
 The substitution of steel for iron in the building 
 of steamers is a very great advantage. Each of 
 the new ships of the Cunard line weighs six hun- 
 dred tons less than if built equally strong of iron 
 and with the same power and displacement. Conse- 
 quently she has just so much more carrying capacity, 
 and it is claimed that a ship of steel is less liable to 
 injury in certain accidents than one of iron or wood. 
 Not only the plates but the rivets are of steel, and 
 all plates and rivets are carefully tested before use. 
 
 In 1859 Lord Palmerston recommended a baron- 
 etcy for Mr. Samuel Cunard, which w^as granted by 
 the Queen. Sir Samuel left his business and title to 
 his son Edward, who died in 1 869, leaving the title to 
 his son, Sir Bache Edward Cunard. Down to 1878 
 
TRANSA TLANTIC NA VIGA TION, 
 
 359 
 
 the business was conducted as a partnership, but in 
 that year it was merged into a Hmited HabiUty com- 
 pany in which the old partners had a very large 
 share. For many years after its inception in 1840 
 the Cunard line received a heavy subsidy from the 
 British Government for the transportation of the 
 mails, but latterly its subsidies have been less re- 
 munerative. At one time it received from this 
 source nearly a million dollars annually. 
 
 About 8,000 ofificers, sailors, stokers, and others 
 are constantly employed on the ships of the Cunard 
 Company, and 4,000 more on shore, at the docks, 
 machine-shops, warehouses, and offices, or 12,000 
 in all. In a speech made at the launching of the 
 Etruria, Mr. John Burns, a director of the com- 
 pany, said that during the previous year their ships 
 had run the equivalent of six times the distance 
 from the earth to the moon. Another speaker on 
 the same occasion said the ships had carried in one 
 direction in the year just closing no less than sev- 
 enteen million letters and not a mail-bag had been 
 lost or misplaced. 
 
 We will now leave the Cunarders and return to 
 the early days of transatlantic navigation by steam. 
 
 The Great Britain was the immediate successor 
 of the Great Western ; her keel was laid at Bristol 
 in 1839 she was launched in 1843. She was 
 originally intended for a paddle steamer, but owing 
 to difficulty in finding a contractor to make the 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 shafts she was changed to a propeller. By a ludi- 
 crous blunder she did not leave the Cumberland 
 docks at Bristol for more than a year after being 
 launched, as she was broader than the docks and 
 unable to move until they were widened. She was 
 released in December, 1844, and early in the follow- 
 ing year steamed around to London to receive her 
 cargo for New York. 
 
 The Great Britain was 322 feet long, 51 feet 
 beam, measured 3,448 tons (old measurement), was 
 built of iron, and had a propeller 15 feet in diame- 
 ter. Her engines were of 500-horse power, nomi- 
 nal, and she was divided into six compartments ; she 
 was notable for being one of the first ocean steam- 
 ers of iron and propelled by a screw, and on one 
 occasion at least her compartments saved her from 
 being a total loss. She ran for several years 
 between England and New York, was a trans- 
 port in government service during the Crimean 
 War, afterwards ran to Australia as a passenger 
 steamer, and in 1881 was sold to be converted into 
 a sailing ship. 
 
 Another of the early steamers was the President, 
 launched in 1839, sailed on her first trip to New 
 York in August, 1840. In April, 1841, she sailed 
 from New York and was never heard from after- 
 wards, nor was any trace of her wreck ever discov- 
 ered. She was the first transatlantic steamer to 
 disappear at sea ; those that have followed her 
 
STEAMERS NEVER HEARD FROM. 361 
 
 have been the City of Glasgow, City of Boston, 
 Pacific, Tempest, United Kingdom, Mina Thomas, 
 Ismaiha, Rechid, Commander, Mary Church, Shan- 
 non, Anna, Trojan, Colombo, Mexican, Durley, 
 Stamfordham, Copia, Herman Ludwig, Homer, 
 and Zanzibar. 
 
 Several of the above-named steamers were small 
 and did not carry passengers ; of some it is report- 
 ed that they were too deeply laden for safety, and 
 their loss is due to the greed of owners rather than 
 to unavoidable accidents. The passenger steamers 
 never heard from are supposed to have been de- 
 stroyed by icebergs, as in nearly every instance 
 other steamers reported great quantities of ice di- 
 rectly in the track of the ill-fated vessels. The 
 President was seen under sail and not using her en- 
 gines on the 23d and 24th of April, 1841. A Por- 
 tuguese brig passed within three miles of her, but 
 she made no signals of distress and appeared to be 
 sailing about four miles an hour. This was the last 
 ever seen of her. 
 
 Others of the early steamers in transatlantic ser- 
 vice were the British Queen and Columbia. The 
 latter should not be confounded with the Columbia 
 of the Cunard line, which was wrecked near Hali- 
 fax, without loss of life, in July, 1843. The first 
 American steamer running regularly to England 
 as a passenger packet was the Massachusetts, built 
 by Captain R. B. Forbes, of Boston. She sailed 
 
362 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 from that city in September, 1845, crossed the 
 Atlantic in seventeen and a half days, using steam 
 eleven days. She was an auxiliary-screw steamer, 
 and her propeller was arranged so that it could 
 be hoisted out of the water whenever it was desired 
 to run under sails alone. 
 
 Previous to the departure of the Massachusetts, 
 the American propeller Marmora had visited Eng- 
 land on her way from Boston to the Mediterranean, 
 and the paddle steamer Bangor (also American) 
 had crossed direct to Gibraltar. The Massachu- 
 setts had a propeller nine feet in diameter, of com- 
 position metal, and her measurement was about 
 seven hundred tons. She made two voyages to 
 Liverpool and back, and was then chartered and 
 afterwards sold to the government for use in the 
 Mexican War. At the capture of Vera Cruz she 
 was the flag-ship of General Scott. After the con- 
 clusion of peace with Mexico she was transferred to 
 the Navy Department, and carried the flag of the 
 United States through the Straits of Magellan to 
 the Pacific Ocean. She was a storeship during the 
 Civil War, and afterwards a sailing ship under the 
 name of Alaska. 
 
 In 1 841, Thomas Butler King, of Georgia, intro- 
 duced a bill into Congress directing the Secretary 
 of the Navy to advertise for proposals for Ameri- 
 can steamships to carry the mails to European 
 ports. The bill failed of passage, but was brought 
 
AMERICAN STEAMSHIP IINES, 
 
 Up the next session, and again and again by Mr. 
 King, until 1 845, when he succeeded in securing the 
 passage of a bill authorizing the Postmaster-Gen- 
 eral to advertise for proposals for the transport of 
 the mails to foreign countries. This bill led to the 
 formation of the Ocean Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany of New York, which began active operations 
 in 1847 with the steamships Washington and Her- 
 mann, built expressly for the purpose. 
 
 These steamers measured about 1,700 tons each, 
 were 224 feet long, 39 feet broad, and 29 feet 
 deep. They ran between New York and Bremen, 
 touching at Southampton, twice a month each 
 way, and were to receive $200,000 yearly compen- 
 sation for carrying the mails. Their average pas- 
 sages from New York to Cowes were 14 days, 7 
 hours, 17 minutes, and from Cowes to New York, 
 13 days, 14 hours, 53 minutes. The line was dis- 
 continued at the expiration of the contract, and the 
 steamers were sent to the Pacific Ocean, where the 
 Washington was wrecked and the Hermann broken 
 up. This was the first line of steamers carrying the 
 mails to Europe under the American flag. 
 
 In 1848 a company was formed for a fortnightly 
 service between New York and Havre, with a com- 
 pensation of $ I 50,000 per annum, to be performed 
 by the F'ranklin and the Humboldt, the first of 
 2,400 tons and the second of 2,85o tons. The 
 steamers called at Southampton both going and re- 
 
364 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 turning, and in conjunction with the Bremen line 
 formed a weekly communication each way between 
 New York and Southampton. The Franklin made 
 her first voyage in 1850, and was wrecked on Long 
 Island in 1854. The Humboldt began running in 
 1 85 1, and was lost near the entrance of Halifax 
 harbor in 1853. The service was continued by 
 chartered steamers until 1855-56, when the Fulton 
 and the Arago were completed and placed on the 
 route. At the outbreak of the war the line was 
 withdrawn, and the steamers were used as trans- 
 ports. It had been hoped that the mail-service 
 would be resumed after the close of the war, but 
 such was not the case. The Arago was sold to one 
 of the South American governments, and the Ful- 
 ton was used as a hospital at the New York quar- 
 antine station. 
 
 All the steamers of the Bremen and Havre lines 
 were paddle vessels. The Fulton and Arago were 
 practically sister ships, differing only in minor de- 
 tails. The following were the dimensions of the 
 Fulton : 
 
 Length on deck, 290 feet ; beam, 42 feet 4 
 inches; breadth over paddle-boxes, 65 feet 6 
 inches; depth of hold, 31 feet 6 inches, measure- 
 ment, 3,000 tons ; diameter of cylinder, 65 inches ; 
 length of stroke, 10 feet; diameter of wheels, 31 
 feet; width of paddles, 18 inches; length of pad- 
 dles, 9 feet ; number of paddles on each wheel, 
 
AMERICAN STEAMSHIP IJNES. 
 
 28. The Fulton had three decks ; could accom- 
 modate 300 first- and second-class passengers, and 
 carry 800 tons coal and 700 tons freight. She 
 had two inclined oscillating engines, and her draft, 
 when loaded, was i feet. 
 
 In his work on Ocean Steam Navigation," Mr. 
 Rainey says : When one of our first American 
 mail steamers sailed for Europe, no practical 
 marine engineers could be found to work her 
 engines. She took a first-class engineer and corps 
 of assistants from one of the North River packets ; 
 but as soon as the ship got to sea and heavy break- 
 ers came on, all her engineers and firemen were 
 taken deadly sea-sick, and for three days it was con- 
 stantly expected the ship would be lost." 
 
 Four-Bladed Screw. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 History of the Collins line — Loss of the Pacific and Arctic — Fate of the 
 other Collins steamers — Other American steam lines — Cause of their 
 present inactivity — The United States and Brazil line — English and 
 French aid to steamers — American coasting lines. 
 
 ALMOST simultaneously with the Bremen and 
 Havre lines of American steamships came 
 the Collins line, which was at one time the object 
 of a, great deal of patriotic interest. Its inception 
 was not unlike that of the Cunard line, but, unhap- 
 pily for Americans, the parallel cannot be followed 
 beyond a few years. 
 
 Edward K. Collins was born at Truro, Massa- 
 chusetts, in 1802, and came to New York when 
 little more than a youth. He organized a line of 
 sailing packets between New York and Southern 
 ports, including Vera Cruz and Havana, and the 
 success of this enterprise led to the formation of a 
 similar line to Liverpool. It was known as the 
 Dramatic Line," and the ships composing it were 
 the Shakspeare, Garrick, Siddons, Roscius, and 
 other famous names on the dramatic stage. The 
 ships were an improvement upon any of their pre- 
 decessors ; they were known for their rapid voy- 
 ages, and their accommodations for passengers were 
 
HISTORY OF THE COLLINS LINE. 
 
 of a style of luxury hitherto unknown. They made 
 a great deal of money for their owners, and, after 
 the Cunard line had been successfully established, 
 Mr. Collins determined to use some of the money 
 which his sailing packets had earned for him in cre- 
 ating a line of American steamers. 
 
 He formed a company for that purpose, and, in 
 1847, he and his associates obtained from the 
 United States Government a contract for carrying 
 the mails between New York and Liverpool. They 
 were to build five first-class steamships, and make 
 twenty voyages a year, and for each voyage they 
 were to receive $19,250. Afterwards the number 
 of voyages was increased to twenty-six a year, mak- 
 ing a fortnightly departure from each side, and the 
 compensation was raised to $33,000 a voyage, or 
 $878,000 yearly. Further time was given to the 
 company to get in readiness for its work, and it 
 was not to be required to complete its fifth ship. It 
 was also favored with an advance of $25,000 upon 
 each ship from the date it was launched until the 
 whole sum should amount to $385,000. In return 
 for this assistance the Collins line was to make 
 quicker passages than had been hitherto made by 
 any steamships on the Atlantic, and deliver the 
 mails with greater promptness than they had been 
 delivered by the Cunarders. 
 
 The first steamer of the Collins line was the At- 
 lantic, which left New York April 27, 1849, and ar- 
 
368 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 rived at Liverpool May lo, making the passage in 
 thirteen days. Two days were lost during the voy- 
 age by accidents to the machinery, and it was found 
 impossible to run the engines at full speed on ac- 
 count of the clanger of tearing the floats from the 
 paddle-wheels. The Atlantic was 276 feet long, 45 
 feet beam, 76 feet broad over the paddle-boxes, 31 
 feet 7 inches deep, and her measurement was 2,860 
 tons. Her wheels were 36 feet in diameter, and it 
 
 The Steamship Atlantic. 
 
 was claimed that she was the largest steamship then 
 afloat. The Pacific was built on precisely the same 
 lines as the Atlantic ; the latter was broken up at 
 New York in 1879, and the former disappeared at 
 sea in 1856. 
 
 The Pacific was on a westward voyage at the 
 time of her loss, and is supposed to have been de- 
 
LOSS OF THE PACIFIC AND ARTIC, 369 
 
 stroyed by running into an iceberg. Two hundred 
 and forty persons were on board of her at the time, 
 including the wife of Mr. ColHns, the founder of 
 the Hne. 
 
 The Arctic was the fastest steamer of the ColHns 
 line and was modelled by George Steers, the de- 
 signer of the yacht America. She was 282 feet 
 long, 45 feet wide, and 24 feet deep below the 
 main deck. Her capacity was 2,856 tons ; her 
 cylinders were 95 inches in diameter, and the length 
 of stroke was 10 feet. On her eighth passage from 
 New York she made the then wonderful time to 
 Liverpool of 9 days, 17 hours, and 12 minutes. 
 
 The average time of forty-two westward trips of 
 the Collins line in its early days was 11 days, 10 
 hours, and 26 minutes ; at the same period the 
 average time of the Cunarders was 12 days, 19 
 hours, and 26 minutes. During the World's Fair 
 in London, in 1851, the superior speed of the 
 American steamers led to the following in Punch : 
 
 A steamer of the Collins Line, 
 
 A Yankee-doodle notion, 
 Has also quickest cut the brine 
 
 Across the Atlantic Ocean. 
 And British agents, noways slow 
 
 Her merits to discover, 
 Have been and bought her — just \o tow 
 
 The Cunard packets over." 
 
 On the 27th of September, 1854, in a dense fog 
 
370 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 about fifty miles south of Cape Race the ArctL 
 was run into by the French steamship Vesta, and 
 sunk. Of her passengers and crew five hundred 
 and sixty-two were lost. The Baltic made several 
 quick passages and was deservedly famous in her 
 time. She was in government service during the 
 Civil War, and afterwards ran between New York 
 and Aspinwall for the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
 pany. Then she was altered to a sailing ship and 
 made several voyages between San Francisco and 
 Liverpool as a wheat carrier, for which she was 
 admirably adapted. Afterwards she was bought by 
 a German company and on a voyage from Bremen 
 to Boston was so badly strained as to be considered 
 unseaworthy. Accordingly she was broken up in 
 1880, and so ended the last of the four steamships 
 that composed the once famous Collins line. 
 
 A fifth ship, the Adriatic, was built by the com- 
 pany and launched April 8, 1856, but before she was 
 ready for service the Collins Steamship Company 
 had failed, and the Adriatic never made a trip on 
 the line. She was a screw steamship, 345 feet long, 
 50 feet wide, and 33^^ feet deep. Her registered 
 capacity was 4,145 tons. She was purchased in 
 1 86 1 by the Galway Steamship Company, which 
 had been formed with a view to running fast steam- 
 ers between Galway, Ireland, and St. Johns, New- 
 foundland, making the transit of the Atlantic in 
 six days. The Adriatic fully met the requirements 
 
FATE OF THE COLLINS STEAMERS, 
 
 and on a return trip to Galway she went from port 
 to port in 5 days, 19 hours, and 46 minutes. The 
 Galway line came to grief after a very brief exist- 
 ence ; the Adriatic passed through various vicissi- 
 tudes, and finally was relegated to use as a coal 
 hulk, the fate of many a noble steamer that has 
 plowed the ocean in pride. 
 
 Impelled by Congress and the American public 
 generally, the Collins line sought to surpass all 
 rivals in the matter of speed. The object was ac- 
 complished by pushing the ships to their best, but 
 the cost of doing so was very great. Each of the 
 four ships consumed from ninety to one hundred 
 tons of coal daily, and in a statement made to 
 Congress it was shown that it cost nearly half a 
 million dollars annually to make the saving of a 
 single day in the voyages to Liverpool from New 
 York. 
 
 The original cost of the four steamers was 
 $2,994,000; the average cost of each of the round 
 trips in the early days was $65,215, and the aver- 
 age receipts $48,287. The withdrawal of the sub- 
 sidy compelled the withdrawal of the line, and the 
 building of the Adriatic completed the ruin of Mr. 
 Collins. He died in New York in June, 1878; 
 his funeral was attended by many men prominent 
 in maritime matters, including representatives of 
 nearly all the steamship lines connecting New York 
 with foreign ports. 
 
372 
 
 ROBERT FULTON: 
 
 The history of the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- 
 pany has been given elsewhere. It is now the 
 only steamship line of importance carrying the 
 American flag to foreign ports. In the last 
 twenty years there have been several attempts to 
 establish lines of American steamships to Europe, 
 and also to South America, Australia, and else- 
 where, but all have failed to be remunerative. With 
 the exception of the American line from Philadel- 
 phia to Liverpool, all the transatlantic lines be- 
 long to European nations, and of the one Ameri- 
 can line referred to, some of the ships are under 
 the English flag. The cause is not far to seek. 
 
 The rates of taxation upon steamship property 
 in the United States are much heavier than in 
 other countries ; materials and labor are dearer, 
 and the wages of officers and crews are much 
 higher. Congress, with a few spasmodic excep- 
 tions, has refused to encourage ocean navigation 
 by mail contracts or other subsidies to American 
 steamers. This is in direct contrast to the conduct 
 of England towards her merchant marine, which is 
 by far the largest in the world, and owes much of 
 its prosperity to the liberality of the government. 
 British steamships are taxed upon their earnings, 
 and not upon their valuation. In a poor season, 
 or while lying idle, there is little or no taxation, 
 but the American ship-owner must pay the same 
 rate upon his property at all times. England 
 
CAUSE OF PRESENT INACTIVITY. 373 
 
 has steadily encouraged steam navigation to foreign 
 countries, or to her distant colonies, by granting 
 subsidies in the form of mail contracts, and the sub- 
 sidies have been almost uniformly maintained until 
 such time as the business has developed to a point 
 where the steamers can run without government aid. 
 
 England was a country of protection until she 
 had built up her industries to where they could 
 compete with the rest of the world, which hap- 
 pened about 1840-1845. Then she threw off her 
 protective duties and became a land of free trade, 
 and she followed her action by demanding that all 
 other nations should open their markets to her 
 products. But from 1840 to the present time she 
 has persistently protected her foreign steam marine 
 by heavy subsidies for carrying the mails, wherever 
 subsidies were needed. When the lines have be- 
 come self-sustaining, the subsidies have been with- 
 drawn, though there are many exceptions to this 
 rule. England's policy in regard to steam lines 
 has been almost the exact repetition of her policy 
 toward British manufacturing interests previous to 
 1 840-1 845, and by careful adherence to it she has 
 made her steam marine what it now is. She 
 has destroyed fair competition, and obtained a 
 practical monopoly of the construction of iron steam 
 ships, although her conduct has been a palpable 
 contradiction of her professions in favor of free 
 trade everywhere. 
 
374 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 France encourages ocean navigation not only 
 by heavy contracts for carrying the mails, but by 
 bounties upon the construction and equipment of 
 steamers and sailing ships. In the case of a 
 steamer built in France, the bounty amounts to 
 I ']\ per cent, of her total cost. On a steamer cost- 
 ing $250,000 the bounty amounts to about $44,000. 
 In case of a change of boilers, provided the new ones 
 are of French make, the owner of the ship re- 
 ceives a bounty of $16.00 per ton of new engines, 
 or boilers, weighed without the tubes. In a change 
 of boilers weighing 100 tons without the tubing, 
 the owner would receive $1,600. 
 
 On a steel or iron sailing ship of 1,500 tons gross 
 measurement the bounty amounts to $18,000; being 
 at the rate of $12.00 a ton. On a wooden sailing 
 ship of 1,000 tons gross, the bounty is $4,000, or $4 
 a ton. On a composite ship, of wood and iron, the 
 bounty is $8.00 a ton gross measurement. 
 
 The bounty is increased 15 per cent, on steamers 
 built on plans approved beforehand by the Marine 
 and Navy Department. In case of war, merchant 
 ships and steamers may be impressed into the govern- 
 ment service, for which they are entitled to a fair 
 compensation. French steamships receive a bounty 
 for the number of miles run at sea, and for this 
 compensation they shall carry the government 
 mails free of charge. During the first year of the 
 operation of the bounty system in France, 161 
 
THE UNITED STATES AND BRAZIL LINE. 375 
 
 Steamers, of 122,276 tons, were added to the French 
 merchant marine. 
 
 Germany, Holland, Russia, and other countries 
 encourage steam navigation by liberal mail contracts 
 to ships bearing their respective flags, but not so 
 the United States. The following from Admiral 
 Preble's account of the United States and Brazil 
 Mail Steamship Line is a good illustration of Ameri- 
 can encouragement to ocean steam navigation : 
 
 The steamships of the United States and Brazil Mail 
 Steamship Line (now defunct) were built by John Roach 
 & Son, at Chester, Pa., on the Delaware, and were fine 
 specimens of naval architecture. They were 370 feet long 
 over all, 39 feet beam, with a depth of hold from base line 
 to the top of spar-deck of 31 feet 6 inches, and had a cus- 
 tom-house register of 3,500 tons. Their mean low draft 
 was 21 feet. They had three decks, beside the hurricane 
 deck, from the stern extending to the after side of the 
 main hatch. The deck-frames were of iron, and the deck- 
 houses all iron-braced and stiffened in the most thorough 
 manner. They had six bulkheads, dividing them into 
 seven water-tight compartments. 
 
 Built under the supervision of the Bureau Veritas and 
 the American Shipmasters Association of New York, they 
 were rendered seaworthy by the use of the best material 
 in their construction and equipment. The machinery 
 proper consisted of two compound surface-condensing en- 
 gines, the cylinders of which were 42 inches for the high 
 pressure, and 74 inches for the low pressure, each 60 inches 
 stroke, 2,500-horse power, and with separate engines for 
 working the air and circulating pumps. The six boilers 
 were of the cylindrical return tubular type, their working 
 
376 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 pressure 90 pounds to the square inch. The propeller 
 was a four-bladed brass one, 16 feet in diameter, of the 
 Hirsch patent. The maximum passenger capacity was 
 100 first-class passengers, and 400 in the steerage. 
 
 The whole project was the enterprise of one plucky 
 man, John Roach, a deserving citizen, yet probably one 
 of the best-abused men in the country. The founder of 
 the line risked a million of his own private capital in 
 starting a line of steamers to an empire 6,000 miles away, 
 from which the United States buys $60,000,000 worth of 
 goods every year, and to which it would like to sell a 
 similar sum annually, and could, in time, if facilities for 
 the trade are created and maintained. Previous to the 
 starting of the line our merchants were handicapped. It 
 was as though Boston was trying to do business with San 
 Francisco by means of steamers sailing to Panama, while 
 New York was trading over a direct railroad route across 
 the continent. We had to send a long way to reach 
 Brazil. The English traded direct. Our mails and valua- 
 ble goods to Brazil had to go by way of England, taking 
 ten or thirteen days to cross the Atlantic, having often to 
 wait ten days in England for a steamer, and then consum- 
 ing from twenty to twenty-five days in going from the 
 British Isles to Brazil. 
 
 When this new line from this country direct was 
 started, facilities were created which were imperatively 
 needed. The convenience of the line was so great that 
 it has been frankly and cordially conceded. The steamers 
 were well manged, and in three years never missed a trip 
 nor failed to sail on time. By means of the line mails 
 were sent in twenty-two days direct ; and the certainty 
 and regularity of the trips were of advantage almost to 
 the whole American public. A wide variety of miscel- 
 laneous products were introduced, little by little, and 
 
THE UNITED STATES AND BRAZIL LINE. 377 
 
 the start of a large trade effected. In quantities of 
 goods sold the export trade to Brazil increased constantly 
 while the steamers ran. The line brought travellers and 
 merchants to the country in large numbers, the exact 
 number in the three years being about two thousand. 
 Profitable orders and contracts were brought to this coun- 
 try by these travellers, which otherwise would not have 
 been secured. There was a large reduction in freights, 
 also, through the operation of this American line. Instead 
 of its costing from 70 to 85 cents a bag to get coffee to 
 New York from Brazil, the freight was reduced to 50, and 
 even to 30 cents a bag. This commodity was brought 
 6,000 miles for $5 and $6 a ton, that is, at the rate of $1 
 a ton for a thousand miles of voyage, which is about the 
 cheapest ocean transportation ever known. 
 
 The saving to the United States upon the immense im- 
 portations of coffee was very large. The freight on meas- 
 urement goods was also lowered from 35 cents a cubic 
 foot to about 20 cents. These reductions and the more 
 important fact of regular and quick communication were 
 of genuine service to the public ; and it was with sincere 
 regret that business men learned of the discontinuance 
 of the American line. During the three years that Mr. 
 Roach maintained the line, $1,400,000 was paid out for 
 expenses, and $92,000 for repairs in the United States, and 
 $300,000 for expenses abroad. And it was estimated that 
 the business men of this country have saved $1,700,000 by 
 reduction of South American freights during that period. 
 
 Mr. Roach had very far-reaching plans. Could this 
 line have received the support he sought to obtain for it, 
 he would have built more steamers and started several 
 other lines. The Brazilian fleet would have been enlarged, 
 and direct trade would have been opened to other coasts. 
 The Buenos Ayres project was only one of many in view. 
 
378 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 It seems a pity that the question of mail compensa- 
 tion to the Brazihan line could never have been discussed 
 on its merits. Mr. Roach's appeal to Congress was not 
 by any means entirely defenceless. He carried the United 
 States mails 140,000 miles in 1879 $1^875, while three 
 coasting lines carried them unitedly 123,400 miles and got 
 $102,800 for the service. Mr. Roach was beaten, not by 
 the impolicy of the subsidy system, but by an organized 
 effort, both in the United States and in Brazil, to break 
 him down. People went from city to city with subscrip- 
 tion papers to raise money to use against him at Washing- 
 ton, and the speeches made at Washington in opposition 
 to his line were translated into Portuguese and sent to 
 Brazil by thousands to create a coldness in ofificial circles 
 there against the American steamers." 
 
 In a speech before the House of Representatives 
 April 25, 1882, while advocating measures for the 
 relief of American shipping, Hon. Nelson Dingley 
 used the following language : 
 
 The efforts of England to control the ocean carrying 
 trade ought to arouse the American Congress and people 
 to the importance of our shipping interests. This is a 
 question which affects the interior as much as the sea- 
 board, the West as much as the East, the South as much 
 as the North. It is not a local, but a national question. 
 
 It involves the inquiry as to whether we will save to 
 our own people the ship-building industry, which employs 
 tens of thousands of workmen, and distributes millions of 
 dollars ; whether we shall retain a due share of the $100,- 
 000,000, which we annually pay for ocean transportation, 
 with all the avenues of employment which it would open ; 
 whether we shall open up wider markets for American 
 products in China, Japan, South America, and the Orient. 
 
ENGLISH AID TO STEAMERS. 
 
 379 
 
 It covers more than the material interests of tlie 
 nation, great as these are. It involves questions affecting 
 our commercial independence ; our standing and influence 
 as a nation ; and even our national security. No nation 
 ever maintained its national importance after it ceased to 
 be a great commercial nation. 
 
 To-day our commerce is largely dependent on foreign 
 ships ; so dependent that a war in Europe would be more 
 disastrous to us than to the belligerents themselves. 
 
 The eyes of the country are turned to the defenceless 
 condition of our coasts in consequence of the weakness of 
 our navy ; for it is an accepted military axiom that what- 
 ever nations command the ocean will command the coasts 
 of countries adjacent. But a powerful navy is the offspring 
 of a great merchant marine. Look over the nations of 
 the w^orld, and it will be found that navies rise and fall 
 with their merchant marine. Great navies, it has been 
 well said, are never built in navy-yards. The United 
 States have eight navy-yards, and almost no navy. Eng- 
 land has only three navy-yards, and the strongest navy in 
 the world. Only nineteen per cent, of her vessels and 
 marine engines were built in navy-yards, and eighty-one 
 per cent, in private ship-yards. The fleet of English 
 merchant iron steamships, subject to government orders 
 in case of war, in return for the aid they receive, is in it- 
 self an effective naval force. The development of our 
 merchant marine is the cheapest, most effective, and most 
 beneficent policy of national defence. 
 
 Important as are many other questions before this Con- 
 gress, I hold that not one of them is of greater importance 
 and of more far-reaching consequence than this. We arc al- 
 ready a republic of more than 50,000,000, and increasing in 
 population and wealth at a rate never before known in the 
 history of any other nation. In 1890, our population will 
 
38o 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 reach 65,000,000, and in 19 10 it will reach 100,000,000, 
 provided we are true to ourselves and our destiny. But, 
 unless all history is misleading, we cannot hope to retain 
 our present advantages, or to extend our prestige as a 
 nation, unless, by an efficient system of protection and 
 encouragement, we hold and strengthen our position on 
 the sea, as we have on the land. As has been well said, 
 the throne of empire rests no less on the rocking waves 
 than on the solid land." 
 
 The navigation laws of the United States pre- 
 vent the coasting trade from falling into the con- 
 trol of other nations ; they are copied from the 
 English laws, which were made in the time of 
 Cromwell, and were maintained without important 
 variations until very recently. The English laws 
 provide that no ship should be deemed a British 
 one that was not built in the dominions of Great 
 Britain, wholly owned by British subjects, and navi- 
 gated by a British commander, with a crew three 
 fourths British. None but British ships should 
 carry merchandise from one British port to another, 
 and no goods produced or manufactured in Asia, 
 Africa, or America should be imported in other 
 than British ships or in the ships of the countries 
 that produced them. 
 
 Many political economists believe that the rigor- 
 ous enforcement of these laws during two centuries 
 has done more than any other cause in giving Eng- 
 land her enormous commerce. In 1849 the prin- 
 ciples of free trade were allowed to break down 
 
AMERICAN COASTING LINES. 
 
 this monopoly in some of its features. By an act 
 of Parliament in that year and by later amend- 
 ments, ships built elsewhere than in Great Britain 
 may receive British registers, provided they are 
 owned by British subjects. Any ship may bring 
 merchandise to British ports, but it is in the power 
 of the government to put such restrictions or pro- 
 hibitions upon the ships of any country as are made 
 upon British ships in the ports of that country. 
 
 The coasting trade of the United States is re- 
 tained for vessels flying the United States flag ; 
 the rule holds good for the great lakes of our north- 
 ern boundary, as well as for maritime navigation 
 on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Under these 
 navigation laws, the various lines running between 
 northern and southern ports are free from foreign 
 competition. The only steamship lines which 
 Americans can ''proudly call their own" are those 
 that connect New York, Boston, and Philadelphia 
 with Norfolk, Charleston, Savannah, New Orleans, 
 Galveston, Havana, Vera Cruz, and other of the 
 coast and gulf ports. The steamer business on the 
 great lakes has been elsewhere mentioned. 
 
 Of the coasting lines, the most important are the 
 Mallory Line, from New York to Florida and the 
 gulf coast as far west as the Mexican frontier ; the 
 Boston and Savannah Steamship Company, whose 
 service is indicated by its name ; the New York, 
 Havana^ and Mexican Mail Steamship Company, 
 
382 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 more generally known as the ''Alexandre Line/' run- 
 ning between New York, Havana, and the ports of 
 Mexico ; the Red '' D '' line of steamships between 
 New York and Caribbean-Sea ports ; the Ocean 
 Steamship Company, connecting New York and 
 Savannah ; Morgan's and Cromwell's lines to Lou- 
 isiana and Texas ; the Old Dominion Steamship 
 Company, and the New York & Cuba Mail Steam- 
 ship Company, running between New York and 
 Havana weekly, and to Santiago de Cuba monthly. 
 The last is frequently called Ward's Line." 
 
 Most of the steamers of these coasting lines are 
 of iron, and admirably fitted for the special trade in 
 which they are employed. They measure variously 
 from 1,200 to 3,500 tons, and their accommodations 
 for passengers are excellent. Take the City of 
 Augusta, of the Ocean Steamship Company, as 
 an example : She has a cargo capacity of 3,000 
 tons, is 323 feet long over all, 40 feet beam, has 
 five water-tight compartments and three decks. 
 She has compound engines, with two inverted 
 cylinders, which are respectively 42 and 82 inches 
 in diameter. Her screw is 16 feet in diameter, 
 with 26 feet pitch, and with six tubular boilers 
 she works under a pressure of 100 pounds of 
 steam. Her staterooms are unusually commodi- 
 ous, and she carries 100 first-class passengers 
 without crowding. 
 
 The City of Alexandria and the City of Wash- 
 
AMERICAN COASTING LINES. 
 
 ington, of the Alexandre Line, have each accom- 
 modations for one hundred and fifty first-class 
 passengers. Some of the staterooms on these 
 steamers have been fitted with the Huston self- 
 levelling berth, which maintains a level position 
 throughout all the motions of the ship, and is highly 
 prized by those to whom sea-sickness is a terror. 
 The Newport, of the New York and Cuba line, 
 has made the fastest time on record between New 
 York and Havana. She has a capacity of 3,000 
 tons, and is an iron ship, 348 feet long and 38 
 feet beam. She has compound engines, with 
 cylinders of 48 and 90 inches diameter, and /[^ feet 
 stroke. The engines are capable of being devel- 
 oped to 3,000-horse power, or one-horse power for 
 each ton of measurement. The steam pumps are 
 so arranged that they can be connected with any 
 part of the vessel, and are capable of throwing 
 1,750 barrels of water a minute. 
 
 Recently a monthly service each way between 
 New York and Rio Janeiro, touching at Nev/- 
 port News, St. Thomas, Barbadoes, Para and 
 other Brazilian ports, has been established with the 
 iron steamers Merrimack and Finance. The 
 managers have revived the name of the United 
 States and Brazil Mail Steamship Company, and 
 promise that their service will be a permanent one. 
 This is a consummation devoutly to be wished. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 How the Inman Line was founded — First steamers for carrying emigrants 
 — Steady increase in the size of ships — The City of Rome — Hamburg 
 and Bremen lines and their origin — The Anchor Line and its latest 
 steamship — The " French Mail " — Notes on the compound marine en- 
 gine and the lengthening of ships. 
 
 THE second transatlantic steamship line yet in 
 existence is that of the Liverpool, New York, 
 and Philadelphia Steamship Company," better 
 known as the Inman Line." It was organized 
 by William Inman, an enterprising merchant of 
 Liverpool, and was the first transatlantic line of 
 iron steamships propelled by the screw. The 
 service began by the departure of the steamship 
 City of Glasgow from Liverpool for Philadelphia, 
 December lo, 1850, carrying a general cargo and 
 400 steerage passengers. To Mr. Inman is due 
 the credit of originating the plan of carrying steer- 
 age passengers on steamships. Before that time 
 emigrants were excluded from steam-vessels on 
 account of the high price of passage, and their 
 only means of transatlantic transit was by sailing 
 ships. 
 
 The Inman Line began without subsidies and 
 with only one steamship. Prophecies were freely 
 made that the projector of the enterprise would be 
 
HOW THE INMAN LINE WAS FOUNDED, 385 
 
 ruined, and it is said that he had much difficulty in 
 securing partners in the scheme. As the Cunard 
 Line was running to New York and Boston, Mr. 
 Inman decided to make Philadelphia his western 
 terminus and for six years he continued to do so. 
 One of his steamers, the Kangaroo, was frozen up 
 in the Delaware for five weeks, and this and other 
 reasons turned his attention towards New York. 
 For a few years the steamers sailed alternately 
 from New York and Philadelphia but finally the 
 Quaker City was abandoned altogether for the 
 more accessible port of New York. 
 
 The predictions of failure were by no means 
 realized. The business of the single steamer City 
 of Glasgow, which made monthly trips each way, 
 and for the first six months composed the entire 
 line," was so profitable that the City of Manches- 
 ter was purchased in June 185 1 and doubled the 
 fleet of the company. This steamer yielded a 
 profit of forty per cent, in the first year of her pos- 
 session by Inman and his partners ; the profits to- 
 gether with additional capital were invested in 
 other steamships, and step by step the line grew 
 from a monthly service to a fortnightly, tri-monthly, 
 weekly, and semi-weekly one. The owners actually 
 contemplated a daily service but were cautious 
 enough not to undertake it until justified by the 
 volume of business. 
 
 Down to 1875 the Inman Line was a partnership 
 
386 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 affair ; in that year it was formed into a joint stock 
 association with the name of Inman Steamship 
 Company, Limited," its founder retaining a large 
 interest, and his son, Ernest S. I nman, becoming man- 
 ager of the Hne. Mr. WilHam Inman died in i88r, 
 and long before his death he was in possession of a 
 large fortune, the result of his enterprise and 
 industry. Many thousands of emigrants hold him in 
 affectionate remembrance for the work he originated 
 of carrying steerage passengers on steamers ; other 
 lines have taken a portion of this business, but the 
 credit of starting it belongs to the man just named. 
 In an article upon this subject the London Times 
 said : 
 
 Many were those who shook their heads when 
 the ' City of Glasgow ' set out on her first voyage, 
 screw-propelled in mid-winter, when the condition 
 of the Atlantic was thought to be perilous in the 
 extreme ; but the founder of the Inman Line had 
 faith in his own prognostication, and from being 
 regarded as a desperate adventurer he has become 
 the recognized pioneer of a liberal enterprise, from 
 which thousands of struggling families, driven to 
 seek their fortunes over the seas, have benefited in 
 a manner that will compare with any of the great 
 improvements of modern times." 
 
 The quickness of transit was by no means the 
 only advantage over the old emigrant service of 
 the packet ships. The food was better and more 
 
FIRST STEAMERS FOR CARRYING EMIGRANTS. 387 
 
 liberal in quantity ; rigid sanitary requirements 
 were made ; medical and official supervision was 
 strict and constant ; the moral conduct of the 
 steerage passengers was carefully guarded ; and 
 the tales of horror " that came from the sailing 
 packets in former times became things only of 
 history. But while the Inman Line made a specialty 
 of the steerage business it did not neglect the first- 
 class nor the intermediate." It entered into a 
 sharp competition with other lines for passengers of 
 the higher grades, and though unpopular at first on 
 account of its transport of emigrants it long ago 
 gained a foremost place. 
 
 The early ships of this line were not famous for 
 their first-class accommodations, and could only ob- 
 tain cabin passengers by taking them at lower 
 rates than the Cunard and Collins steamers ; it 
 steadily won its way to favor by the character of its 
 newer ships, the vessels of each decade being 
 larger, better fitted, and in every way preferable to 
 those of the preceding one. And not even ten years 
 were required for a very marked improvement, 
 as it frequently happened that a ship which was 
 considered the perfection of a floating palace " on 
 making her first voyage, was, in five years, an 
 
 antiquated tub, quite behind the age." 
 
 The most serious accidents that have befallen 
 the Inman Company were the losses of the City of 
 Glasgow in 1854, and the City of Boston in 1870. 
 
388 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Both ships disappeared at sea, and no trace of them 
 was ever found. 
 
 The City of Glasgow was 277 feet long, 32 feet 
 7 inches broad, and 24 feet 7 inches deep. She 
 was 1,600 tons burthen, with engines of 380-horse 
 power. Compare her dimensions with those of the 
 following, which may be taken as types of the prog- 
 ress of the Inman Line in successive periods : 
 
 NAME OF STEAMSHIP. 
 
 YEAR. 
 
 LENGTH. 
 
 WIDTH. 
 
 DEPTH. 
 
 TONS. 
 
 City of Manchester. 
 
 I85I 
 
 262 
 
 36 
 
 25 
 
 1,906 
 
 City of Baltimore. 
 
 1854 
 
 326 
 
 39 
 
 26 
 
 2,472 
 
 City of Bristol. 
 
 i860 
 
 349 
 
 38 
 
 27 
 
 2,655 
 
 City of New York. 
 
 1865 
 
 375 
 
 40 
 
 33 
 
 3.499 
 
 City of Brussels. 
 
 1869 
 
 390 
 
 41 
 
 35 
 
 3.775 
 
 City of Montreal. 
 
 1872 
 
 419 
 
 44 
 
 34 
 
 4,489 
 
 City of Berlin. 
 
 1874 
 
 520 
 
 45 
 
 37 
 
 5^941 
 
 City of Rome. 
 
 I88I 
 
 586 
 
 52 
 
 37 
 
 8,415 
 
 The last-named steamer, the City of Rome, was 
 built for the Inman Company, but did not meet the 
 terms of the contract in speed, carrying capactity, 
 and consumption of coal. She was returned to the 
 builders, and, after undergoing expensive altera- 
 tions, was sold to the Anchor Line, in whose service 
 she is now running. The company's fleet now in 
 service comprise the latest and fastest ships, and its 
 departures are weekly from each end of the route. 
 The voyage is frequently accomplished inside of 
 eight days, and the intending passenger can be as- 
 
THE CITY OF ROME, 
 
 sured at the company's office of certainty, security, 
 and celerity," in the ocean transit. Agents of 
 steamship companies can generally demonstrate the 
 superior speed and advantages of their vessels over 
 those of their rivals, and it is not likely that the 
 Inman representatives will be found wanting in this 
 particular. 
 
 The Inman Company had great hopes of the 
 City of Rome, which was at the time of her launch 
 next in size to the Great Eastern, and the disap- 
 pointment at her failure w^as in proportion to the 
 previous hopes, as she had been expected to sur- 
 pass every thing afloat. She was constructed by 
 the Barrow Ship-Building Company. The Inman 
 Company refused to accept her on account of her 
 serious deficiencies in speed, carrying capacity, 
 draught of water, and consumption of coal, and 
 began a suit for damages. The Barrow Company 
 agreed to take her back and pay all the expenses 
 of the Inman Company in regard to the ship rather 
 than let the case go into court. Since her altera- 
 tion she is said to have done satisfactory service, 
 but she has been the cause of much discussion as 
 to the advantages or the reverse of very large 
 steamers. 
 
 The following figures regarding the City of 
 Rome will interest the sea-going reader : 
 
 Length over all, 586 feet; extreme breadth, 52 
 feet 3 inches; depth of hold, 37 feet; tonnage, 
 
390 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 8,415; indicated horse-power, 10,000; her dead 
 weight is 8,oco, and her displacement at 26 feet 
 draft is 13,000 tons; the cubical contents of her 
 hold at 50 feet to the ton are 7,720 tons. She has 
 eleven water-tight compartments formed by bulk- 
 heads, which extend to the main deck. The largest 
 compartment is sixty feet long, and it is claimed 
 that the trim of the vessel will not be materially 
 altered when one of the compartments is filled with 
 water. The steamer has four masts and three fun- 
 nels ; her propeller is 24 feet in diameter, driven 
 by three sets of inverted ''tandem" engines work- 
 ing on three cranks arranged at angles of 1 20 de- 
 grees with each other. With this arrangement the 
 engine can never ''catch on the centre." 
 
 The unscientific reader may skip the following 
 details of the engines : 
 
 " Three high-pressure cylinders, 43 inches diameter ; 3 
 low-pressure cylinders, 86 inches diameter ; 6 feet stroke ; 
 diameter of crank-shaft, 25 inches ; diameter of crank-pins, 
 26 inches; length of main bearings, 33 inches; of crank- 
 pins, 28 inches. The crank-shaft weighs 64 tons ; if it 
 had been of iron, and solid, it would have weighed 73 
 tons. Propeller shafting, ^4 inches diameter ; hole through 
 it, 14 inches diameter; thrust-shaft has 13 collars, 39J 
 inches diameter, giving a surface of 6,000 square inches, 
 and it weighs 17 tons; propeller-shaft is 25 inches diame- 
 ter, and weighs 18 tons ; bedplate, 100 tons ; cooling sur- 
 face of condensers, 17,000 square feet; 8 cylindrical tubu- 
 lar boilers, with furnaces at both ends ; each boiler is 19 
 
THE CITY OF ROME, 
 
 feet long and 14 feet diameter, with steam-receiver 13 
 feet long and 4 feet diameter ; each boiler has 3 furnaces 
 at each end, or 48 furnaces in all ; furnaces, 8 feet 9 inches 
 diameter; fire-bars, 6 feet long, giving a grate-surface of 
 1,080 feet ; boilers are constructed for a working pressure 
 of 90 pounds to the square inch ; engines are intended to 
 work at 8,000-horse power, but can be developed up to 
 10,000/' 
 
 Working at three-quarters speed, with 45 revo- 
 lutions a minute, the City of Rome made 15^ 
 knots per hour on her trial trip. The maximum 
 speed is 60 revolutions, which will give a velocity 
 of 18 knots. Her coal consumption is variously 
 stated, but is probably much in excess of three 
 hundred tons daily. In accommodations for pas- 
 sengers, the City of Rome is fully up to the 
 standard of excellence that could be expected in 
 a ship of her size. She is longer than either the 
 Etruria, Umbria, or Servia, of the Cunard Line, 
 but less wide and deep ; consequently her interior 
 measurement is about the same as that of those 
 giants of the deep. 
 
 The service of the Inman Line steamers was 
 suspended during the Crimean War, as the three 
 steamers it then possessed were chartered for 
 transports by the French Government. On the 
 conclusion of peace with Russia the service was 
 resumed, and, though several of the company's 
 steamers have since been engaged at different 
 times in the transport service of the British Gov- 
 
392 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 ernment, there has been no suspension of the 
 transatlantic work. 
 
 The Hamburg- American Packet Company, per- 
 forming a weekly service between New York and 
 Hamburg, touching at Plymouth and Cherbourg, 
 was organized in 1847 with a line of sailing ships. 
 The establishment of the Inman Line with its ac- 
 commodations for steerage passengers threatened 
 to destroy the business of the sailing packets, and 
 in 1855 the German company built two steamers, 
 the Hammonia and Borussia. The Crimean War 
 caused a demand for neutral transports, so that 
 the two steamers were chartered to the French 
 and English governments, and did not go into 
 service as transatlantic packets until 1856. The 
 Borussia was the pioneer of the line, reaching 
 New York on the i6th of June of that year. The 
 Hammonia followed a fortnight later, and as fast 
 as other steamers could be put on the old sailing 
 packets were withdrawn. The line was popular 
 from the start, as the company was already well 
 known through its sailing ships. 
 
 The Bavaria and Teutonia were the immediate 
 successors of the Borussia and Hammonia. They 
 were respectively of 2,273 2,034 tons, built of 
 iron, and propelled by screws. Then followed the 
 Saxonia, of 2,404 tons ; then the Germania, and 
 then, in 1867, came a new Hammonia, of 2,967 
 tons, the old one having been withdrawn and sold. 
 
HAMBURG AND BREMEN LINES. 393 
 
 In the same year appeared the Cimbria, about the 
 
 size of the new Hammonia, and in 1868 the Hol- 
 
 satia and WestphaHa, the latter of 3,500 tons, and 
 
 the former nearly as large.- In 1869 the Silesia 
 
 was added to the fleet, and in 1870 the Thuringia. 
 
 Since then the Frisia, Pommerania, and Suevia 
 
 have been placed on the route, the last-named and 
 
 the largest, on the list measuring 360 feet long, 41 
 
 feet beam, and 26 feet deep. Her measurement 
 
 is 3,624 tons. 
 
 In addition to its New York line, the company 
 
 has a line from Hamburg to the West Indies and 
 
 Aspinwall, and it still maintains its fleet of sailing 
 
 ships for voyages to the Pacific Ocean and Asiatic 
 
 waters in general. In 1873 some enterprising 
 
 merchants of Hamburor started a rival service to 
 
 <_> 
 
 New York, known as the Eagle Line, and com- 
 posed of magnificent steamers. It proved a losing 
 operation from the start, and was eventually 
 bought up by the Hamburg-American Company. 
 Some of the Eagle steamers are now used on the 
 New York route, and others have been sold at 
 an enormous reduction from the original cost. 
 
 Two years after the arrival of the Borussia at 
 New York as the pioneer of the Hamburg Line, a 
 company ot merchants of Bremen established the 
 service known as the North - German Lloyd.s. 
 Bremen is commercially a rival of Hamburg, and 
 the merchants of the two citic vi-: with each other 
 
394 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 in enterprises of a maritime character. Each had 
 a Hne of sailing ships to New York, and when 
 Hamburg estabhshed a steam Hne there was 
 nothing for Bremen to do but follow its example. 
 Hence the North German Lloyd Steamship Com- 
 pany, which has its head-quarters at Bremen, and 
 runs between Bremerhaven and New York, touch- 
 ing at Southampton and Havre. 
 
 In the twenty years following its inception in 
 1857 the steamships of this company made over 
 twenty-five hundred voyages across the Atlantic 
 and carried nearly seven hundred thousand passen- 
 gers, of whom one hundred and eight thousand 
 were in the first cabin. At present there is a 
 weekly service between New York and Bremen, 
 and the company also has a line from Bremen to 
 New Orleans. The Hamburg and Bremen lines 
 have each between twenty-five and thirty steamers, 
 and maintain a pretty active competition, though 
 the managers are shrewd enough not to ruin busi- 
 ness by reducing prices of freight and passage be- 
 low a remunerative point. The steamers of both 
 companies are built in England, nearly all on the 
 Clyde, and the descriptions of those of one com- 
 pany will answer, in general terms, for those of the 
 other. A distinctive feature of the Bremen line is 
 the naming of the steamers after German rivers — 
 probably because they run rapidly — but this rule is 
 not inflexibly kept. Students of the geography of 
 
39^ 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 the Teutonic empire will recognize the natural 
 watercourses of the country in the appellations of 
 the Bremen steamers Oder, Mosel, Rhein, Main, 
 Donau, Elbe, Weser, Werra, and others. 
 
 The newest steamers of the Bremen line are the 
 Elbe, Werra, Eider, Ems, and Fulda. The Eider 
 and Ems are about 7,000 tons gross register, and 
 measure 455 feet in length, 47 feet in breadth, and 
 38 feet in depth. The Werra and Fulda are about 
 6,000 tons gross register, and of the following di- 
 mensions : length, 455 feet; breadth, 46 feet; 
 depth, 37 feet. The Elbe is about 5,000 tons gross, 
 and measures 445 feet in length, 45 feet in breadth, 
 and 36 feet 6 inches in depth. In the interior and 
 exterior arrangements and fittings the steamers are 
 very much alike. All the deck work is constructed 
 either of teak or iron. With a view to protect the 
 vessels from heavy seas, strongly constructed iron 
 turtle-backs are placed over both ends of the ships. 
 In the centre of the upper deck is a promenade 
 deck about 180 feet long and the whole width of 
 the ship, solely appropriated to the use of first- 
 class passengers. In addition to the accommoda- 
 tions for the officers and crew, i 70 in number, the 
 vessels are designed to carry 150 first-class and 150 
 second-class, besides the steerage passengers. 
 
 The engines are of the compound three-cylinder 
 type, with one high-pressure cylinder and two low- 
 pressure, having a stroke of five feet, and propelling 
 
THE ANCHOR LINE. 
 
 397 
 
 the vessels at the average of seventeen knots an 
 hour. The crank-shafts are entirely of Krupp's 
 crucible cast-steel, built up of several pieces on 
 a system insuring almost absolute safety from 
 breakage. 
 
 Betwixt and between " the Hamburg and 
 Bremen lines in 1855 and 1857 came the Anchor 
 Line, which was started in 1856. History repeats 
 itself in the inception of steamship lines and the 
 careers of their originators. The stories of Van- 
 derbilt, Cunard, and Inman find a parallel in the 
 story of the founders of the Anchor Line. 
 
 There were four Scotch boys at Glasgow in 1830 
 or about that year, who began active life in fishing 
 and coasting smacks ; from these they graduated 
 into schooners, and so on through all the grade of 
 vessels till they arrived at steamers, became their 
 commanders and eventually their owners. They 
 formed the firm of Handyside & Henderson, 
 which established the now famous Anchor Line. 
 Recently the firm name has become Henderson 
 Brothers. 
 
 Their first maritime adventures as a business 
 firm were in the Mediterranean fruit trade with 
 small sailing vessels. Then they bought the 
 steamer Inez de Castro, and then another small 
 one. They converted the sailing ships John Bell 
 and Tempest into auxiliary steamers, and with 
 them started the Anchor Line in 1856. The Tem- 
 
398 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 pest was the pioneer of the Hne, and — like the City 
 of Glasgow, the pioneer of the Inman Line — she was 
 lost at sea with all on board. The Tempest sailed 
 from New York for Glasgow on the nth of Feb- 
 ruary, 1857 — her second return trip, — and was 
 never heard of afterwards. The dread word 
 ''missing" must be placed after the names of 
 two other steamers of the Anchor Line— The 
 United Kingdom and Ismailia ; the former hav- 
 ing disappeared at sea in 1869 and the latter in 
 1873. ^ 
 
 Beginning business with the John Bell and Tem- 
 pest in 1 856, the Anchor Line grew so rapidly, that 
 within fifteen years it had built seventeen steamers 
 for its transatlantic service and thirty more for the 
 Mediterranean. At present it has a regular weekly 
 service between New York and Glasgow, and an- 
 other in summer between New York and Liver- 
 pool. At different times it has had a service be- 
 tween New York and London, which is maintained 
 or suspended according to the exigencies of busi- 
 ness. Then it has a fortnightly line from Glasgow 
 to the principal ports of the Mediterranean, and 
 some of its Mediterranean steamers continue their 
 course to Bombay, and occasionally to Calcutta and 
 Singapore. 
 
 Like the other steamship companies the Anchor 
 Line has increased from time to time the size, speed, 
 and accommodations of its vessels, according to the 
 
THE ANCHOR LINE, 
 
 399 
 
 lemands of the period and the operations of rivals. 
 The Tempest — the pioneer of the Hne — measured 
 less than 800 tons. The steamers that immediately 
 succeeded her were of larger size, and these again 
 were succeeded by others still larger. Each year 
 saw a hundred tons and more added to the size of 
 steamers until, in 1872 (sixteen years after the ad- 
 vent of the 800-ton Tempest), came the California 
 of 3,208 tons, a length of 362 feet, and engines of 
 1,047-horse power. Then followed the Bolivia, 
 4,000 tons ; the Anchoria, Circassia, and Devonia, 
 each 4,200 tons; the Belgravia, 5,000 tons, and 
 lastly, the Furnessia, 6,500 tons. The Furnessia 
 is 445 feet long, 45 feet beam, 35 feet deep, and 
 when loaded to 26 feet of water, her displacement 
 is 9,900 tons. Her engines are 3,5oo-horse power, 
 and her propeller is 20 feet in diameter. The Fur- 
 nessia is brig-rigged and has two smoke-stacks, and 
 at the time of her launching, in 1881, she was the 
 largest ship that had been built in England, with 
 the exception of the Great Eastern. As stated 
 elsewhere, the City of Rome now belongs to the 
 Anchor Line. 
 
 The other lines now running between New York 
 and the ports of the Old World do not belong to 
 the pioneer or experimental times of ocean steam 
 navigation, as all have been started within the last 
 twenty-five years, after the business became a 
 fixed fact, and there was no longer the smallest 
 
400 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 question of the success of navigating the Atlantic 
 with steam-propelled vessels. We will consider 
 the most important of these lines in the order of 
 their antiquity. 
 
 The Compagnie Generale Transatlantique," 
 better known to Americans as the French Mail 
 Line," was established in 1862, and maintains a 
 weekly service between Havre and New York with 
 large and powerful steamships. It has also a line 
 to the West Indies and Aspinwall from Havre, an- 
 other to the West Indies and Mexico from St. Na- 
 zaire, and smaller lines through the Mediterranean. 
 Altogether, it employs some sixty or seventy steam- 
 ers and receives a liberal subsidy from the French 
 Government for the transportation of the mails. 
 
 Its service to New York began with steamers of 
 about 2,500 tons. In a few years these vessels were 
 replaced by steamers of about 3,500 tons (the Pe- 
 reire, St. Laurent, Ville de Paris, Lafayette, and 
 Washington), and later these were followed by the 
 Amerique, France, Labrador, and Canada, of 4,5oo 
 tons. Now these last are being withdrawn to make 
 way for the Normandie, Champagne, Bourgogne, 
 Gascogne, and Bretagne. The Normandie was 
 built in England and measures 6,300 tons with 
 7,000-horse power. The other new steamers are 
 from the company's ship-yards at St. Nazaire, un- 
 der the new French bounty system, and are claimed 
 to be second to no other steamships afloat. The 
 
THE ''FRENCH MAIL:' 
 
 401 
 
 description of one of these French-built steamers 
 will answer for all, as they differ in only a few un- 
 important details. 
 
 The La Champagne, the first of the above 
 new ships, was the largest steamer ever built in 
 any French ship-yard for the merchant marine. 
 She is entirely of steel, and has four complete 
 decks, with a roomy poop-deck and whale-back 
 forecastle connected by a bridge-deck amidships, 
 making a promenade of 492 feet. She has two 
 elliptical funnels and four masts, the fore, and main- 
 mast rigged for square sails. 
 
 She has a double bottom, divided into tanks, 
 holding a capacity of 650 tons for ballast. The 
 dimensions of the La Champagne are as follows : 
 length, 508 feet 9 inches ; breadth, 59 feet 5 inches ; 
 depth of hold, 43 feet 6 inches ; mean draft loaded, 
 24 feet 6 inches, with a corresponding displace- 
 ment of 10,045 tons. The capacity for cargo in 
 the hold alone will be 1,950 cubic tons. The ca- 
 pacity of the coal bunkers will be 1,677 cubic 
 tons (stowing 1,800 tons coal). The La Cham- 
 pagne has superior accommodation for 300 cabin 
 passengers, and also for 900 steerage passengers. 
 She is fitted with every improvement for the 
 comfort and safety of passengers. The saloons 
 and cabins are lighted by electric lamps, and an- 
 nunciators connect with the steward's department 
 from each room. Twenty-four of the staterooms 
 
402 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 on each ship are fitted with single berths, a great 
 blessing to those who dislike to share the restric- 
 tions of a cabin with any one else. It is to be 
 hoped that other companies will follow the example 
 of their Gallic competitors. 
 
 The engines of the La Champagne develop 
 8,000 indicated horse power, and give a speed of 
 18 knots per hour. The engines are of the triple 
 expansion style, and have six cylinders ; they are 
 among the most powerful of this type, and are 
 estimated to work with less consumption of 
 coal than any engines previously in use. The 
 boilers are entirely of steel, stamped for a 
 pressure of 120 pounds. There are 36 furnaces, 
 of 41 inches diameter. One of the great ad- 
 vantages claimed by the French mail agents is that 
 passengers for the Continent avoid the discomforts 
 of crossing the channel and the transfer by railway, 
 thus saving much time, trouble, and expense. 
 Recently they have advertised that a special fast 
 train starts from alongside the steamer upon its 
 arrival at Havre, and connects at Paris with trains 
 for interior points of Europe. 
 
 The National Line, running between New York 
 and Liverpool, was started in 1863 with the iron 
 screw steamers Louisiana, Virginia, and Pennsyl- 
 vania, one of them measuring 3,000 tons and the 
 others 3,5oo each. In 1864 the Erin, Queen, and 
 Helvetia, about 4,5oo tons each, were added to the 
 
THE NATIONAL LINE. 
 
 403 
 
 fleet, and in i865 came the England and Denmark, 
 the former of 4,900 tons and the latter of 3,724. In 
 1868 the Italy, 4,169 tons and 5oo-horse power, was 
 brought out, and she is worthy of note as the first 
 transatlantic steamship on which compound engines 
 were used. The Egypt, 4,670 tons, and Spain, 4,5 12 
 tons, followed in 1871, and the Canada and Greece 
 of about the same tonnage a year latter. 
 
 With the increase of its fleet the Company added 
 a New^ York and London line to its service in addi- 
 tion to the original one between New York and 
 Liverpool. At the beginning of its enterprise and 
 for a long time afterwards the National Line ran its 
 ships upon the principle that safety was the first 
 consideration and speed the second, and no effort 
 was made to build up a record for quick passages. 
 Nevertheless, several of its ships repeatedly made 
 the voyage from Queenstown to Sandy Hook inside 
 of nine days, and as they combined good accommo- 
 dations with a reputation for prudence, they obtained 
 considerable popularity among the many travellers 
 to whom an extra day or two on the ocean was not 
 a hardship. The company insured its own ships 
 and gave to the captains and officers of each steamer 
 an extra compensation yearly when there were no 
 accidents to their discredit. 
 
 The captains are instructed to take a southerly 
 course in the season when ice may be expected, and 
 at other times to keep well to the south of the Virgin 
 
404 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Rocks. The following paragraph is taken from the 
 Instructions to Commanders : — 
 
 **The commanders, while using every diligence to insure 
 a speedy voyage, are prohibited from running any risk 
 whatever that might result in accidents to their ships. 
 They must ever bear in mind that the safety of the ships 
 and the lives and property on board is to be the ruling 
 principle that must govern them in the navigation of their 
 ships, and no supposed gain in expedition or saving of 
 time on the voyage is to be purchased at the risk of acci- 
 dents. The company desires to establish and maintain 
 the reputation of the steamers for safety, and expect such 
 expedition on their voyage as is consistent with safe 
 navigation.'' 
 
 Recently the company has added to its fleet the 
 fast steamer America, w^hich was specially built for 
 its service, and it promises other and equally fast 
 ships in the future. 
 
 The America is built of steel and is of the follow- 
 ing dimensions : — Extreme length, 480 ; extreme 
 breadth, 5ii feet; depth of hold, 36 feet; gross 
 tonnage, about 6,5oo tons. She is divided into 
 thirteen compartments by complete transverse bulk- 
 heads, extending to the upper deck in all cases but 
 two. The builders guaranteed a speed of 18 knots 
 an hour, equal to 21 geographical miles. On her 
 passage from Glasgow she even excelled this speed. 
 The engines are three cylinder compound, one 63 
 inches, and two 91 inches, with a stroke of 66 inches. 
 They are fitted with piston valves on all the cylinders. 
 
THE COMPOUND MARINE ENGINE, 405 
 
 The boilers are seven in number, having thirty-nine 
 furnaces in all, and a working pressure of 95 lbs. 
 
 The passenger accommodations of the America 
 are of the most approved character, and the ship is 
 lighted throughout by electricity. The saloon is 5 1 
 feet long and extends the whole width of the ship, and 
 the nine dining tables have a seating capacity of 2 5o. 
 
 We will leave our chronological account for a 
 short time to consider two of the most important 
 steps in ocean steam navigation, — the compound en- 
 gine and the increased length of ships in proportion 
 to their width. 
 
 The steamboat was not possible with the engine 
 of Newcomen, on account of the great space it occu- 
 pied and the large amount of fuel it consumed for a 
 given amount of power. When James Watt at- 
 tached the condenser to the Newcomen engine, in 
 1763, and substituted the pressure of steam for that 
 of the atmosphere, in the downward course of the 
 piston, he opened the way for the inventions of Fitch 
 and Fulton. Admitting steam on both sides of the 
 piston, he doubled the power of the engine, and by 
 condensing the steam in a separate condenser, instead 
 of cooling the cylinder at every pulsation, he made a 
 still greater economy. Year by year the steam en- 
 gine was improved, and when the machinery of the 
 Clermont was ordered from Boulton & Watt, of 
 Birmingham, an immense progress had been made 
 over the apparatus of Newcomen. 
 
4o6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 The list of improvements in the steam-engine since 
 the beginning of the century would be tedious to the 
 general reader, and besides many of them would 
 have no special bearing upon the problem of steam 
 navigation. Those who wish to be further informed 
 on this subject are referred to special works by 
 Bourne, King, Thurston, and others, and to the arti- 
 cle on " steam " in any good cyclopedia. 
 
 Oscillating Marine Engine. Transverse Section Through Vessel. 
 
 Watt's engines were worked with a pressure of 
 from six to ten pounds of steam above that of the 
 atmosphere. The condenser gave an additional 
 pressure of fifteen pounds, as it created a vacuum by 
 condensation of the steam, so that the entire power 
 of a Watt engine may be computed at the pressure 
 
THE COMPOUND MARINE ENGINE, 
 
 407 
 
 of steam in the boiler added to that of the natural 
 atmospheric pressure. In England and the eastern 
 parts of the United States, the early steamboats were 
 fitted with condensing engines — low pressure — while 
 those of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers had no 
 condensers, but discharged the steam directly into 
 the air. The latter were, and still are, known as 
 high-pressure engines. Scientists have objected to 
 the terms low and high pressure, but they are cer- 
 tainly more comprehensive to the ordinary mind 
 than the more appropriate appellations of condensing 
 or non-condensing engines. The reader who does 
 not care to trouble himself with particulars may de- 
 termine for himself that the engine which discharges 
 steam by puffs " into the air is a high-pressure one, 
 while that which does its work in comparative silence 
 and without emitting steam is a low-pressure affair. 
 
 Fairbairn's Useful Information for Engineers " 
 contains the following: 
 
 Notwithstanding the variety of forms into which it 
 has been moulded, the steam-engine is still the same 
 machine in all its simplicity of principle as when it 
 came from the hands of Watt ; it has the same recip- 
 rocating action, the same principles of separate con- 
 densation, and the same mechanical organization as 
 it had in 1784. What can exceed in beauty of con- 
 trivance the parallel motion, the governor, and other 
 motions by which this wonderful machine is ren- 
 dered effective } Innumerable attempts have been 
 
4o8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 made at its improvement, and yet, with the excep- 
 tion of working high-pressure steam expansively, 
 and by this means economizing fuel, there has been 
 no change in the principle of the steam-engine, 
 either in its condensing or non-condensing form. It 
 is still the engine of Watt ; his name is stamped as 
 indelibly upon it as Newton's upon the law of gravi- 
 tation." 
 
 Newcomen's was a beam engine and so was 
 Watt's, but the latter was the more complete of the 
 two. The beam as it was found in Watt's engine be- 
 came the walking-beam " of the steamboat. It was 
 first known as a " working-beam," and the corrup- 
 tion of " working " into walking " was by no means 
 difficult. The cross-head " engine was generally 
 adopted on the other side of the Atlantic and fol- 
 lowed by the side-lever " engine. The working- 
 beam " engine has become the peculiar property of 
 the United States, and it is as popular here as it is 
 unpopular abroad. 
 
 Passing by several minor improvements in the 
 steam engine, since the days of Watt, we will come 
 at once to the great improvement which has been of 
 immense importance to marine navigation, — the com- 
 pound engine. 
 
 In the compound engine steam at a pressure of 
 from 60 to 100 pounds is admitted to the high-pres- 
 sure cylinder ; after performing its work there it is 
 admitted to the low-pressure cylinder, where it is em- 
 
THE COMPOUND MARINE ENGINE, 
 
 409 
 
 ployed over again as in the ordinary condensing 
 engine. The high-pressure cylinder is much smaller 
 than the low-pressure one ; the steam is used twice, 
 that from the top of the smaller cylinder going to the 
 bottom of the larger one, while that from the bottom 
 of the smaller goes to the top of the larger. By 
 means of a surface condenser the steam is reduced 
 to water and returned to the boilers, where it is again 
 converted to steam and may be used over and over 
 again indefinitely. Latterly nearly all the large 
 steamers built for the merchant service are provided 
 with engines on the triple-expansion system. 
 
 The principle of the compound engine was long 
 discussed but not practically tried until after i865. 
 It was immediately found that there was a saving in 
 coal of not far from forty per cent, over the condens- 
 ing engines then in use. From that time all new steam- 
 ers were fitted with compound engines, and in many 
 cases arrangements were made for taking out the old 
 style of engines from ships already on the water and 
 substituting the compound. Not only was there a sav- 
 ing in the cost of fuel but the reduction of the quantity 
 to be carried on a voyage gave greater space for freight 
 and passengers, and required fewer men to manage 
 the fires, supply coal to the firemen, and hoist out 
 cinders. A comparison of the performances of the 
 modern steamers with the early ones has been made 
 in the account of the Cunard Line. 
 
 Compound engines were introduced into the Brit- 
 
ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 ish Navy in 1870. In 1871 Chief-Engineer King 
 of the U. S. Navy, made a strong report in favor of 
 the compound engine, and stated that the Fairfield 
 Works on the Clyde had completed 1 30 sets of 
 compound engines and had 22 others under con- 
 struction, all for ocean steamers. The Secretary of 
 the Navy ordered that all U. S. steamers hereafter 
 constructed, or old steamers requiring new engines, 
 should be supplied with those of the compound pat- 
 tern. The order remains unchanged to this day. 
 
 The lengthening of ships is a progressive step of 
 great importance in ocean navigation, and while 
 ships have been made much longer than formerly 
 the shape of the bow has been greatly changed. 
 The round, swelling bow is the type of the ship of 
 former times, and even down to the days of many 
 persons by no means old. Builders felt that the 
 head of the codfish and the whale formed good 
 models for ships, and as those inhabitants of the sea 
 were rounded in front their outlines were adopted 
 and followed for a very long time. About 1832 Mr. 
 Scott Russell designed what he called wave lines " 
 for the bow of a ship, obtaining his idea from the 
 shape of a wave set in motion at the flow of water 
 from the discharge of a lock of a canal. The lines 
 of the stern he formed by studying the refilling or 
 following wave, and when his lines were tried upon 
 ships they were found to give increased speed. 
 
 In place of the convex bow of the ships of former 
 
LENGTHENING OF SHIPS. 
 
 411 
 
 times we now see a concave surface, giving it the 
 shape of an elongated wedge, slightly hollowed on 
 its face, by which the waters are more easily parted 
 and thrown aside. This wedge shape is extended a 
 long distance aft and sometimes beyond the centre 
 of the ship ; formerly the broadest part was about 
 one third of the distance from the bow to the stern, 
 but it is now reversed in a great many instances, 
 even when the old proportions are retained above 
 the water-line. 
 
 The old proportions of length to width were as 
 four to one, as will be found by examining the meas- 
 urements of English and Dutch ships of two or three 
 centuries ago. In the early part of this century the 
 proportions were changed to about five to one, and 
 later to six to one. From this there has been a 
 steady change, until now the proportion is ten or 
 eleven to one. Note the following table, showing 
 the change of proportion in successive years, and 
 with steamers having a transatlantic reputation. 
 
 Name of steamer. 
 
 Year 
 built. 
 
 Length in 
 feet. 
 
 Breadth in 
 feet. 
 
 Proportion of length 
 to breadth. 
 
 Britannia 
 
 1840 
 
 207 
 
 34 
 
 6 to I 
 
 Asia .... 
 
 1850 
 
 266 
 
 40 
 
 6i " I 
 
 Persia .... 
 
 1855 
 
 376 
 
 45 
 
 81 " I 
 9 " I 
 
 City of Bristol . 
 
 i860 
 
 349 
 
 38 
 
 Russia .... 
 
 1867 
 
 358 
 
 42 
 
 9l " I 
 
 City of Berlin . 
 
 1874 
 
 489 
 
 45 
 
 I0| " I 
 
 City of Rome . 
 
 1881 
 
 586 
 
 52 
 
 II '* I 
 
 Since the City of Rome was built there seems to 
 have been a pause in the effort to ascertain how 
 long it is possible to make a ship and have her hold 
 
412 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 together. It was predicted that these very long 
 ships would break in two in heavy seas, but this does 
 not seem to have been the case. Many of the ships 
 built previous to 1870 have since been lengthened, 
 and in some cases as much as two hundred feet have 
 been added to the length. It is not done by build- 
 ing on at the bow or stern, as might be supposed, 
 but by placing the ship on the ways, cutting her in 
 two near the middle, drawing the two sections as far 
 apart as is desired, and then building a new section 
 into the open space. It is claimed that a lengthened 
 ship is just as strong as a new one. Quite likely 
 this is the case with iron ships, as the material admits 
 of thorough riveting and bracing, but it would hardly 
 follow with a ship of wood. 
 
 The practical advantages of long ships over short 
 ones are in the carrying capacity proportioned to con- 
 sumption of fuel with equal rates of speed. Perhaps 
 some enterprising genius will follow the theory, 
 which has thus far proven correct, until we shall have 
 steamers a mile or two in length with no more beam 
 than the Alaska or Etruria. It is the general opin- 
 ion of ship-builders and commanders that the limit of 
 length to breadth has been reached, or very nearly. 
 It is not likely that any one will venture beyond the 
 proportions of twelve to one, but in this progressive 
 age no prediction is entirely safe. 
 
 When Fulton was planning his steamboats his 
 proposal to use wheels met with much opposition. 
 
FEATHERING PADDLE-WHEEL. 
 
 Many long-headed men thought that the angle at 
 which the float enters and leaves the water, pressing 
 it down in the former case and lifting it in the other, 
 would cause such a loss of power that the boat would 
 make very little advance as the wheels turned. The 
 success of the Clermont demonstrated the incorrect- 
 
 The P'eathering Paddle-Wheel. 
 
 ness of their theories, but it continued to be evident 
 that the wheel with fixed floats was operated under 
 some disadvantages. The continued study of this 
 subject led to the invention of the feathering " 
 paddle-wheel. 
 
 By means of this wheel the floats or buckets pre- 
 
414 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 sent a perpendicular surface to the water, or very 
 nearly so, during all the time of their immersion. 
 It has been found that a feathering wheel has the 
 same action on the water as a wheel of twice its 
 diameter with fixed arms. There is a considerable 
 economy in space, cost, and weight, but in spite of 
 these advantages the invention has not obtained the 
 popularity which might naturally be looked for. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The Guion Steamship Line — The Greyhound of the Atlantic — The White 
 and Red Star Lines — The Monarch Line and its largest passenger — 
 Other Transatlantic lines — Origin of the "P. & O." Company — Its 
 Growth and Extent of its Service — The Messageries Maritimes — German 
 line to Asia and Australia — Other great lines — The Ocean Tramp — 
 Ocean Steam-Tonnage of the World. 
 
 IN August, 1866, the iron screw-steamer Manhat- 
 tan sailed from Liverpool for New York as the 
 pioneer of the Williams & Guion line of steamers, 
 popularly known as the Guion Line, and having the 
 corporate title of the Liverpool and Great West- 
 ern Steamship Company." The Minnesota, Ne- 
 braska, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Wisconsin, rapidly 
 followed the Manhattan, all iron steamers of about 
 3,000 tons burthen and without reputation for speed 
 or the ability to make it. In 1873-74 came the 
 Montana and Dakota of about 3,5oo tons each, 
 somewhat more speedy than the steamers of the 
 old type, but still unequal to the Inman and Cunard 
 boats. 
 
 With a view to making quick voyages over the 
 Atlantic the Guion Company built three new steam- 
 ers, the Arizona, Alaska, and Oregon, which were 
 brought out in the order named. The Alaska 
 speedily made a reputation by distancing all com- 
 
4i6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 petitors and obtaining the appellation of The Grey- 
 hound of the Atlantic." She is 526 feet long, 
 5o feet broad, and 40 feet deep, and her measure- 
 ment is about 8,000 tons. Her engines are com- 
 pound with three cylinders, inverted ; ti e high- 
 
 Vertical longitudinal section of one of the nine boilers of the Alaska." 
 
 pressure cylinder is 68 inches in diameter, and the 
 two low-pressure cylinders 100 inches each, and the 
 length of stroke is six feet. The boilers supply 
 steam at 100 pounds pressure and she burns nearly 
 if not quite 300 tons of coal daily. The indicated 
 
4i8 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 horse power is about i,ooo. The ship has seven 
 decks and two smoke-stacks ; has accommodations 
 for 340 first-class passengers, 60 second-class, and 
 1 ,100 steerage, and her main saloon can seat 280 
 people at once. 
 
 The Arizona and Oregon were so nearly like the 
 Alaska that a particular description is unnecessary. 
 The Oregon was sold to the Cunard Company ow- 
 ing to some disputes between the Guion Company 
 and the builders of the ship, but both before and af- 
 ter her possession by that ancient association of 
 mariners she made a high reputation for speed in 
 crossing the Atlantic. In March, 1886, she was 
 sunk near Fire Island, in consequence of a collision 
 with a coal-laden schooner, and was a total loss. 
 
 The following are some of the records of these 
 steamers : 
 
 In the beginning of July, 1882, the Alaska made 
 the run from Queenstown to New York in seven 
 days, five hours, and in seven days, one hour home. 
 She then accomplished the wonderful performance 
 of crossing in six days, eighteen hours, and thirty- 
 seven minutes from bar to bar. The Oregon was 
 then added to the Guion fleet, and she lowered the 
 record to six days, ten hours, and ten minutes. 
 During this voyage the fastest consecutive three 
 days' running was made. She sailed from Queens- 
 town at noon on April 13th, and arrived at New 
 York on Saturday, April 19th, at 5.47 p.m., having 
 
THE WHITE STAR LINE, 419 
 
 run 2,861 miles. On April 17th she ran 470 miles ; 
 i8th, 469; and 19th, 472 — or 1,411 nautical miles 
 in three days. 
 
 Though not equalling the Alaska, the Arizona is a 
 very fast ship, having repeatedly made the transit in 
 little more than seven days. The Oregon's quickest 
 
 Half Front View and Half Cross-section of One of the Nine Boilers of 
 
 the Alaska. 
 
 trip was six days, ten hours, and four minutes — the 
 fastest on record until the Etruria appeared on the 
 scene. 
 
 In 1870 the White vStar Line of steamships burst 
 upon New York like a meteor — the Oceanic being 
 
420 
 
 ROBEkT FULTON', 
 
 the first to arrive in port. Few had heard of the 
 new Hne, but very speedily the papers were filled 
 with descriptions of the Oceanic and of the 
 vessels that followed her. They were built for 
 speed and superior accommodation to passengers. 
 The main saloon was amidships, instead of in the 
 stern, as was then usual, and it was not inclosed by 
 staterooms, but extended the entire width of the 
 vessel. In place of the old-fashioned benches or 
 settees at the tables, each person had a chair to 
 himself, and could enter or leave without disturb- 
 ing any one else. The staterooms were likewise 
 amidships at either end of the saloon, and the 
 smoking-room was not the little hole of former 
 days, but a comfortable and well -lighted apart- 
 ment. 
 
 The ships of the White Star Line were built at 
 Belfast, and vary from 3,700 to 5, 000 tons in 
 burthen. The company has adopted the distinc- 
 tive termination of ic " for the names of its ships, 
 and the public is familiar with Germanic, Britannic, 
 Oceanic, Baltic, Celtic, Republic, Gaelic, Arabic, Belgic, 
 Adriatic, and Coptic. Varying in details, there is a 
 general similarity of these ships, and the description 
 of one will suffice. We will take the Coptic as an 
 example, and the following are her dimensions : 
 
 Length, 430 feet; width, 42 feet; depth of hold, 
 34 feet ; registered measurement, 4,368 tons ; but 
 she can carry about 6,000 tons. She is propelled 
 
THE RED STAR LINE. 
 
 421 
 
 by two double-cylinder engines (compound) of 45o- 
 horse power at 90 pounds pressure of steam. She 
 has three double elliptic boilers with four fires to 
 each, and the boilers have been tested to 180 
 pounds. The hull is divided into eight compart- 
 ments, and the ship is lighted throughout by elec- 
 tricity. 
 
 The following are amongst the most remarkable 
 passages of the steamers of the White Star Line : 
 
 QUEENSTOWN TO 
 NEW YORK. 
 
 DAYS. H. 
 
 Germanic, Apr., 1877, 7 11 
 
 Britannic, Aug., 1877, 7 10 
 
 Celtic, July, 1879, ^ 4 
 
 Baltic, Sept., 1879, 8 o 
 
 Republic, Sept., 1881, 8 i 
 
 Britannic, Aug., 1883, 7 13 
 
 Britannic, Aug., 1884, 7 ^7 
 
 Adriatic, Aug., 1884, 8 i 
 
 NEW YORK 
 TO QUEENSTOWN. 
 
 M. 
 
 
 
 DAYS. 
 
 H. 
 
 37 
 
 Feb., 
 
 1876, 
 
 7 
 
 15 
 
 53 
 
 Dec, 
 
 1876, 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 25 
 
 June, 
 
 1879, 
 
 8 
 
 0 
 
 6 
 
 Dec, 
 
 1880, 
 
 8 
 
 I 
 
 20 
 
 June, 
 
 1881, 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 39 
 
 June, 
 
 1883, 
 
 7 
 
 17 
 
 22 
 
 Oct., 
 
 1884, 
 
 7 
 
 12 
 
 22 
 
 Nov., 
 
 1884, 
 
 7 
 
 20 
 
 The Red Star Line is under the Belgian flag, 
 and subsidized by His Majesty, the King of the 
 Belgians. It was established in 1873, to perform a 
 weekly service between New York and Antwerp, 
 and is under the same management as the Ameri- 
 can line from Philadelphia. The names of its 
 steamers end in ''land." Some of them are new, 
 while others are former favorites which grew old in 
 the service of the Cunard Line, and were sold, 
 lengthened, transformed, and re-christened. The 
 
422 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Waesland is the old Cunarder Russia, the Zee- 
 land is the Java, and the Pennland is the 
 Algeria. The steamers vary from 3,000 to 
 5,000 in tonnage, and from 330 to 445 feet in 
 length. They make the voyage between Antwerp 
 and New York in from 10 to 14 days, and are 
 fairly popular with those who patronize them. 
 Some of the new steamers of the Red Star Line 
 have made the voyage inside of 9 days, but this 
 rapidity is not usual. 
 
 In 1874 was established the Royal Exchange 
 Shipping Company " of steamers, better known as 
 the Monarch Line, on account of the nomenclature 
 of its steamers. They are intended more for 
 freight than for passengers desiring rapid transit. 
 The passenger accommodations are for 1,000 in 
 the steerage, and 60 to 100 in the cabin, and the 
 ships have a capacity of about 4,000 tons. The 
 steamers are the Assyrian, Norman, Danish, Cel- 
 tic, Roman, Persian, Egyptian, Lydian, and Grecian 
 Monarchs, and are as much alike as the traditional 
 ''peas in a pod." The Assyrian Monarch has 
 brought to America the largest passenger ever car- 
 ried on a transatlantic steamer, — the illustrious 
 (and by children much lamented) elephant Jumbo. 
 
 The Wilson, Thingvalla, Rotterdam, State, and 
 a few other regular and irregular lines plying be- 
 tween New York and ports of northern Europe, 
 are devoted more especially to freight and steer- 
 
OTHER TRANSATLANTIC LINES. 
 
 age passengers, though all have first cabins, and 
 are suited to the wants of travellers with shallow 
 purses, and without the desire of an all-consum- 
 ing speed. An Italian line to Gibraltar, Mar- 
 seilles, and Genoa, offers opportunities to those 
 who wish to go direct to the Mediterranean, and 
 the steamers are of a size and capacity that leave 
 little to be wished. Steamship lines rise and fall, 
 and while this book is going through the press new 
 ones may come into existence, or some of those 
 now on the list may close their business and re- 
 tire from the watery field. 
 
 Boston boasts of an old-established steamship 
 service, the Warren Line, which succeeded to the 
 business of the once famous group of sailing 
 packets belonging to Enoch Train & Co. Its 
 first vessels were the Propontus, Bosphorus, Dela- 
 ware, and their sisters, followed in 1872 and suc- 
 ceeding years by the Minnesota, Victoria, Pales- 
 tine, Canopus, Pembroke, Missouri, and Kansas. 
 The last named have a capacity respectively of 
 4,400 and 4,500 tons, and are about 425 feet long, 
 with compound engines of 300-horse power. 
 
 The Allen and Dominion lines are Canadian in- 
 stitutions, the former dating from 1854, and the 
 latter fi'om a much more recent year. The Allen 
 Line grew out of a line of sailing packets very much 
 as did the Cunard and the Hamburg lines. Its 
 originator, Mr. Hugh Allen, was knighted by the 
 
424 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 queen as a reward for his services, and became Sir 
 Hugh Allen. He was born in Scotland, 1810, 
 and died December 9, [882. At the time of his 
 death, he was not only at the head of his steam- 
 ship company, but was the president of one of the 
 largest banks in Canada, and of twenty-two other 
 public companies, in all of which he had large in- 
 vestments. 
 
 The steamers of the Allen and Dominion lines 
 run from Liverpool to Quebec and Montreal in 
 summer, and to Halifax in winter when the St. 
 Lawrence is closed by ice. The transatlantic part 
 of the route is much shorter than that from New 
 York or Boston, but it is more dangerous on account 
 of the numerous fogs that prevail and the high lati- 
 tudes through which the vessels pass in the season 
 of icebergs. The Canadian lines have a greater 
 number of casualties to their account than any 
 others, but in spite of these mishaps the service has 
 been profitable and continues with exemplary regu- 
 larity. 
 
 Turn we now to the other side of the Adantic 
 and note the great steamship lines that connect 
 Europe with the rest of the world, exclusive of 
 North America. 
 
 First and foremost is the Peninsular and Oriental 
 Steam Navigation Company, familiarly known as the 
 P. & O." But where does the name come from 
 
 In 1834 the Dublin and London Steam Packet 
 
ORIGIN OF THE ''P. ^ Or COMPANY. 425 
 
 Company chartered the steamer Royal Tar to 
 carry to the Spanish peninsula the mail, which had 
 hitherto been carried by sailing packets between 
 Falmouth and Lisbon. In the following year the 
 single steamer grew into a line " of two steamers, 
 and in 1837 ''The Peninsular Company of Steam- 
 Packets " was established and made a contract to 
 carry the mails for a compensation of ^29,000 per 
 annum. The Iberia, the pioneer steamer of this line, 
 sailed in September, 1837, and she may be con- 
 sidered the pioneer of the vast fleet of the P. & O. 
 Company of the present day. 
 
 Up to September 1840 the mails to and from 
 India were carried by steamers monthly between 
 Bombay and Suez, and in government steamers be- 
 tween Alexandria and Gibraltar, where they con- 
 nected with the mail service of the Peninsular Com- 
 pany to and from England. In 1840 the British 
 Government contracted with the Peninsular Company 
 to run a line of steamers direct between Enorland 
 and Alexandria, touching at Gibraltar and Malta. 
 The steamers Oriental (1,600 tons) and Great Liver- 
 pool (1,540) were the pioneer ships of this service, 
 and the new company was called The Peninsular 
 and Oriental Steam Navigation Company," a name 
 it retains to this day, though the conditions of its 
 service have greatly changed in the forty-five years 
 that have elapsed. 
 
 With the expiration of each contract the company 
 
426 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 extended its service in frequency, speed, and dis- 
 tance — until now it resembles Briareus with its many 
 arms, its route covering the map of all Asiatic 
 and Mediterranean waters. It has a weekly service 
 from London to Alexandria over the original route 
 and another from Venice and Brindisi to Alexandria; 
 the weekly service is continued to Bombay, and there 
 is a fortnightly service from Suez and also from 
 Bombay to Ceylon. At Ceylon steamers diverge in 
 three directions, one line to Calcutta, another to 
 Singapore and Hong-Kong, and a third to Australia. 
 At Hong-Kong there is another divergence, one line 
 going to Shanghai and another to Yokohama, the 
 latter city being 11,247 miles from London and the 
 former 10,497. The Australian hne terminates at 
 Sydney, 1 1,978 miles from the starting point. 
 
 The company has a heavy subsidy from the gov- 
 ernment for the transportation of mails and is under 
 severe penalties for delays. From two steamers of 
 1,600 tons each, its fleet has grown to sixty and 
 more, some of them of five or six thousand tons ca- 
 pacity and capable of steaming at a rate such as the 
 Oriental and Great Liverpool never dreamed of. It 
 gives employment to nearly 1 3,000 persons, exclusive 
 of coolies and other laborers on shore, and its posses- 
 sions in ships, wharves, etc., are said to be worth 
 more than twenty millions of dollars. 
 
 The P. and O. works amicably with another 
 steamship company of equal magnitude and import- 
 
GERMAN LINE TO ASIA AND AUSTRALIA. 427 
 
 ance, the Messageries Maritimes, better known to 
 English-speaking Asiatics as the French Mail." It 
 was created by the French Government in i85i,and 
 was known as the Messageries Imperiales until 1870 
 when it assumed its present title, in consequence of 
 the course of political events in France. It has lines 
 through the Mediterranean, lines to India, China, 
 Japan, and Australia, and a line to South America, 
 touching all the principal ports from Para to Val- 
 paraiso. On its Asiatic routes it alternates wMth the 
 steamers of the P. & O. Company, so that as each 
 line runs its vessels fortnightly the mail is served 
 weekly. Its Australian line diverges from Singapore 
 instead of Ceylon, and runs to Brisbane, in Queens- 
 land, which is not touched by the P. & O. Its fleet 
 equals that of the P. & O. in numbers, size of ships, 
 splendor, speed, and every thing else, and a goodly 
 part of its first-class passenger business is from Eng- 
 lishmen who consider the French ships superior to 
 their own. 
 
 While this chapter is in preparation word comes 
 from Germany that the government of that empire 
 has made a contract with the North German Lloyds 
 Company to establish lines of steamers of the highest 
 class to Japan, China, Australia, and the Islands of 
 the Pacific. Germany has designs upon the East, 
 and desires colonies like those of her powerful neigh- 
 bors. The P. & O. and the M. M. will thus have a 
 new and keen competitor in the trade of the far 
 
428 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 East, and it is possible that other governments will 
 not be idle spectators of the commercial combat. 
 Russia has a subsidized line of steamers — the Rus- 
 sian Company of Navigation and Commerce — with 
 head-quarters at Odessa and lines through the Black 
 and Mediterranean seas, the latter extending as far 
 as London. Austria has the Austrian Lloyds, with 
 a fleet of eighty or more ships, and a service cover- 
 ing the Levant and the Black Sea, and extending 
 beyond Egypt to India and the Straits. Austria and 
 Russia can easily increase their subsidies, and the 
 directors of the companies would be only too happy 
 to contend with England and France for their share 
 of the Oriental trade. 
 
 Holland has a line from Amsterdam to Batavia, in 
 Java, touching at Gibraltar, Naples, Suez, and Aden. 
 Italy has a powerful company, the Florio-Rubattino, 
 which possesses altogether nearly a hundred steam- 
 ers. It has its head-quarters at Genoa, and sends its 
 vessels all through the Mediterranean, and also to 
 North and South America and to India and the 
 Straits. Probably before this book appears we may 
 hear of an Italian line to China and Japan, and 
 another to Australia, as the managers are enterpris- 
 ing and the Italian Government is liberal ; but the 
 subsidized lines do not have things all their own way 
 as there are several lines running through the Med- 
 iterranean and into Asiatic waters, which have only 
 their earnings to rely upon, with perhaps some con 
 
OTHER GREAT LINES. 
 
 429 
 
 cessions for carrying local mails along the coasts 
 they visit. 
 
 Of these companies may be mentioned the British 
 India Steam Navigation Company, which runs from 
 London to Kurrachee, at the mouth of the Indus, 
 and thence diverges up the Persian Gulf to the 
 mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris, down and 
 around the coast of India to Bombay, Colombo, 
 Madras, and Calcutta, then down the coast of Bur- 
 mah and the Malay peninsula to Rangoon and 
 Singapore. Then there is the City Line, running 
 fortnightly between Liverpool and Calcutta, the 
 Hall Line, to Bombay, the Glen Line and the Castle 
 Line performing a nearly similar service, the latter 
 extending its trips to China and Japan, the Holt 
 Line, running regularly betw^een London and China, 
 and the Ducal Line, which runs to Bombay and Cal- 
 cutta. 
 
 Of other lines having numerous ships and per- 
 forming excellent service may be mentioned the 
 Orient Line from London to New Zealand and 
 Australia, whose latest steamers are among the 
 best afloat : the Pacific Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany from Liverpool to the ports of the Pacific 
 Ocean by the way of the Straits of Magellan ; the 
 Royal West India Mail Line ; the Liverpool, Brazil 
 and River Plate Line ; the Union Steamship Com- 
 pany, which divides with the Castle Line the service 
 to the Cape of Good Hope and the east coast of 
 
430 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Africa ; the African Steamship Company and the 
 British and African Steam Navigation Company 
 which supply the west coast of Africa ; the Ham- 
 burg South-American Steamship Company to Brazil, 
 and the Kosmos Steamship Company from Ham- 
 burg to Valparaiso. Other lines might be named 
 but the list is becoming tedious and we will come to 
 a full stop, ere the reader s brain becomes an ant-hill 
 of the dimensions and names of ships, and bursts 
 with the pulsation of their engines. 
 
 There remains the Ocean Tramp, which is to the 
 organized steamship interest what the terrestrial 
 tramp is to modern civilization. As the name indi- 
 cates the marine tramps have no fixed routes but 
 run wherever freights can be had and generally 
 accept terms far lower than those demanded by the 
 regular lines. For this reason they are not loved by 
 the established companies and their characters are 
 not painted in glowing colors. Old and unseaworthy 
 steamers are sent out as tramps, often under heavy 
 insurance ; they founder at sea, and are reported 
 missing," the owners recover their insurance and 
 the public speedily forgets all about them. Too 
 many of the ocean tramps are of this sort, and so 
 great has become the evil that energetic measures 
 have been taken in the British Parliament for the 
 protection of the lives of seamen who may perish 
 victims to the greed of owners. 
 
 But there are other tramps that deserve to be 
 
OCEAN STEAM-TONNAGE OF THE WORLD, 43 1 
 
 called respectable ; they are large, strong, well- 
 equipped steamers, and belong to enterprising 
 and careful owners who make a business of seeking 
 freights where they are in greatest abundance. 
 Several of the companies have thirty or forty 
 steamers, each and many of them own from four to 
 a dozen. In spite of their honesty of management 
 they cannot win the favor of the regular organizations 
 on account of their cheapening of freights, and one 
 of the tramp companies has been derisively desig- 
 nated as The Forty Thieves " in disrespectable al- 
 lusion to the number of its vessels. 
 
 Following is a table showing the ocean steam-ton- 
 nage of the world, including only ships of at least 
 100 tons register. It is taken from the records of 
 the Bureau Veritas, the recognized authority of the 
 American Shipmasters' Association. 
 
 TONNAGE. 
 
 FLAGS. 
 
 NO. OF STEAMERS. GROSS. 
 
 NET. 
 
 British 
 
 4,852 
 
 6,464,362 
 
 4,159,003 
 
 French . 
 
 
 750,061 
 
 498,646 
 
 German . 
 
 
 566,697 
 
 410,064 
 
 American 
 
 355 
 
 545,1^7 
 
 357,269 
 
 Spanish . 
 
 314 
 
 363,908 
 
 237,500 
 
 Dutch 
 
 174 
 
 214,538 
 
 143,991 
 
 Italian 
 
 147 
 
 201,070 
 
 128,146 
 
 Russian . 
 
 210 
 
 161,110 
 
 105,802 
 
 Norwegian 
 
 266 
 
 141,452 
 
 103,792 
 
 Danish . 
 
 177 
 
 135,344 
 
 89,957 
 
 Austrian 
 
 102 
 
 130,477 
 
 93,043 
 
 Swedish . 
 
 311 
 
 130,180 
 
 91,228 
 
 Belgian . 
 
 60 
 
 108,207 
 
 73,700 
 
432 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 TONNAGE. 
 
 FLAGS. 
 
 NO. OF STEAMERS. 
 
 GROSS. 
 
 NET. 
 
 Japanese 
 
 I02 
 
 94,985 
 
 59^306 
 
 Greek 
 
 •J 
 
 52,878 
 
 43,573 
 
 Brazilian 
 
 82 
 
 46,965 
 
 30,795 
 
 Egyptian 
 
 
 ^£^,662 
 
 22,613 
 
 Chilian . 
 
 22 
 
 2^,766 
 
 
 Portuguese 
 
 23 
 
 22,299 
 
 14,624 
 
 Mexican . 
 
 
 18,285 
 
 11,621 
 
 Argentine 
 
 22 
 
 14,590 
 
 8,782 
 
 Chinese . 
 
 8 
 
 10,7 ID 
 
 6,804 
 
 Turkish 
 
 14 
 
 10,144 
 
 6,270 
 
 Peruvian 
 
 6 
 
 6,789 
 
 4,639 
 
 Hawaiian 
 
 0 
 
 
 2,662 
 
 Haytian 
 
 
 4,087 
 
 2,529 
 
 Zanzibar 
 
 2 
 
 2,828 
 
 7 / J 
 
 Uruguay 
 
 4 
 
 2,396 
 
 1,507 
 
 Tunisian 
 
 . . 2 
 
 1,762 
 
 1,204 
 
 Roumanian 
 
 3 
 
 1,666 
 
 1,102 
 
 Venezuela 
 
 3 
 
 838 
 
 540 
 
 Costa Rican . 
 
 2 
 
 719 
 
 425 
 
 Siamese . 
 
 2 
 
 547 
 
 351 
 
 Ecuador 
 
 I 
 
 329 
 
 249 
 
 San Domingo 
 
 I 
 
 167 
 
 103 
 
 Total 
 
 8,394 10, 
 
 269,504 
 
 6,719,101 
 
 It will be observed that American steamers stand 
 fourth on the Hst, and that Great Britain possesses 
 more than one half of all the ocean steam-tonnage of 
 the globe. Statistics of the river, lake, harbor, and 
 other inland steam -vessels of the world are not at 
 hand. The total number of steam-vessels in the 
 United States at the last report accessible to the 
 writer was 5,401, with an aggregate measurement 
 
NUMBER OF STEAM-VESSELS IN THE WORLD. 433 
 
 of 1,465,909 tons. Consequently, our ocean-going 
 steam- vessels exceeding lOO tons register are about 
 one fifteenth of our entire number. 
 
 At the same ratio the whole world would possess 
 125,910 steam-vessels of all kinds — a numerous 
 family, indeed, to be descended from the Clermont 
 in less than eighty years ! But this estimate is not 
 a fair one, as the number of inland steam-vessels in 
 the United States is doubtless much larger than that 
 of any other country, owing to our immense network 
 of navigable lakes and rivers. Including ocean ves- 
 sels of all kinds, together with steamers navigating 
 lakes and rivers, and the thousands of steam ferry- 
 boats, tugs, tenders, etc., it is safe to say that not less 
 than fifty thousand steam-vessels are now aflioat in 
 the commercial service of the globe. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 The Great Eastern : her history, achievements, and failures — A ghost-story 
 — The cable steamers Faraday, Hooper, and Minia — The Anthracite and 
 her peculiarities — Winans* cigar-ship " — Captain Lundborg's invention 
 — The Castalia, Calais-Douvres, and Bessemer — A steamer " nearly all 
 wheel " — The doomed steamer Meteor — The Stiletto. 
 
 A STEAMER that has filled numerous pages of 
 history and emptied the pockets of numerous 
 owners is the Great Eastern — a conception of the 
 famous engineer, Brunei. His idea was that a 
 steamer could be built to carry coal for a voyage 
 to Australia and back, but to accomplish this she 
 must be very large. His calculations were that she 
 should be from twenty to twenty-five thousand tons 
 measurement, and should have both paddle-wheels 
 and screws for propulsion, together with sails for use 
 when the wind favored. 
 
 The Eastern Steam Navigation Company was or- 
 ganized to carry out his scheme wMth a capital of 
 ^1,200,000 and power to increase to ^2,000,000. 
 The first plate of the vessel was laid at Millwall on 
 the Thames, May i, 1854. The ship was built with 
 an inner and outer skin two feet ten inches apart, 
 with longitudinal and perpendicular webs or plates 
 at intervals of six feet, so that the space between the 
 skins was divided into sections six feet square. If 
 
THE GREAT EASTERN, 
 
 435 
 
 the outer skin should be damaged, the water would 
 be stopped by the inner one ; if both were punc- 
 tured, the water was to be kept from doing serious 
 damage by means of twelve compartments, into 
 which the ship was divided by transverse bulk- 
 heads. In addition to these there were two longi- 
 
 The Great Eastern at Sea. 
 
 tudinal bulkheads extending for a length of 360 feet 
 and rising from the bottom of the ship to the upper 
 deck. The iron plates of which the skins were made 
 were three-quarter inch in thickness, except the keel 
 plates, which were one inch thick. The vessel was 
 built parallel with the river, as it was intended to 
 launch her sidewise. 
 
43^ 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 About eight thousand tons of iron were used in 
 the hull, and the estimated weight of the whole ves- 
 sel with every thing and everybody on board was 
 estimated at 2 5,ooo tons. 
 
 November 3, 1 857, an attempt was made to launch 
 the ship, but after moving six feet she stuck on the 
 ways. After several unsuccessful attempts to move 
 her, she slid into the water January 31, i858, and 
 
 Plan of the Great Eastern. 
 
 was christened the Great Eastern by Miss Hope, 
 daughter of the chairman of the company. 
 
 Brunei had estimated the cost of building and 
 launching the ship at /5oo,ooo, but his figures were 
 exceeded by ^230,000. In November, i858, the 
 Eastern Steam Navigation Company was dissolved 
 and The Great Ship Company was organized 
 with ^330,000 capital. The new company was to 
 
THE GREAT EASTERN, 
 
 437 
 
 pay ^160,000 to the old one, spend ^120,000 in 
 fitting and finishing the ship, and have ^5o,ooo for 
 working expenses. 
 
 The following details of her dimensions, capacity, 
 fittings, power, etc., will be interesting to the nauti- 
 cal reader, and repay a glance on the part of those 
 who do not go down to the sea in ships." 
 
 SUMMARY OF STATISTICS OF THE " GREAT EASTERN.' 
 
 Length of upper deck . . feet, 692 
 Length between perpendiculars, " 680 
 lireadth across paddle-boxes . ''118 
 Breadth of hull 83 
 Depth from deck to keel . . ''58 
 Number of decks .... 4 
 masts .... 6 
 
 Diameter of - . . -! ^ ^V,^J'?n^'' 
 
 \ 3 It. 6 in. 
 
 Quantity of canvas under full sail, 
 
 square yards .... 6,500 
 
 Number of anchors .... 10 
 
 " boats .... 20 
 
 Tonnage (old measurement), tons, 22,500 
 
 Storage for cargo . . " 6,000 
 
 Capacity of coal-bunkers, 12,000 
 
 Draught of water, unladen, 15 ft. 6 in. 
 
 " " laden . feet, 30 
 
 Number of water-tight compartments, 12 
 
 Diameter of paddle-wheels 
 Weight " . . 
 
 Length of floats 
 Width " . . . . 
 Number of floats to each wheel 
 Length of paddle-shafts . 
 Weight " . . . 
 
 Length of intermediate cranked 
 
 shafts 
 
 Weight of intermediate cranked 
 
 shafts 
 
 PADDLE-ENGINES. 
 
 Nominal horse-power 
 Number of cylinders 
 Diameter 
 
 feet, 56 
 tons, 185 
 feet, 13 
 3 
 
 30 
 
 feet, 38 
 tons, 30 
 
 feet, 21^ 
 
 tons, 31 
 
 Weight 
 
 piston and rod 
 Length of stroke 
 Strokes per minute 
 
 including 
 
 6 ft, 2 in. 
 
 tons, 38 
 feet, 14 
 14 
 
 PADDLE-ENGINE BOILERS. 
 
 Number of boilers 
 Furnaces to each 
 Length of boilers 
 Width 
 Height 
 
 Weight of each 
 
 10 
 
 17 ft. 6 in. 
 17 " 9 
 
 13 " 9 ' 
 tons, 50 
 
 Weight of water 
 Area of heating surface 
 Number of tubes 
 Thickness of plates . 
 
 tons, 40 
 sq. feet, 4,800 
 400 
 
 I and in. 
 
 feet, 24 
 37 
 4 
 
 tons, 36 
 feet, 160 
 
 . 1 ,600 
 4 
 
 inches, 84 
 feet, 4 
 
 SCREW PROPELLER, 
 
 Diameter of screw 
 Pitch . . . 
 
 Number of fans 
 Weight of screw 
 Length of propeller-shaft 
 
 SCREW ENGINES. 
 
 Nominal horse-power 
 Number of cylinders 
 Diameter of each cylinder. 
 Length of stroke . . 
 Number of revolutions per minute, 50 
 
 SCREW BOILERS. 
 
 Number of boilers .... 6 
 Funnels to each boiler ... 12 
 Length of boiler . . 18 ft, 6 in. 
 Width . , . 17 6 " 
 
 Height feet, 14 
 
 Weight of boiler , . . tons, 57 
 *' water . , . "'45 
 Area of heating surface . sq. feet, 5,000 
 Number of tubes .... 420 
 Thickness of plates . . and \ in. 
 
 Number of auxiliary engines 
 
 donkey-engines 
 Total horse-power (about) 
 
 PASSENGER ACCOMMODATION. 
 
 Number of passengers (first class), 800 
 " (second class), 2,000 
 
 *^ (third class), 1,200 
 
 Aggregate length of saloons and 
 
 berths feet, 350 
 
 Number of saloons , . , . 10 
 Length of principal saloon . feet, 100 
 Width . . 36 
 
 Height " " " . . 13 
 
 Length of cabins . . . 14 
 Width . , . 7 to 8 ft. 
 
 Height " , . , . 7 ft. 4 in. 
 
438 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Admiral Preble asserts that Noah's Ark was 
 smaller than the Great Eastern, and gives the follow- 
 ing figures, taking the cubits of Sir Isaac Newton 
 and Bishop Wilkins as the standard of measurement 
 of the biblical vessel : 
 
 NOAH S ARK, 
 
 NOAH S ARK, 
 
 
 ACCORDING TO 
 
 ACCORDING TO 
 
 GREAT 
 
 NEWTON. 
 
 WILKINS. 
 
 EASTERN. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Feet. 
 
 Feet 
 
 Length bet. perpendiculars, 515.62 
 
 547 
 
 680 
 
 Breadth . . . 89.94 
 
 91.16 
 
 83 
 
 Depth . . . 51.56 
 
 54.70 
 
 58 
 
 Keel or length for tonnage, 464.08 
 
 492.31 
 
 630.02 
 
 Tonnage according to old law 18,232 
 
 21,762 
 
 28,093 
 
 Sir Isaac Newton makes the Scripture cubit 20 
 and -^-^-^ inches; Bishop Wilkins makes it 21 and 
 -^-f^ inches. The reader may adopt whichever 
 standard he chooses and still he will find the Great 
 Eastern larger than Noah's Ark. Not only was she 
 larger than any previous ship but she was the only 
 one with two sets of paddle-engines and two of 
 screws. 
 
 Compare this steamer of thirty years ago with one 
 of the recent triumphs of marine architecture, the 
 City of Rome. 
 
 CAPACITY, TONS. 
 LENGTH. BREADTH. DEPTH. NET. GROSS. 
 
 Feet. Feet. Feet. 
 
 City of Rome . 586 52 37 3,453 8,144 
 
 Great Eastern . 680 83 58 13, 344 18,915 
 
 By September, iSSq, the Great Eastern was ready 
 for sea, and left her moorings at Deptford for Port- 
 
THE GREAT EASTERN, 
 
 439 
 
 land Roads. On the way an explosion occured by 
 which ten firemen were killed and many persons in- 
 jured. After repairs were completed she went to 
 Holyhead, where she arrived October loth, and 
 afterwards went to Southampton where she wintered. 
 Captain Harrison, her commander, was drowned in 
 
 Boiler of the Steamer Great Eastern." 
 
 the Solent, in January i860, and she was placed in 
 command of Captain Vine Hall. 
 
 She made her first voyage to New York in June 
 i860, with 38 passengers and 8 guests. Her best 
 day's run, during the voyage, was 333 miles, and the 
 best speed attained was 141 knots per hour. She 
 consumed 2,877 tons of coal on the voyage, which 
 began on the 17th and ended on the 28th of June. 
 
440 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 The ship attracted a great deal of attention at New 
 York, and her consignees decided to send her on a 
 voyage to Cape May and back, at the price of ten 
 dollars a ticket. Several hundred passengers em- 
 braced the opportunity, and, according to all reports, 
 were very glad to get back to the Metropolis. There 
 was more motion to the ship than many of them had 
 expected, and those who neglected to carry a supply 
 of provisions were unable to obtain sufficient to eat. 
 
 After being exhibited in New York, for an admis- 
 sion fee of twenty-five cents, the Great Eastern 
 sailed for England on the i6th of August, and 
 crossed the Atlantic in ten days. On reaching her 
 native land she fell into the hands of the sheriff, and 
 was not released until the following spring. She 
 made three or four trips to New York in the sum- 
 mer of 1 86 1, suffering severely in a gale on the 
 1 2th of September, when many of those on board 
 thought she would go down. In 1862 she resumed 
 her transatlantic business, terminating her season by 
 running on a rock near Long IsJand, and springing a 
 serious leak. Repairs took some time and she did 
 not return to Liverpool until January, 1 863. 
 
 She ran to New York a few times in the following 
 summer. In 1864 she was bought by Glass, Elliott 
 & Co., and chartered to lay the Atlantic telegraph 
 cable. Alterations required much time and expense, 
 and in July, i865, the Great Eastern steamed away 
 with the cable on board and safely carried it to the 
 
THE GREAT EASTERN. 
 
 441 
 
 American shore. Landing the end of the cable she 
 started for Ireland. The cable broke in mid-ocean 
 and after vainly trying to grapple it the Great East- 
 ern returned to England. 
 
 In the following year she took out a new cable 
 which was successfully laid ; then she went back to 
 where the previous year's cable was broken and 
 after much effort brought up the end, spliced it to 
 what she had left on board and started for Ireland, 
 where she arrived safely. It seemed as though the 
 Great Eastern had found her mission at last. 
 
 In 1867 she was fitted up by a French company 
 for conveying passengers from America to the Paris 
 Exposition of that year. She was prepared for two 
 thousand on her first voyage but only 191 offered. 
 Several sailors w^ere killed or wounded by an accident 
 to one of her capstans, and after the voyage the ship 
 again went into the courts through a suit of her crew 
 for their wages. 
 
 After that adventure the Great Eastern laid four 
 or five cables across the Atlantic, and also the cable 
 from Bombay to Suez. A few attempts were made 
 to utilize her for carrying freight and passengers but 
 none were successful, and the British Government 
 several times refused to purchase her for a transport. 
 Most of the time she has lain idle in English harbors, 
 obtainino[- a small revenue through the fees collected 
 from visitors, but never has she paid a dividend to 
 her stockholders. The original builders sunk all 
 
442 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 their capital and so did the stockholders of the Great 
 Ship Company ; those who chartered her for laying 
 the cables may have obtained some remuneration, 
 but, it is safe to say, their enterprise never returned 
 them a fortune. 
 
 In 1881 the Great Eastern was offered at auction, 
 but withdrawn when it was found that she would 
 bring no more than ^30,000. In October, i885, 
 she was again offered and sold for ^26,200. It was 
 the intention of the purchasers to load her with coal, 
 send her to Gibraltar, and keep her there as a coal 
 hulk, a use for which she is admirably fitted. 
 
 " Imperial Caesar, dead and turned to clay, 
 Might stop a hole to keep the wind away." 
 
 The total cost of the Great Eastern, including 
 hull, engines, fittings, furniture, etc., was $4,703,575. 
 
 From the time she stuck on the ways during the 
 launch she seems to have been unfortunate, but 
 happily her misfortunes, while serious for stockhold- 
 ers, captain, and crew, did not extend to her passen- 
 gers. She was in advance of the needs of com- 
 merce, as there was not a sufficient movement of 
 passengers and freight at any one time to ensure 
 her a cargo of the latter and a complement of the 
 former. Now the needs of commerce have changed, 
 but the compound engine, unknown in her time, and 
 the vastly superior models of the present day, ren- 
 der the Great Eastern as useless for ocean naviga- 
 
THE CABLE STEAMERS. 
 
 443 
 
 tion as would be the ark of Noah, to which she has 
 been compared. 
 
 There is a tradition handed down among all the 
 sailors that have formed the crews of the Great 
 Eastern that her ill luck is due to an accident which 
 occurred while she was in process of building. The 
 story goes, that on one occasion two of the workmen 
 became intoxicated and crept into one of the incom- 
 pleted spaces betw^een the two skins of the ship. 
 While they were sleeping off the effects of their 
 carouse the plate to complete the inclosure of the 
 space was put into position and riveted down and 
 the absence of the men was not noticed or ac- 
 counted for for several days. The ghosts of these 
 victims of their own drunken carelessness are said 
 to haunt the ship, and their fellow workmen pre- 
 dicted that whenever the Great Eastern should be 
 broken up two skeletons would be found in one of 
 the inclosures of that enormous cellular tissue, 
 where they have lain and been transported wherever 
 the vessel has gone. 
 
 As a layer of ocean cables the Great Eastern was 
 superseded by the Faraday, which was built in 1873 
 expressly for that purpose. She is 366 feet long, 52 
 feet beam, 36 feet deep, and measures 5, 000 tons 
 gross. She can carry 6,000 tons dead weight of 
 cable which is contained in three iron tanks occupying 
 a large part of the interior of the vessel. Like the 
 Great Eastern the Faraday has a double bottom, 
 
444 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 partly to give additional strength and support the 
 tanks, and partly in order that the space between the 
 skins may be utilized for taking in water ballast as 
 the cable is paid out. Bow and stern are built alike, 
 and there is a rudder at each end of the ship. She 
 has two engines each working a screw independent 
 of the other, and by means of the rudders and 
 screws the ship is enabled to turn as if on a pivot, a 
 great advantage in her especial work. 
 
 The Hooper is a cable steamer similar to the Fara- 
 day, and there is a smaller one called the Minia which 
 is constantly kept in Halifax or St. John's. The Minia 
 is about 3,000 tons burthen and her work consists in 
 keeping the cables in repair. She carries about 
 600 miles of cable constantly in her tanks and is 
 fitted with all the apparatus necessary for picking 
 up, undermining, or splicing a damaged cable. The 
 several transatlantic cables keep her well occupied. 
 
 The smallest steamer that ever crossed the Atlan- 
 tic is, or was, the Anthracite, with a gross measure- 
 ment of 70 tons, and a registered measurement of 
 28 tons. She was 84 feet long, and of this length 
 22^ feet were occupied with engines, furnaces, boilers, 
 and coal-bunkers. She was the invention of Mr. 
 Loftus Perkins and was built in England to demon- 
 strate the advantages of steam at an enormously 
 high pressure. The boilers of the Anthracite are 
 of horizontal tubes welded up at each end and con- 
 nected by a vertical tube, and were tested to a 
 
THE ANTHRACITE AND HER PECULIARITIES. 445 
 
 pressure of 2,5oo pounds to the square inch. On 
 her transatlantic voyage (in 1880) the Anthracite 
 steamed 3,316 miles in 22\ days ; she did the entire 
 distance with 25 tons of coal, steaming- 1,353 miles 
 with only nine tons. Most of the time she used 
 only one ton per day. 
 
 Mr. Perkins thus describes his invention, which 
 he illustrated in the Anthracite : — 
 
 An anti-friction alloy is used so that no lubrication is 
 required. Cylinders with piston-rings of this material 
 have been in use for several years without showing signs 
 of wear ; the only wear being on the rings, which are 
 easily replaced. Not only is the cost of oil or greese 
 saved, but the destructive action on the machinery and 
 boilers of the acids generated from lubricants is avoided. 
 
 For the use of steam at these high pressures three 
 different sized cylinders are employed, all jacketed with 
 spiral tubes cast in the metal, which are supplied with 
 steam direct from the boilers, and keep up the tempera- 
 ture of the cylinder. The cylinders are arranged one 
 above the other, and their pistons are connected to a 
 common piston-rod. The operation is as follows : 
 
 The high-pressure steam is introduced into the upper 
 end of the first cylinder where there is no gland, and 
 where the piston is formed so as to require no lubricating 
 material. The steam is cut off at half-stroke in this cyl- 
 inder, and when admitted for the. return stroke into the 
 bottom of the second cylinder, of four times the area. 
 The temperature is so much reduced as to cause no diffi- 
 culty when brought into contact with the piston-rod 
 gland. From the bottom of the second cylinder the 
 steam expands into the top of the same cylinder, which 
 
446 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 is of larger capacity than the bottom, and serves as a 
 chamber, and is in direct communication with the valve- 
 box of the third cylinder. This last is double-acting and 
 is arranged to cut off at about a quarter-stroke, and at the 
 termination of the stroke exhausts into the condenser, 
 with an expansion of about 32 times." 
 
 In 1866 Ross Winans, an American v^ho had ac- 
 quired fame and fortune in connection with railway 
 enterprises in Russia, built in England a steam ves- 
 sel of peculiar model which was generally known as 
 the ''cigar ship." It was pointed at both ends and 
 was intended to throuo-h the waves rather than 
 over them. The inventor claimed that on this model 
 a vessel of large capacity, suitable for traversing the 
 Atlantic, could cross from Liverpool to New York in 
 five days. A high speed was attained on the trial 
 trip and a larger steamer was built, but she never at- 
 tempted to traverse the broad ocean. 
 
 The same idea had been developed by Joseph W. 
 Morse, of Brooklyn, and by Captain Perry Bliven, 
 the inventor of the dome steam-yacht Meteor. The 
 latter is i58 feet over all ; 136 feet at water-line ; 
 and 129 feet on the keel; 21 feet beam; 17 feet 
 deep, and measuring 5i2 tons ; she draws 6 feet for- 
 ward and 1 1 feet aft. The sides are continued up- 
 wards and over so as to form a dome, whence the 
 name of the peculiar model. The boat is intended 
 to be much deeper aft than forward, and the invent- 
 or's idea is that the waves will break over the bow 
 
CAPTAIN LUNDBORG' S INVENTION. 
 
 447 
 
 and sloping sides and readily flow off instead of 
 weighing down the deck as in ordinary ships. 
 
 Ocean steamers on this model are designed to be 
 from 400 to 5oo feet long, to have no masts or 
 houses or other constructions on deck except the 
 pilot-house, ventilators, and smoke-stack, and to 
 carry passengers on the spar-deck only. There is 
 a railed space on deck where passengers may prom- 
 enade in fine weather, but ^vhen there is any kind of 
 a sea on they are expected to stay below. The in- 
 terior is to be constantly ventilated by steam fans. 
 A speed of 28 to 30 miles an hour is claimed for the 
 ocean steamer constructed on this system, and as a 
 precaution against accidents each vessel is to be 
 provided with a double set of engines. 
 
 Captain Lundborg has designed and patented a 
 twin screw steamship on a principle for which he 
 claims greatly superior speed. His idea is to 
 divide the water horizontally instead of vertically, 
 and, to attain this division, the hull is made nar- 
 rower at the water-line than it is below. A vertical 
 section of his ship suggests a vertical section 
 through a common hour-glass, flattened at the 
 ends. The bottom of the vessel is flat and wider 
 in proportion than the bottom of the ordinary 
 steamer ; for a steamer \So feet long he proposes 
 two propellers, 16 feet diameter and 28 feet pitch, 
 moved by four compound engines — two on each 
 shaft — making 90 revolutions a minute. Captain 
 
448 
 
 ROBERT FULTOIV. 
 
 Lundborg is confident that such a steamer can 
 make 22 or 23 miles an hour, carrying 600 first- 
 class passengers, 1,000 second- and third-class, 3,000 
 tons of cargo, and 2,700 tons of coal, on a draft of 
 23 feet. 
 
 To mitigate the horrors of sea-sickness in the 
 transit of the channel between England and France, 
 several devices have been brought forward. The 
 most successful have been the double-hull steamers, 
 Castalia and Calais-Douvres, the former being the 
 first one tried. She is 290 feet long, and may be brief- 
 ly described as the two halves of a hull split longitudi- 
 nally and held firmly apart a distance of 26 feet. The 
 paddle-wheels work in the space between the hulls, 
 and all the space not occupied by the paddle-boxes 
 and engines is floored over, so that we have a deck 
 60 feet wide. The Calais-Douvres is on the general 
 plan of the Castalia, but larger, and with some im- 
 provements. Both vessels were successful in reduc- 
 ing sea-sickness to a minimum, but their speed was 
 not equal to that of the ordinary channel boats. 
 
 Another novel craft for the channel transit was 
 the Bessemer, the production of the inventor of 
 that name, and provided with a swinging saloon, 
 something on the plan of the Huston self-levelling 
 berth. She was 3 50 feet long at the water-line, had 
 four paddle-wheels — a pair at each end — and her 
 engines were calculated to be capable of driving 
 her from eighteen to twenty miles an hour. In the 
 
450 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 centre of this craft was a swinging saloon, 70 feet 
 long, 35 feet wide, and 20 feet high. It hung on 
 four bearings, one at each end and one at each 
 side, in the centre. The motion of the saloon was 
 controlled by machinery, specially invented by Mr. 
 
 Oscillating Cabin, Steamer Bessemer. 
 
 Bessemer, and it was intended to keep the saloon 
 on a level, no matter what might be the move- 
 ments of the rest of the ship. But it was found in 
 practice that the saloon did not answer quickly 
 
A STEAMER ''NEARLY ALL WHEELS 45 1 
 
 jnough to the machinery, and the motion, though 
 reduced, was painfully perceptible to those with 
 easily disturbed stomachs. 
 
 A novel steamboat, which may be described as 
 ''nearly all wheel," has been built by Emil Adam, 
 of Prague, Austria, and is said to have developed 
 astonishing speed. The hull is made of two hollow 
 cylinders of thin metal, tapering to the ends, and 
 having the general shape of double-pointed cigars. 
 On the outer surface of each cylinder is a screw 
 thread formed of metal plates riveted to the cylin- 
 der ; the inclination of the thread is about forty-five 
 degrees to the axis of the cylinder, and the rotation 
 of the cylinder by a steam-engine on the hull above 
 causes the thread of the screw to advance in water 
 as an ordinary screw advances in a nut. 
 
 The deck, where engines, coal, stores, pas- 
 sengers, and crew are placed, is supported upon 
 uprights, extending from the ends of the cylinders, 
 and also from breaks or recesses at different points 
 along their length. At least two cylinders are 
 necessary, but the number may be increased to 
 three or more. It is intended that only the cylin- 
 ders and the rudder shall be submerged, so that the 
 resistance will be very slight. 
 
 It is claimed that the fastest steam vessel afloat in 
 America, if not in the whole world, is the yacht 
 Stiletto, launched in April, 1884. On the loth of 
 the following June she attracted attention by beat- 
 
452 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 ing the famous river boat Mary Powell. In a race 
 of thirty miles the Stiletto came out two miles ahead, 
 making the entire distance in one hour and fifteen 
 minutes. The owners of the Powell claim that their 
 boat was not doing its best on that day, and a simi- 
 lar claim is made for the Stiletto by her owners. 
 
 The Stiletto was built by the Herreshoff Manu- 
 facturing Company, of Bristol, of which John B. 
 Herreshoff is president, and N. G. Herreshoff super- 
 intendent and designer. John B. Herreshoff says 
 that the hull of the Stiletto is the product of a series 
 of experiments made with models in the same man- 
 ner as was followed by Froude, the English ship- 
 builder, and of the improvements suggested by tests 
 of the numerous steamers previously built by the 
 Herreshoff Company. Her length over all is 94 
 feet ; beam, 1 1 feet ; depth of hold in the centre, 7f 
 feet. Below the water line both ends of the craft are 
 very nearly alike, being modelled so as to present 
 the smallest possible surface exposed to the water 
 with a given flotation, as in the attainment of very 
 high speed skin " or water surface friction is the 
 factor of major resistance. The lines of the bows 
 are very nearly straight, and the bottom is made in 
 round sections. 
 
 Power is furnished by a compound condensing en- 
 gine of 12 inch stroke and cylinders 12 and 21 inches 
 in diameter ; the engine is supplied by a sectional 
 water-tube boiler in which steam can be got up 
 
THE STILETTO. 453 
 
 quickly, and which is calculated at 45o-horse power. 
 Although this boiler is similar in principle and opera- 
 tion to those of the regular Herreshoff type, it varies 
 greatly in construction, the tubes being arranged 
 horizontally in sets immediately over the fire — each 
 set being at right angles to those just above it. 
 Exhaust steam is led to a surface condenser. An 
 ordinary pump takes the water from the condenser, 
 forces it into the upper set of boiler tubes, through 
 the boiler to a separator located in front of the boiler, 
 and to which the steam pipe is connected. The 
 boiler will work safely with i6o pounds of steam, 
 but in the race with the Mary Powell it was only 
 found necessary to use from 120 to I25 pounds. 
 The fire box is 6\ feet square. 
 
 The screw is four-bladed, 4 feet in diameter, and 
 6\ feet pitch. At the stern the boat draws 4^ feet 
 and at the bow 3 feet. 
 
 The engine is designed to produce the greatest 
 amount of power with the least possible vibration. 
 It is an annular valve inverted compound engine. 
 It has two cylinders, one of 12 inches, the other of 
 21 inches diameter, with 12 inches stroke of piston. 
 With the maximum steam pressure of i5o pounds it 
 will make 460 revolutions per minute. The essential 
 feature of the engine is in the construction of the 
 cylinder, which consists of one cylinder within the 
 other, with an annular space between in which the 
 valve works. The steam ports, or openings through 
 
454 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 which the steam enters the inner cylinder, are ranged 
 all around it at the top and bottom, so that the steam 
 pressure is exerted on the piston-head from all sides 
 at once, and not, as in the engines in use now, from 
 only one side. 
 
 The builder of the Stiletto claims that his boat is 
 capable of running twenty-seven miles an hour. He 
 also claims that an ocean steamer of large size, con- 
 structed on the same principles, would have much 
 greater speed than the present ''greyhounds of the 
 Atlantic," and an equal, if not greater, carrying ca- 
 pacity. 
 
 The question of using petroleum for fuel in place 
 of coal has been mooted for several years, and ex- 
 periments have been made with it on a small scale. 
 It is in use in steam launches and small boats for in- 
 land navigation, but has not been hazarded upon any 
 of the transatlantic or other large ships. The United 
 States Government made elaborate experiments with 
 petroleum upon the steamer Palos (360 tons) cover- 
 ing a period of several months. The conclusion was 
 reached that convenience, health, comfort, and safety 
 were against the use of petroleum as fuel for steam 
 vessels, and the only advantage shown was a not 
 very important reduction in the bulk and weight of 
 the fuel carried. Until popular prejudice can be 
 changed, it is not likely that the passenger traffic 
 on a steamer using petroleum for fuel would be in- 
 ordinately large. 
 
PETROLEUM AS FUEL FOR STEAMERS. 
 
 455 
 
 In recent years petroleum has been exclusively 
 used as fuel for steamers on the Caspian Sea and 
 for steamboats on the Volga. It has taken the place 
 of coal and wood on the trans-Caspian and trans- 
 Caucasian railways, and also on the other railways 
 of the Russian empire. Coal and wood are scarce 
 and dear in Southern Russia, while the petroleum 
 of the Baku oil fields is very cheap ; consequently, 
 the advantages of liquid fuel in that region are more 
 apparent than they would be in the United States. 
 
 One writer on this subject says that with crude 
 oil at 75 cents a barrel and coal at $3 a ton, their 
 steam-producing values would be identical. A pound 
 of petroleum will evaporate two thirds more water 
 than a pound of anthracite. If the oil is carried in 
 tanks and coal in bunkers, there would be a reduc- 
 tion of 39 per cent, in the space required for stow- 
 age of fuel. 
 
 The same writer illustrates the advantages of pe- 
 troleum by referring to the Etruria, the latest of the 
 Cunarders. It burns," he says, on a passage of six 
 days and a half 2,275 tons of coal, but to be prepared 
 for delays, it carries 3,000, leaving only 400 tons for 
 freight. If 39 per cent, of space could be economized 
 on such a vessel as this, it would give space for 
 1,170 tons more cargo of the same gravity as coal." 
 
 The oil-burning steamers on the Caspian Sea have 
 an apparatus which is managed by one attendant. 
 The same steam-producing ability with coal and 
 
456 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 fuel would require ten firemen, so that for the 
 watches on and off two men take the place of 
 twenty. A small stream of oil falls upon a jet of 
 steam — the oil and steam combined produce a 
 combustible spray of intense heating power. 
 
 On nearly all large steamships the steering is now 
 performed by steam power in place of the old hand 
 method. A single wheel about two feet in diameter 
 and moved by a touch of the finger takes the place 
 of the old-fashioned apparatus, where ofttimes in a 
 gale as many as four, and even eight, men exerted all 
 their strength to keep the ship to her course. A 
 movement of the little w^heel in either direction sets 
 the machinery in action ; the rudder is turned to 
 right or left at the will of the helmsman, and more 
 quickly than by the old method. 
 
 Progress never ceases. A recent invention pro- 
 vides for steering a ship by means of electricity and 
 compressed air, and the apparatus is so arranged that 
 it is operated by the mariner's compass. Two platinum 
 points are fixed in the bottom of the compass card 
 in such a way that a movement of the card beyond a 
 certain distance causes the points to dip in little cups 
 of mercury and complete the electric circuit. The 
 closing of the circuit actuates the machinery and the 
 rudder is turned accordingly. The compass can be 
 set for any desired direction and the helmsman may 
 go to sleep at his post without any fear that the 
 ship will leave her course. 
 
A JVEPV STEERING APPARATUS. 
 
 457 
 
 Whether this new system will meet with general 
 favor is extremely doubtful. Sea-captains are pro- 
 verbial for an unwillingness to allow their men to 
 grow rusty in the joints, and they look with disfavor 
 upon all appliances designed to remove responsibil- 
 ity from their subordinates. Steering by means of 
 the compass will not be likely to do away with the 
 present gear operated by steam, or even with the 
 old-fashioned wheel, where the men stand up to 
 their work. 
 
 Steam Pleabure-Boat. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 First Steam Vessels of War in England, France and other countries — Revo- 
 lution in Naval Architecture — The First Iron-Clad — Battle Between 
 Monitor and Merrimac — ^Turreted War-Ships — Present Thickness of 
 Plating on Armored Ships — Strength of the Navies of the World — Tor- 
 pedoes and Torpedo Boats — Different Systems in use — The Battle on 
 the Min River — the Nordenfeldt, Goubet, Tuck, and other systems — 
 Present Work of the Great Naval Powers. 
 
 WE have seen elsewhere how Robert Fulton 
 designed and built the first war steamer 
 the world ever saw, and have also read of the ex- 
 periments in the British navy with steam as a means 
 of propulsion. As we look back to 1820, when the 
 Comet, Lightning, and Meteor gun-boats were 
 ordered for the British navy, in spite of the opposi- 
 tion of the surveyors in office, it seems strange that 
 it was not readily foreseen that steam would shortly 
 become the only motive power for ships of war. Yet 
 so slow were the British naval authorities to act that 
 in 1831, according to a writer in the United Service 
 yoitr7ial, there was not one steam man-of-war in the 
 Royal navy, and the construction of engines had not 
 even commenced in the Royal dock-yards. 
 
 In 1828 the French admiralty ordered the estab- 
 lishment of a steam dock-yard, and in 1830 France 
 had nine armed steamships afloat and nine more 
 
FIRST STEAM VESSELS OF WAR. 
 
 459 
 
 under construction. In 1822-25 the United States 
 navy contained the steam galliot Sea-Gull, which 
 was used for the suppression of piracy in the West 
 Indies ; afterwards she was employed at Philadel- 
 phia as a receiving ship, and was sold out of the 
 service in 1840. 
 
 The Fulton Second was launched in 1837, and 
 was the second steam war vessel built by the United 
 States ; She may be regarded as the pioneer of our 
 present steam navy, as she was intended for sea 
 cruising, while Fulton the First was a floating battery 
 for harbor defence rather than for aggression. The 
 Fulton Second was propelled by paddle-wheels, and 
 made, in smooth water, nearly fifteen miles an hour. 
 Afterwards she was lengthened and equipped with 
 new boilers and engines, and sent to cruise in South- 
 ern waters under the name of Fulton Third. She 
 was laid up in ordinary at Pensacola at the outbreak 
 of the Civil War, and was destroyed by the rebels. 
 
 Russia, Germany, Italy, Austria, and other nations 
 having or seeking a place among maritime powers, 
 were not slow to adopt steam as a motive force. But 
 it is curious to observe that all were reluctant to 
 abandon the old form of sailing craft, and none more 
 so than England, whose naval triumphs had been 
 won by Drake, Rodney, Nelson, and a host of other 
 famous captains, before the present uses of steam 
 were thought of. 
 
 To follow the history of naval architecture with 
 
460 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 the great maritime nations would occupy far more 
 space than we have at our disposal, and also run the 
 risk of being tedious to the general reader. Volumes 
 have been filled with the story of the development 
 of the ship of war — from the great three- and 
 four-deck frigates of the last century, often with 
 an armament of more than a hundred guns, and 
 with sides high above the water, justifying the name 
 of wooden walls," to the modern turret-ship, 
 barely visible above the surface and having an 
 armament of only a very few guns. 
 
 It is safe to say that the chief, if not the only, 
 cause of this development has been the introduction 
 of steam as a marine motive power. Nelson's flag- 
 ship at Trafalgar, the Victory, 100 guns, would be 
 no match for any one of a dozen ships that might 
 be chosen from the British Navy, with powerful 
 engines, ramming prows, steam-manoeuvred turrets, 
 and the other appliances that steam has made possi- 
 ble, but without a twentieth of the number of guns 
 carried by the Victory. The same may be said of 
 the French, Austrian, German, Russian, Italian, and 
 other navies ; possibly we may include our own in 
 the list, thoucrh we do so with much hesitation. 
 Naval architecture in the United States has made 
 very little progress for more than a decade, nor is it 
 likely to show much advance until public attention is 
 aroused to a knowledcre of our defenceless condition. 
 
 Down nearly to i860 all nations had relied upon 
 
THE FIRST IRON-CLADS. 
 
 461 
 
 wooden ships for their navies ; a few iron ships had 
 been constructed, but the models had not materially 
 changed from those of half a century earlier. There 
 was a tendency to reduce the number of decks and 
 it was evident that the great four-deckers of former 
 times were to be set aside for ships more easy of 
 manoeuvring. The paddle had made way for the 
 screw as a means of propulsion. With paddle en- 
 gines a portion of the machinery was exposed to an 
 enemy's shot, while with a screw steamer every 
 thing was below the water level ; besides, the screw 
 left the whole broadside free for fighting or other 
 purposes, which before was considerably encroached 
 upon by the paddle-boxes. The general shape of 
 the ship was the same as of old and for cruising pur- 
 poses most war ships made use of their sails far 
 more than of steam. 
 
 The idea of protecting the sides of vessels with 
 armor of some kind is very old, dating almost as far 
 back as the invention of gunpowder. Indeed, some 
 of the Roman galleys and other vessels before gun- 
 powder was thought of had their sides protected with 
 leather, cordage, wooden beams, heavy planking, or 
 with plates of iron, brass, or other metals. Floating 
 batteries with armored sides were used in the siege 
 of Gibraltar in 1782, and other batteries were con- 
 structed at different epochs. We have given else- 
 where an account of the Stevens' battery, which 
 seems to have been the first vessel of the armored 
 
462 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 class after the one planned by Fulton. The English 
 Government made several experiments with armor 
 plating, but the conclusions were unfavorable to its 
 adoption. 
 
 To France belongs the credit of the first iron- 
 plated steam frigate of the first class. In the 
 Crimean War she constructed and used four small 
 gunboats with armor plating ; in March, i858, work 
 was begun on La Gloire, a sea-going frigate carrying 
 thirty-six guns, and protected amidships with plates 
 of iron four and a half inches thick, with a backing 
 of two feet of solid timber. La Gloire was the pre- 
 cursor of the iron-clad fleet of France, and virtually 
 of the iron-clad fleets of all nations of the globe. 
 Shortly after she was begun the French laid the 
 keels of the Normandie and the Invincible on the 
 same plans. England could not afford to lie idle 
 under these circumstances ; her naval authorities 
 ordered the building of the Warrior and shortly 
 afterwards of the Black Prince, Defence, and Queen. 
 
 In i860 Austria began the construction of two 
 iron-clad steam frigates, and at the same time Italy 
 began work on two iron-clad steam corvettes. Rus- 
 sia followed the example of the other powers, and 
 gave orders for iron-plated frigates, and the Naval 
 Board of the United States had the subject under 
 consideration at the outbreak of the Civil War. 
 
 In 1 86 1 the seizure of the lower Mississippi by 
 the rebels rendered the construction of armored ships 
 
THE MONITOR AND THE ME R RIM AC, 463 
 
 a necessity, and it was undertaken, not by the Navy, 
 but by the War Department. The first of the iron- 
 clad gunboats were designed and built by James B. 
 Eads, an engineer of St. Louis, and in a very short 
 time he turned out the St. Louis, Carondelet, Cairo, 
 Louisville, Mound City, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and 
 Benton. These boats were plated with iron 2^ 
 inches thick on a backing of 4 inches of wood placed 
 at an angle of 45 degrees in order to glance off hori- 
 zontal shot ; they were not impenetrable to heavy 
 guns, but were safe against field-batteries and smaller 
 cannon, and did excellent service in the work for 
 which they were intended. Several other boats of 
 the same kind were built during the course of the 
 war. 
 
 In the same year the rebels raised the screw 
 steamer Merrimac at Norfolk Navy Yard, where it 
 had been sunk when the place was abandoned by 
 the Government. They cut down her sides, plated 
 her with railway iron at an angle of 45 degrees over 
 a backing of wood, armed her with ten 9- and 10- 
 inch guns, and on the 8th of March, 1862, sent her 
 against the Government fleet in Hampton Roads. 
 She sunk the frigate Cumberland by ramming, de- 
 stroyed the Congress with her battery, and then re- 
 tired for the day. Next morning she returned to the 
 scene of operations and attacked the frigate Minne- 
 sota, but was herself attacked by the Monitor, an iron 
 boat with a revolving turret, armed with two 1 i-inch 
 
464 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Dahlgren guns. The fight between the Monitor 
 and the Merrimac was a spirited one, and resulted in 
 the retirement of the Merrimac badly injured. 
 
 The battle was in some respects one of the' most 
 important that ever occurred in maritime warfare. 
 It revolutionized the course of naval construction all 
 over the globe, and compelled the adoption of sys- 
 tems of which few had dreamed until that day. 
 The Monitor is too well known to need a detailed 
 description. Suffice it to say she was 173 feet long 
 over all, 41 feet 6 inches wide, and 12 feet deep. 
 She was the greatest possible contrast to the old- 
 fashioned ship of the four-decker class, her freeboard 
 being so low that she was hardly visible above water 
 at a little distance. Her revolving turret was 20 
 feet in diameter and 9 feet high, made of inch plates 
 of wrought-iron riveted together until they reached 
 a thickness of 8 inches. 
 
 The Monitor was built in New York in one hun- 
 dred days, at a cost of $275,000. Her designer was 
 John Ericsson, whose name has been repeatedly 
 mentioned in this volume. The turret which formed 
 an important feature of this new style of gunboat, 
 was the invention of Theodore R. Timby, with 
 additions and improvements by Ericsson. 
 
 England was more active than any other nation in 
 benefiting by the lesson of Hampton Roads. Her 
 dockyards swarmed with workmen busy with the 
 construction of iron-clads on the turret or other sys- 
 
THE MONITOR AND MERRIMAC. 
 
 465 
 
 tern, and wherever one of the old wooden ships was 
 found sufficiently sound to warrant her preservation, 
 she was cut down and armored as the Merrimac had 
 been. France, Austria, and other maritime powers 
 showed commendable zeal in following the example 
 of England, and in less than a decade the fleets of 
 the world were almost completely changed. 
 
 The United States built a considerable number of 
 
 The Monitor attacking the Merrimac. 
 
 iron-clads, some upon the principle of the Monitor, 
 with a single turret, others with two turrets, and a 
 few with iron-plated sides and bulwarks but without 
 the Monitor system. Many of these boats were 
 severely tested during the war ; some were lost, but 
 the majority survived through many perils and were 
 afloat, and practically uninjured, in i865 when peace 
 was declared. 
 
 The original Monitor was lost in a gale off Cape 
 
466 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 Hatteras ; the Merrimac was blown up by the rebels 
 when they abandoned Norfolk. The Monitors were 
 never intended for cruising purposes, but they moved 
 safely along the coast during the Civil War. In i865 
 one of them, the Miantonomah, visited Europe, go- 
 ing up the Baltic to Cronstadt, making a cruise in 
 the Mediterranean, and returning home by the West 
 Indies. Another of these vessels, the Monadnock, 
 went to California via the Straits of Magellan with- 
 out accident ; two others, the Catawba and Oneonta, 
 were sold to the Peruvian Government and went to 
 Callao where their names were chancred to Manco 
 Capac and Atahuallpa. 
 
 At the present time all the fighting ships of the 
 world, with the exception of coasting and revenue 
 steamers, armed despatch boats, light gunboats, and 
 similar craft, are protected widi armor in one sort or 
 another. In all the maritime nations there has been 
 a friendly contest between the naval architects and 
 the ordnance board, the one attempting to build an 
 impenetrable ship and the other to devise a gun that 
 shall penetrate whatever the other builds. Thus far 
 the guns have the best of the contest, as no targets 
 have been made that can resist the smashing force 
 of the steel projectiles of a thousand pounds and 
 more thrown from the monster cannon which the 
 English ordnance department or private English con- 
 structors have turned out. In range, weight, or pro- 
 jectiles, rapidity of firing, and in nearly every other 
 
468 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 quality, the rifled cannon of to-day are immensely in 
 advance of those of the time of our war.*^* 
 
 Such of the wooden sailing vessels as still exist in 
 the navies of the world are used for receiving and 
 training ships at the navy yards, and if they go to 
 sea at all it is for school purposes or for the trans- 
 portation of stores. The strength of the navies of 
 the world is set down as follows in the latest obtain- 
 able returns : 
 
 * The period since the close of our Civil War has been prolific in great 
 advances in the means and methods of attack. The iron plating of ships-of- 
 war has been increased from four inches to twenty-five inches on the English 
 ship l7i flexible, and when a practicable limit as to the thickness of iron 
 plates seemed reached, compound armor and all-steel plates were intro- 
 duced. Recent British ships carry eighteen inches of compound armor, and 
 the Admiral Baudin and Formidable of the French navy are protected by 
 solid steel plates twenty-one and seven-eighths inches in thickness. 
 
 " Heavy ordnance has increased in weight and power to a like extent. 
 Whereas in 1862 our 200-pounder Parrot rifle was one of the most effective 
 weapons extant, we have, in 1872, the English lyf-inch, 100-ton gun, firing 
 a projectile weighing one ton with a powder charge of 550 pounds, and 
 in 1884, the i6|-inch, iio-ton Armstrong, which fires an 1,800-pound pro- 
 jectile, with the enormous charge of 900 pounds of powder, giving a muzzle 
 energy of 61,200 foot-tons, and a penetration of over thirty inches of 
 wrought iron at 1,000 yards. The recent Krupp I5j-inch steel gun weighs 
 119 tons, and penetrates 29.2 inches of iron at 1,000 yards ; and the pro- 
 jected French gun is to weigh 124 tons, with a calibre of 18. ii inches, and 
 to fire a projectile weighing 2,645 pounds, with a powder charge of 575 
 pounds. 
 
 ** In August, 1883, Sir Joseph Whitworth, in testing a 20-ton steel gun 
 intended for the Brazilian iron-clad, Riachuelo, fired a 403-lb. steel shell 
 through eighteen inches of wrought iron, thirty-seven inches of well- 
 packed wet sand, one and one-eighth inches of steel, various balks of tim- 
 ber, and about sixteen feet more of sand. IVie projectile was recovered 
 practically uninjured^ — '* Our Seacoast Defences," by Lieut. Eugene 
 Griffin, U.S.A. 
 
STRENGTH OF THE NAVIES OF THE WORLD. 469 
 
 
 'CLJ 
 
 
 
 m 
 
 
 Countries. 
 
 No. of Vess 
 
 No. of 
 m en. 
 
 Countries. 
 
 No. of Vess 
 
 No. of 
 Men. 
 
 Argentine Republic. 
 
 33 
 
 991 
 
 Japan. 
 
 31 
 
 5.551 
 
 Austria-Hungary. 
 
 68 
 
 7,222 
 
 Mexico. 
 
 8 
 
 
 Belgium. 
 
 10 
 
 172 
 
 Netherlands. 
 
 165 
 
 3,436 
 
 Brazil. 
 
 48 
 
 4,984 
 
 Norway. 
 
 46 
 
 915 
 
 Canada (Dominion). 
 
 7 
 
 
 Peru. 
 
 
 
 Chili. 
 
 10 
 
 2,225 
 
 Portugal. 
 
 39 
 
 3,200 
 
 China. 
 
 56 
 
 Roumania. 
 
 10 
 
 530 
 
 Denmark. 
 
 44 
 
 1,122 
 
 Russia. 
 
 373 
 
 28,975 
 
 Egypt. 
 
 13 
 
 
 Spam. 
 
 124 
 
 21,678 
 
 France. 
 
 302 
 
 39,365 
 
 Sweden. 
 
 123 
 
 7.723 
 
 Germany. 
 
 9^ 
 
 15,200 
 
 Turkey. 
 
 49 
 
 40,392 
 
 Great Britain& Ireland. 
 
 246 
 
 57.250 
 
 United States, 
 
 93 
 
 12,204 
 
 Greece. 
 
 16 
 
 2,637 
 
 Venezuela. 
 
 4 
 
 200 
 
 Italy. 
 
 72 
 
 15,140 
 
 
 
 
 This gives a total of 2,191 vessels, of which not 
 less than three fourths are propelled by steam. This 
 does not include a great number of steam launches, 
 tenders, small despatch-boats, and the like, nor the 
 swarms of torpedo boats which the maritime nations 
 are rapidly accumulating. Of these additional naval 
 craft there are probably not less than three thou- 
 sand and it is safe to say that the navies of the 
 world contain fully five thousand vessels of different 
 name and kind whose propelling power is steam. 
 
 There is an active rivalry among the maritime 
 nations in the effort to obtain naval supremacy ; the 
 skill of inventors and architects is taxed to the 
 utmost capacity, and enormous amounts of money 
 
470 
 
 J^OBERT FULTON, 
 
 have been expended upon experiments or upon the 
 construction of ships on novel principles. The tor- 
 pedo, the submarine boat, and possibly the use of 
 dynamite in projectiles, promise to make as great a 
 revolution in the system of maritime warfare as did 
 the application of steam to the propulsion of naval 
 vessels. 
 
 Before going further, we will examine some of the 
 modern appliances. The torpedo and the submarine 
 boat have been mentioned in a previous chapter, as 
 they were the study of the subject of this biography, 
 and derived several of their important features from 
 his inventive skill. Dynamite guns are new to us ; 
 dynamite was unknown till more than half a century 
 after Fulton's death, and it is only since this compila- 
 tion was begun that experiments to use it in projec- 
 tiles have been successful. If this terrible explosive 
 can be safely handled and used for the charging of 
 shells, the modern iron-clad ship will be as pene- 
 trable as the old wooden wall of a hundred years 
 ago. Naval warfare will come to a speedy end 
 through the destructiveness that will be in the hands 
 of all the combatants. 
 
 Of the offensive torpedo of to-day there are many 
 varieties : the Whitehead, Pole, Ley, Harvey, and 
 Nordenfeldt systems are the best known, each of 
 them bearing the name of its inventor. Briefly de- 
 scribed, they are self-propelling boats, carrying an 
 explosive which is designed to destroy the ship of an 
 
THE BATTLE ON THE MIN RIVER, 
 
 enemy ; some are propelled by eleclricity, others by 
 compressed air, and others are carried at the ends of 
 spars, projecting from the bow of a steam-launch 
 sufficiently far to leave the latter in a place of safety. 
 
 Only a few of the modern torpedoes have been 
 tried in actual warfare. In a previous chapter, men- 
 tion was made of their use in the war between Rus- 
 sia and Turkey, and the comparatively inconsequen- 
 tial results. Up to the time of writing these pages, 
 the most notable instance of the use of torpedoes in 
 naval warfare is in the operations of the French in 
 China in 1884. The result is thus described by an 
 officer of the United States navy who was on the 
 Min River at the time of the destruction of the 
 Chinese fleet : 
 
 " Four minutes from the commencement of the action 
 a heavy explosion told the successful work of the torpedo- 
 boat detailed to destroy the Yung Woo. In this short 
 time, and before the Yung Woo was fairly in action, and 
 had brought her guns to bear, the torpedo had done its 
 deadly work, and had destroyed this fine vessel. The 
 officers in charge of the torpedo boat had successfully 
 placed a torpedo under her counter while she was in the 
 act of turning. It nearly blew her out of water, and the 
 vessel soon sank, on fire afore and aft, a total wreck. 
 Many of her officers and crew perished. The torpedo 
 boat dropped down the river, out of action, her com- 
 mander and one of her crew having been wounded, prob- 
 ably by one of the French machine guns. Referring to 
 the machine guns, which the French seem to have had in 
 abundance, the writer remarks that the greatest destruc- 
 
472 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 tion was occasioned by them. They rained their explosive 
 shells upon the decks, cutting down the crews at their 
 guns, so that they could hardly reload them. Their fire 
 demoralized men and officers, and drove them to seek 
 shelter and escape by jumping overboard. The decks of 
 the vessels, as they drifted down the river, were covered 
 with dead and wounded. To these guns may also be as- 
 cribed the rapidity and thoroughness with which the ves- 
 sels were set on fire. The importance of this class of 
 armament was clearly demonstrated in this action, and 
 the conditions for their use were the most favorable. 
 No modern man-of-war will be efficient without them. 
 Her crew would be at the mercy of an opponent armed 
 with them. The French torpedo boats were of steel, 
 about fifty feet in length, of high speed, armed with spar 
 torpedoes. 
 
 In Admiral Courbet's operations, two torpedo launches 
 from the flagship Bayard were despatched up the Yang-tse- 
 Kiang to destroy two Chinese men-of-war, the frigate Yu- 
 Yuen and the corvette Tcheng-King, anchored in the 
 channel and covered by fire from the shore. The attack 
 was made in the night, but the boats were discovered 
 before getting up, and were received by a warm fire from 
 the frigate, which was supported from the shore. The 
 boats put on full speed. Commander Gourdon's boat 
 struck first, right astern. The torpedo exploded, but the 
 boat could not get away as her spar was caught, and she 
 had to unscrew her fittings to let go. In this critical posi- 
 tion, a man was killed by a shot from shore. The boat 
 was backing off when Lieutenant Duboc's boat came up 
 at full speed, struck the frigate on the starboard quarter, 
 and exploded her torpedo. The engine had been reversed 
 before the collision, and she got clear at once, and the 
 
MACHINE GUNS. 
 
 473 
 
 two boats made off together under the fire of the Chinese 
 small arms and machine guns. By the Hght of early dawn 
 it was seen that the frigate sank, remaining upright, half- 
 way to her tops, the corvette being inclined and sunk to 
 her rail. It seemed probable to the French commander 
 that the corvette was sunk by the fire of the shore bat- 
 teries and frigate against the boats. The frigate was a 
 fine vessel, of 3,400 tons, built at Shanghai, on the plans 
 of American constructors, about twelve years ago. She 
 was armed with twenty-three breech-loading guns, twenty 
 of which were in broadside and three on the forecastle 
 and poop. She had also some Nordenfeldts. The cor- 
 vette had seven guns." 
 
 The machine guns referred to by the above writer 
 were probably the French mitrailleuse and the guns 
 of the Hotchkiss system, which has been adopted by 
 the French and also by the naval authorities of other 
 nations. There are several sizes of this gun or can- 
 non — the smallest throwing a projectile the size of 
 an ordinary rifle ball, while the largest throws one 
 weighing four pounds. The gun is mounted on a 
 pivot, either on a carriage or on the rail of a ship, 
 and can be aimed from the shoulder like an ordinary 
 musket. The smaller size has a rano^e of five hun- 
 dred yards and more, while it is claimed that the 
 largest sized gun can deliver its projectiles at the 
 rate of twenty a minute a distance of fully one mile. 
 
 Other machine guns are the Catling, Berdan, . 
 Maxim, Gardner, and Nordenfeldt — the last be- 
 ing largely used in the English navy (together with 
 
474 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 the Hotchkiss), and the first having- a favorable 
 name all over the world. In range, rapidity of fire, 
 and general effectiveness, they vary greatly ; some 
 of them discharging heavy projectiles at a slow rate, 
 and others throwing smaller ones more rapidly. The 
 range varies from three hundred yards upwards. 
 They discharge from twenty to five or six hundred 
 projectiles in a minute. The Gatling fires 1,200 a 
 minute, and the weight of the missile is adapted to 
 the size of the weapon, each system having a series 
 of sizes. At close quarters in a naval encounter they 
 are terribly effective, but, happily for the human race, 
 have been tried only on rare occasions. 
 
 Of the offensive torpedoes, the Whitehead is prob- 
 ably the best known and more generally adopted 
 than any other. Several of the maritime nations 
 have adopted it, to the exclusion of other systems, 
 while some have given all the prominent systems a 
 place. The torpedoes are carried upon ships of war 
 to be launched from ports or openings specially pre- 
 pared for them, and every fleet has a liberal equip- 
 ment of light, swift-running boats, carrying torpedoes 
 for offence, and armed with machine guns and 
 smaller weapons for defence. These torpedo boats 
 are capable of steaming 18 or 20 miles an hour, and 
 it is claimed recently that an English torpedo boat 
 has exceeded 22 miles. The intention is for the 
 boat to come within a few hundred yards of an ene- 
 my's ship, and then launch a torpedo in the latter s 
 
476 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 direction. By means of its own propulsive power, 
 the torpedo then goes to its mark — provided, al- 
 ways, the mark remains where it should. 
 
 Many naval men claim that the torpedo as an of- 
 fensive weapon has been greatly overrated, and be- 
 lieve that its effectiveness is really very slight. Of 
 course it will be impossible to demonstrate who is 
 right and who wrong in the controversy, until a 
 great naval contest shall occur. It is therefore to 
 be hoped that the settlement of the controversy 
 will be indefinitely postponed. 
 
 Numerous inventors have busied themselves over 
 designs of submarine boats, but few have brought 
 out any thing practical and useful. The most suc- 
 cessful craft of this kind thus far are those of Nor- 
 denfeldt and Goubet, but as neither has been tried 
 in real warfare, the success is theoretical rather than 
 practical. The boats are ingeniously contrived, and 
 deserve more than a passing notice. 
 
 Mr. Nordenfeldt is the inventor of the gun that 
 bears his name. His first submarine boat was built 
 at Stockholm in 1883, and is intended to be com- 
 pletely submerged at the will of her commander. 
 According to the published description the boat is 
 cigar-shaped, with a cofifin-like projection on the top 
 amidships, formed by vertical combings support- 
 ing a glass dome, or conning tower, one foot high, 
 which enables the commander to see his way. The 
 dome, with its iron protecting cover, stands on a 
 
NORDENFELDT SUBMARINE BOAT, 
 
 477 
 
 horizontal lid, which can be swung aside to allow 
 the crew of three men to get in or out without diffi- 
 culty. The length of the hull is 64 feet, and the cen- 
 tral diameter 9 feet. It is built of Swedish mild steel 
 plates |- inch thick at the centre, tapered to |^ inch at 
 the ends, supported on angle-iron framing, 3 inches 
 by 3 inches by -| inch. The arrangements for sink- 
 ing the boat are of a special nature, for which the 
 inventor claims important advantages. Practically, 
 such a boat can be sunk in three ways — singly or 
 
 Nordenfeldt Submarine Boat. 
 
 taken in combination. It may be forced down by 
 power applied from within, weighted down by tak- 
 ing in sea water sufficient to destroy the buoyancy, 
 or it may be steered down by the application of its 
 ordinary motive power, modified by a horizontal 
 rudder. Mr. Nordenfeldt has adopted the former 
 arrangement, placing sponsons on each side of the 
 boat amidships, in which are wells for the vertical 
 
478 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 propellers capable of working the boat up or down. 
 In order to prepare for action, enough sea water is 
 taken in to reduce the buoyancy to one hundred- 
 weight, which suffices to keep the conning tower 
 well above the surface. In order to sink the boat 
 further, the vertical propellers are set in motion, and, 
 by their action, it is held at the required depth. 
 Thus, to come to the surface again, it is merely 
 necessary to stop the vertical propellers, in which 
 case the reserve of buoyancy at once comes into 
 play. This principle is rightly regarded as impor- 
 tant, even if not essential, in a safe submarine boat. 
 A break-down in the engines does not entail danger, 
 since the reserve of buoyancy is never lost for a mo- 
 ment. As a still further safeguard, however, Mr. 
 Nordenfeldt has provided an automatic check on the 
 downward motion. A lever, with a weight which 
 can be adjusted so as to counterbalance any desired 
 head of water, is connected with a throttle valve sup- 
 plying steam to the engines working the vertical pro- 
 pellers. Thus directly the desired depth is exceeded, 
 the increased head of outside water overcomes the 
 weight, and the vertical propellers are stopped. 
 
 The motive power is steam alone, generated in a 
 boiler of the ordinary marine type with a forced 
 draught. So long as the boat runs on the surface, 
 this boiler can be stoked and a constant head of 
 steam maintained. The smoke is driven out through 
 two channels which pass partly around the hull and 
 
NORDENFELDT SUBMARINE BOAT, 
 
 479 
 
 point aft. For submarine work, no stoking is, of 
 course, possible, and the fire-box has to be sealed. 
 It is therefore necessary to store the requisite power 
 beforehand, and this is done by heating the water in 
 two tanks placed fore and aft and connected by cir- 
 culating tubes with the boiler, till a pressure of about 
 i5o pounds per square inch is attained. With about 
 this initial pressure, it is stated that the boat has 
 been driven for i6 miles at a speed of three knots. 
 The greatest surface speed attained is a little over 
 
 Interior of Nordenfeldt's Boat. 
 
 eight knots, and the boat has been run for i5o miles 
 without recoalincf. There are three sets of enc^ines, 
 one of which drives the propeller, an ordinary four- 
 bladed screw, 5 feet in diameter, with a pitch of 7 
 feet 6 inches. The other eni^ines drive the blower 
 and the horizontal propellers respectively. 
 
 One of the principal difficulties of submarine navi- 
 gation is to preserve an even keel when under water. 
 Should a boat turn downward when in motion be- 
 
480 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 low the surface, it might easily strike the bottom, or 
 reach a depth at whicli it must collapse before its 
 course could be arrested. On the other hand, if the 
 bow took an upward turn under the same circum- 
 stances, the boat would rapidly come to the surface, 
 and be exposed to view and to projectiles. It is evi- 
 dently, therefore, of the utmost importance to pro- 
 vide ample steering power in a vertical direction. In 
 the Nordenfeldt boat two horizontal rudders are 
 placed, one on each side near the bows, and are 
 acted upon by a pendulum inside the hull. This 
 pendulum, coming into play the instant the boat 
 takes a cant in either direction, actuates the horizon- 
 tal rudders and causes her immediately to return to 
 an even keel. By this means it is claimed that the 
 boat is automatically kept with her axis horizontal, 
 while since the bow rudders are entirely beyond the 
 control of the crew there is no danger of accident 
 
 due to neorlect or loss of nerve. In the event of a 
 
 <_> 
 
 breakdown of the above arrangement, it is neces- 
 sary at once to stop the boat and let her return to 
 the surface. No compressed air is carried, and the 
 crew depend, therefore, for existence on the amount 
 of air sealed up in the hull. With this amount of 
 air only, four men have remained for a period of six 
 hours without any especial inconvenience. 
 
 M. Goubet, the inventor of another submarine 
 boat, is a Frenchman ; the Russian Government has 
 ordered three hundred of his boats, and a Paris news- 
 
482 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 paper, LUllustration, of November 28, i885, says 
 that fifty of these have already been finished and 
 delivered. The boat is propelled by electricity, 
 contained in accumulators or secondary batteries ; 
 the screw-shaft has a joint, so that the screw can be 
 inclined to right or left while in motion, and thus the 
 course of the boat is directed without the necessity 
 of a rudder. An officer and a sailor compose the 
 crew, and they are seated back to back under the 
 dome, which has to be removed to permit ingress or 
 egress. All around the base of the dome are glass 
 
 bulls eyes,'' for purposes of observation. At 
 starting on an expedition the officer notes the di- 
 rection of the point he wishes to attain by sighting 
 upon a guide-rod which rises like a flagstaff from the 
 bow and taking its bearings by compass. Then, with 
 the compass strictly beneath his eye, he gives the 
 required instructions to the man at the wheel. 
 
 The box on which officer and man are seated is 
 filled with compressed air. The proper buoyancy is 
 maintained by receiving or discharging water by 
 means of a pump, and in case of damage to machin- 
 ery or other accident the leaden keel can be instantly 
 detached, and the boat will rise rapidly to the sur- 
 face. The torpedo is carried on the top of the boat 
 near the stern ; it is provided with hooks by which 
 it is prevented from slipping from the bottom of an 
 enemy's ship, and it is buoyant, so that it rises when 
 detached by the hand of the sailor who has it within 
 
484 
 
 JWBERT FULTON, 
 
 reach. When it is detached the boat moves off, an 
 electric thread a hundred yards in length unwinds, 
 and as the end is reached the torpedo is exploded 
 by means of the spark. The boat is about 20 feet 
 long by three and a half in diameter, exclusive of 
 dome and keel, and therefore much smaller than the 
 Nordenfeldt boat. It has a speed of five knots an 
 hour, and can remain five or six hours under water 
 at a time. The Russian Admiralty has faith in its 
 ability to blow up an enemy's ships at anchor, but 
 does not pretend that it would be of any use in attack 
 ing a ship in motion on the sea. 
 
 An American inventor, Mr. J. L. Tuck, has de- 
 signed a submarine boat propelled by electricity or 
 by compressed air at a speed of four to five miles 
 an hour. He claims to be able to place and 
 explode a torpedo beneath a ship at anchor, by 
 means of his boat which can be operated by one 
 man. The mode of working it is as follows : 
 
 The boat is about twelve feet long and has the 
 general appearance of a ship's yawl with a deck 
 over it. It is propelled by a screw and steered by 
 a rudder and the propelling and steering apparatus 
 are under the control of the operator, who sits in a 
 sort of well in the centre of the boat with the upper 
 half of his body encased in a suit of submarine 
 armor. Within his reach is the handle of a pump 
 that will admit or eject water in order to sink or 
 raise the boat, and lying on the top of the boat is 
 
Tuck's Torpedo Leaving a Vessel. 
 
486 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 the torpedo which is to blow up the ship which has 
 been destined for destruction. 
 
 The operator steers his boat so as to bring it be- 
 neath the ship. Then he releases the torpedo 
 which is in two sections, connected by a cord and 
 made buoyant so that it will rise when released and 
 lie against the bottom of the ship. Having properly 
 placed the torpedo the operator retires, unwinding 
 an electric wire as he goes. At a safe distance he 
 touches an electric key, and if every thing works as 
 predicted and expected the ship is blown into frag- 
 ments. 
 
 The submarine boat of the future will possess 
 the immersive abilities of the craft just described, 
 together with the power to propel itself not less 
 than twenty miles an hour when wholly submerged. 
 Such boats will be dangerous to ships in motion as 
 they can be launched from the side of the vessel 
 that carries them, and with speed superior to that of 
 the enemy, can overtake and destroy him. Sup- 
 pose a boat of this kind with a speed of twenty 
 miles an hour is launched against an enemy's ship 
 ten miles away, the latter having a speed of fifteen 
 miles. The chase lasts two hours ; the submarine 
 boat rises a few moments at a time to take fresh 
 air and learn the bearings of the pursued, but never 
 remaining long enough above the surface to run 
 any serious risk of being hit by a shot. At the 
 end of the chase the torpedo makes short work of 
 
THE BERDAN TORPEDO BOAT, 
 
 487 
 
 its victim, unless the skill of the inventor provides a 
 netting that shall enclose the ship below as well as 
 at the sides. Nettings are now in use to prevent 
 surface torpedoes reaching the side of a ship, but 
 no netting has been devised to protect it from 
 below. 
 
 Colonel Berdan claims to have devised a torpedo 
 for use against a ship protected by nettings. It is 
 in two parts, and as one part strikes the netting, 
 the other drops off and sinks below it, till it tight- 
 ens a cord by which the two are connected. This 
 cord sets in motion some machinery that carries the 
 torpedo upwards inside the netting and against the 
 ^ide of the ship, where it explodes by a simple 
 device. If this torpedo works according to the 
 inventor's calculations, the crinoline protection for 
 ships will be of no further use. 
 
 The same inventor has designed a high-speed 
 torpedo boat, which is thus described : 
 
 The boat is a double-ender, with a shaft running 
 through it, having a screw at each end. One screw will 
 pull and the other push. With these two screws and the 
 powerful engines it is proposed to carry, the boat ought 
 to attain a speed of twenty-four and one half knots an 
 hour, according to verified calculations. Nearly all the 
 space below the water-line will be taken up by engines 
 of 1,200 indicated horse power and coal sufficient for four 
 days* running. This enormous power will be so distribu- 
 ted as not to rack the boat to pieces in its application. 
 The double arrangement of screws will help to this end. 
 
488 
 
 There are, of course, incidental disadvantages in such an 
 arrangement, but it is hoped that the advantages will out- 
 weigh them. All the engines and boilers will be below 
 the water-line, so that only a plunging shot can reach 
 them. They will be arranged in two sets, so that if one 
 is disabled by a shot or otherwise, the other will be left to 
 drive the boat at nearly three-quarters speed. The screw 
 shaft is geared to the engine shafts, so as to make three 
 revolutions to one of theirs, and is designed to make lOO 
 turns a minute. 
 
 ^^The four pairs of torpedoes will be arranged two at 
 each end of the boat, and thus both load and power will 
 be evenly distributed over the craft. The dimensions are 
 to be : Length, 220 feet ; beam, 20 feet ; and depth, 10 
 feet. A double-track railway extends fore and aft along 
 the deck. On this will run the trucks that carry the tor- 
 pedoes. These trucks will be furnished with them, will 
 go overboard with them, and will not be recovered. The 
 torpedoes will cost $10,000 a pair. They are to be de- 
 signed for three speeds — one to run at thirty knots an 
 hour for outside work, one at twenty knots for large 
 rivers, and a third at a still lower speed for cramped 
 places. The highest speed is not desirable in the latter 
 cases, because accuracy is sacrificed in part. The torpeao 
 may run by its mark before it is accurately aimed. An 
 elevated disk carried on the leading torpedo shows where 
 it is, and, by keeping that in line with the desired mark, the 
 steersman is enabled to send the two easily and certainly 
 to their destination. It is as simple as steering a boat. The 
 steersman on the torpedo vessel pulls one or the other of 
 the tiller wires until the disk comes up into line with the 
 mark. The system of two connected torpedoes is to be 
 used against iron-clads — a single torpedo being sent against 
 a hostile torpedo boat or other craft without armor/* 
 
NAVAL VESSELS OF RECENT CONSTR UCTLON, 489 
 
 Let us see what is being done in the different 
 navies of the world, and, as we do so, we bear in 
 mind that every ship referred to is propelled by the 
 power first successfully applied by Fulton to the 
 Clermont. 
 
 Our Board of Officers appointed by the Secre- 
 tary of the U. S. Navy to consider plans for new 
 cruisers have recommended the construction of two 
 ships of from 3,000 to 5, 000 tons, and two gun- 
 boats of 1,600 and 1,000 tons respectively. A re- 
 cent writer on this subject says : 
 
 The latest twin-screw cruisers built in England for the 
 Japanese Government — the Takachiho-Kan and Naniwa- 
 Kan — are of the fastest and most heavily armed type, 
 and are regarded as possessing the most trustworthy im- 
 provements yet embodied. In length they are 300 feet; 
 breadth, 46 feet; draught, i8|- feet; displacement, 3,600 
 tons. They have ram bows, and can discharge White- 
 head torpedoes from four above-water ports, and are 
 armed with two io|-inch guns, mounted on central pivot 
 carriages as bow and stern-chasers ; six 5 to 9-inch guns in 
 broadside on central pivot carriages, and ten i-inch 
 machine guns, and two rapid-firing guns, besides for Gat- 
 lings mounted in the tops of the two military masts. 
 All the guns except the Gatlings are on the upper deck, 
 and carry steel shields attached to their carriages. Each 
 ship has a protection deck, from two to three inches 
 thick, extending fore and aft, with the sides curving be- 
 low the water-line, and the hulls are minutely subdivided. 
 Their engines are to develop about 7,500-horse power, 
 and give a speed of 18 to i8|- knots. 
 
490 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 " The proposed cruisers to be built for our navy are to 
 be of the same length, three feet more beam, six inches 
 less draught, and are to have a speed of i8 knots. The 
 armament of the first will consist of two 8-inch and 
 eight 6-inch breech-loading rifles. The secondary battery 
 will consist of four 2.24-inch rapid-firing Hotchkiss 
 cannon, four 1.85-inch revolving Hotchkiss, one 1.45-inch 
 low-power Hotchkiss, and two short Catlings, to be 
 mounted on the lower decks, without protection by 
 armor other than a light shield on the gun. She will 
 carry a complete outfit for the Whitehead torpedo, suit- 
 able for six above-water launching tubes. The second 
 cruiser is similar in size to the above, except that the 
 main battery will consist of twelve 6-inch guns mounted 
 on the open deck, on central pivot carriages, so disposed 
 in sponsons and recessed ports that four guns may fire in 
 a line of the keel at the bow and stern. The American 
 designers have no doubt adopted the very best points in the 
 Japanese cruisers, and added such of their own as will 
 increase the efficiency of the ship. 
 
 The Brazilians have recently received a new ship from 
 England. She is a ship-rigged, twin screw, armored tur- 
 ret ship, of the following dimensions : Length, 280 feet ; 
 breadth, 52 feet; draught, 18 feet; displacement,' 5,000 
 tons ; is built of steel, has many water-tight compart- 
 ments, and is sheathed with wood and copper as high as 
 two feet above the water-line. She has a ram and five 
 Whitehead torpedo ports. The armament consists of 
 four 9-inch twenty-ton Armstrong guns, mounted with 
 hydraulic gear into two eghclonned turrets, four 5|-inch 
 Armstrong guns on Vavasseur carriages, mounted on the 
 upper deck, two firing right ahead and two right astern, 
 and fifteen Nordenfeldt guns. Her engines are of the 
 three-cylinder compound type. With six out of eight 
 
NAVAL VESSELS OF RECENT CON STRUCTLON. 49I 
 
 boilers, her speed was 15.8 knots. With one screw, the 
 speed was 11.5 knots, with fifteen degrees helm angle. 
 
 The Italian Government has procured from England 
 a steel cruiser, schooner-rigged, similar to the Esmeralda, 
 but rather larger, having the following dimensions : 
 Length, 280 feet; breadth, 42 feet ; draught, i8|- feet; 
 displacement, about 3,100 tons. She has a ram bow, and 
 three under-water launching tubes for Whitehead tor^ 
 pedoes. Her armament consists of two 6-inch breech- 
 loading rifles, mounted as bow and stern-chasers, loaded 
 and worked by hydraulic gear, six 6-inch guns on cen- 
 tral pivot carriages, mounted in broadside, two 6-pounder 
 rapid-firing guns, and Hotchkiss and Nordenfeldt machine 
 ^uns. The guns are protected by heavy steel shields 
 jttached to the carriages ; the light guns aloft are mounted 
 A\ small revolving turrets. There are twin screws, and the 
 speed developed was 17.5 knots. The engines and 
 boilers are of the Esmeralda type. The coal supply is 
 600 tons, good for 5,000 miles at 10 knots. She is 
 named the Giovanni Bausan. 
 
 In the fast-cruiser line, the French have built a num- 
 ber of twin-screw armored gunboats. One, the Acheron, 
 launched last spring, is of the following dimensions: 
 Length, 181 feet ; breadth, 40 feet 4 inches ; draught, 11 
 feet 10 inches; displacement, 1,640 tons. She carries a 
 loj-inch gun in a barbette turret forward, and two 3.9- 
 inch guns amidships, one on each side. The bridge 
 reaches over them, and the sides tumble home, to give 
 each a full semi-circle of firing arc. The whole water- 
 line is belted with Q-^-inch armor. The speed will be 13 
 knots. Three others of similar design are building. 
 
 Another class, known as cruising torpedo ships, are now 
 building, identical in design. The Condor, the first of 
 this type, has the following dimensions: Length, 229 
 
492 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 feet; breadth, 29 feet; draught, 14 feet: displacement, 
 1,260 tons. She .has a swan-breasted ram bow, and five 
 above-water torpedo launching tubes between decks, 
 two on each broadside, and one as a stern-chaser. Be- 
 sides, she has five 3.94-inch guns, one of which is a stern- 
 chaser, under the poop ; two are bow-chasers under the 
 forecastle (firing from ahead to the beam), and two more 
 are in barbette half-turrets abreast the smokestack, 
 and are protected from plunging fire by the bridge, 
 which extends over them. There is an armored deck, 
 reaching fore and aft, protecting the machinery, maga- 
 zine, and steering geer, and the ship is divided into 
 water-tight compartments above the armored deck. 
 She has twin screws, and her estimated speed is 17 knots. 
 
 Another remarkable vessel is the Milan, to be em- 
 ployed solely as a scouting vessel. She is built of steel, 
 and is very light, and has a swan-breasted ram bow. She 
 is unprovided with torpedoes. Her length is 303 feet ; 
 breadth, 32 feet 10 inches; draught, 9 feet 10 inches 
 forward, and 15 feet i inch aft ; displacement, 1,050 tons. 
 Her armament consists of five 3.9-inch breech-loading 
 rifles on hydraulic carriages — one on the bow, one on the 
 stern, and the others on the broadside, on shifting pivot 
 carriages, to fire on either side — and eight i| Hotchkiss 
 guns. She has twin screws, each worked by two com- 
 pound tandem engines. On her trial she made 18.4 knots 
 in a rather rough sea, developing 4, 132-horse power. 
 The trial proved her the fastest man-of-war in existence. 
 
 Two of the new German vessels of about 2,400 tons 
 are the Alexandrine and Arcona, sister ships. They be- 
 long to the class of unarmored cruiser-corvettes, are bark- 
 rigged, and have a two-bladed hoisting screw. Their di- 
 mensions are as follows: Length, 223 feet ; breadth, 41 
 feet ; draught, 16 feet 5 inches ; displacement, 2,370 tons. 
 
NAVAL VESSELS OF RECENT CONSTRUCriON. 493 
 
 They are built of iron, sheathed with a double layer of 
 teak, and coppered. The armament is ten 4.1-inch rifles, 
 four machine guns, and one torpedo tube. The speed 
 will be from fourteen to fifteen knots. The Germans 
 have also added a large ship, named the Oldenberg, of 
 5,200 tons, to their Baltic fleet. She is heavily armored 
 with eight 9.4-inch guns, four 5.9-inch guns, besides three 
 2\ Hotchkiss guns, and two 3.1-inch boat guns. There 
 are torpedo tubes and a ram bow. The central redoubt 
 is protected by plates of 12.9 inches. She has twin 
 screws, and compound engines aggregating 3,900-horse 
 power each, with four cylinders. She will be 14 knots. 
 
 " England, of course, is earnestly engaged in endeavor- 
 ing successfully to maintain her ancient superiority on 
 the sea. Besides the colossal battleships — three of which, 
 the Renown, Sanspareil, and Benbow, are the largest 
 vessels laid down for the English navy since the Inflexible, 
 twelve years ago — she is constructing five ships of the 
 belted-cruiser class. They are of steel, of the following 
 dimensions : Length, 300 feet ; breadth, 56 feet ; draught, 
 21 feet amidships; displacement, 5,000 tons. Their ar- 
 mament will be two 18-ton 9.3-inch guns, and ten 4-ton 
 6-inch, the latter mounted on the upper deck between 
 the heavy guns, with steel shields attached to the car- 
 riages. Eight Nordenfeldts and six rapid-firing guns are 
 mounted on the main deck in half towers. They have 
 four torpedo-launching carriages, and four torpedo tubes. 
 An armored deck protects the machinery, aided by the 
 coal. The engines are to work independent twin screws, 
 and are to be of the triple expansion type, the first ap- 
 plied to a vessel in the English navy. Speed, 17^ knots; 
 coal capacity, 900 tons. Two masts will carry fore and 
 aft sails, and the tops are to be well protected. These 
 ships are somewhat heavier than the new vessels recom- 
 
494 
 
 ROBERT FULTON, 
 
 mended to the Navy Department, with a heavier armament, 
 and the additional armor belt will increase their fighting 
 qualities. The new class will be called the Orlando, 
 Undaunted, Narcissus, Australia, and Galatea. 
 
 The twin-screw ram and torpedo vessel Polyphemus 
 is a novelty. She has no heavy gun armament, rely- 
 ing on her ram and torpedoes, forty in number, launched 
 from above-water carriages or through the bow and from 
 broadside underwater launching tubes, the recent trials 
 showing that this may be done at any speed. Her speed 
 is over seventeen knots. As the vessel is completely sub- 
 merged, and depends upon artificial light and forced 
 ventilation throughout her interior all the time, she must 
 prove a very dangerous assailant to any vessel she may 
 encounter. She is 240 feet long; beam, 40 feet; draught 
 aft, 21 feet 3 inches. Two new vessels, rather larger, are 
 to be laid down. As they will have an ordinary deck over 
 their protecting turtle-back, with light and airy quarters 
 for officers and men, and a greater coal-bearing capacity, 
 they will possess independent cruising power, which the 
 present Polyphemus was not intended to have. 
 
 Another class of torpedo cruisers, called the Scout and 
 Fearless, seems to meet with favor with the English naval 
 authorities. The Scout is of the following ciimensions : 
 Length, 220 feet ; breadth, 34 feet ; draught, 14.5 ; dis- 
 placement, 1,430 tons; speed estimated at more than 16 
 knots. She carries eleven launching tubes, ten above and 
 one below water ; also four 5-inch rifles, two on the fore- 
 castle and two on the poop. Her cost will probably be 
 about $324,109. The design of the class of vessels is so 
 satisfactory that seven others of 1,600 tons displacement 
 have been ordered. They are called the Archer, Brisk, 
 Cossack, Mohawk, Porpoise, Tartar, and one not named. 
 
 Since March, 1885, the English have added 55 
 
NAVAL VESSELS OF RECENT CONSTRUCTION. 495 
 
 torpedo boats to their fleet, several having been 
 purchased in other countries and the remainder built 
 in England. The dimensions of some of them are : 
 Length, 113 feet; beam, 12 feet 6 inches; draught, 2 
 feet forward and 6 feet aft. They are fitted with three 
 launching tubes ; two in the bow are fixed, while the 
 third, near the stern, can be trained from below deck and 
 fired from the pilot house. Their speed is over 19 knots, 
 and at moderate speed they can steam, without recoaling, 
 1,100 miles. Another lot is to be of larger and improved 
 type. They are to be of steel, with fourteen water-tight 
 compartments, and will carry twenty tons of coal, which, 
 at 10 knots speed, will enable them to steam 2,000 miles ; 
 estimated speed, 19 to 20 knots. They are to be fitted 
 with five torpedo tubes, and will carry two Nordenfeldts. 
 A new class called torpedo hunters are large and quick 
 turning. One building is 150 feet long, 220 tons displace- 
 ment, and will steam 18 knots. She will be fitted with 
 four torpedo tubes, firing ahead, on the bow and astern. 
 
 The French are building a large number, many suitable 
 to proceed through the canals and inland waters of France, 
 thereby enabling them to be transferred from one sea to 
 another. Some of these boats were able to keep the sea 
 and accompany the French squadron during their entire 
 cruise, and upon one occasion they continued their voyage 
 when the armed vessels were obliged to seek harbor. 
 Their speed was from 14 to 16 knots in heavy weather, 
 while that of the big ships was reduced from 14 to 7 
 knots. 
 
 Germany is making a feature of the torpedoes and 
 torpedo boats for coast defence. They are adding largely 
 to the number of boats of large size and of improved de- 
 sign. She will soon have a fleet of 150, and those built 
 by the Germans have given fine results. The latest types 
 
496 
 
 KOfiERT FULTON. 
 
 of German boats are 109 feet 5 inches long, 11 feet 7 
 inches wide, and displace 75 tons at a draught of water 6 
 feet 2 inches. They launch 14-inch torpedoes from two 
 tubes, are masted, and can travel with sail power only. 
 They carry a large quantity of coal (22 tons), which 
 enables them to steam 3,000 miles at eleven knots. They 
 have comfortable quarters for officers and crew. They 
 are fitted with a cooking stove, a Normandy condenser, 
 two Hotchkiss guns, and an electric search-light. Their 
 cost complete is only $50,000. 
 
 Austria is having built in England two steel torpedo 
 boats of the following dimensions: Length, 35 feet; 
 beam, 13.75 feet. They are to develop 1,100 to 1,200- 
 horse power and are to have a speed of 24 knots when 
 light and 22 knots when loaded ready for service. 
 
 The Turkish Government has ordered six torpedo 
 boats in France. Dimensions : Length, 101.7 feet; beam, 
 11.07 feet; draught, 5.7 feet; displacement, 42 tons. 
 They are to be fitted with two torpedo tubes in the bow 
 and are to carry a spar torpedo as well. Upon trial one 
 of the boats, carrying twenty-four persons, made 20.3 
 knots over the measured mile. 
 
 ^'With that spirit of enterprise characteristic of the 
 Japanese, the ancient empire is pushing to the front as a 
 naval power. Besides the fine iron-clads she possesses, she 
 has contracted for a seagoing torpedo boat, with twin 
 screws, of exceptionally large dimensions and novel de- 
 sign. The length is 166 feet ; beam, \(^\ feet ; and it will 
 have a speed of 19 knots. It will carry several machine 
 guns, in addition to the four discharging tubes for White- 
 head torpedoes." 
 
 China has recently invested liberally in torpedo 
 boats and also in torpedoes for defensive purposes. 
 
Engine of Modern Steam-launch. 
 
49^ 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 It is a matter of regret that the United States 
 Navy has no torpedo boats, and that none of our 
 ships of war now afloat are provided with these 
 modern appHances of combat. Most of the inven- 
 tors of torpedoes are Americans, but their inven- 
 tions have found more ready adoption abroad than 
 at home. With an abundant fleet of torpedo boats, 
 with suitable fortifications, our harbors and channels 
 protected by sunken torpedoes, and a goodly num- 
 ber of iron-clads, we can protect our now defence- 
 less ports and bid defiance to other governments 
 which at present may insult us with impunity. 
 
I N D 
 
 EX. 
 
 A 
 
 Adam, Emil, 451 
 
 Advantages of canals, 23 
 
 Africa, Lines to, 430 
 
 Alexandre Line, 382 
 
 Allen, Hugh, 423 
 
 Allen Line, 423 
 
 "All-wheel" steamboat, 451 
 
 American transatlantic mails. First, 
 
 363 _ 
 Amphibious vehicle, 191 
 Anchor Line, 397 
 Anecdote of steam whistles, 232 
 Anecdotes of keel-boatmen, 213 
 Armored ships, 460 
 Around the world, First steamship, 
 
 254 
 
 Asia, First steamers in, 309 
 Atlantic, First steamship across, 318 
 Atlantic, Greyhounds of the, 415 
 Austrian Lloyds, 428 
 
 B 
 
 Banvard, John, 135 
 
 Barges, keel-boats, flat-boats, and 
 
 rafts, 218 
 Battle between Monitor and Merri- 
 
 mac, 464 
 Battle fought with torpedoes, 471 
 Bell, Henry, 277 
 Berdan guns, 473 
 Berdan torpedo, 487 
 Berth, Self-levelling, 383, 448 
 Blasco de Gary, 73 
 Bliven Perry, 446 
 Boats run by pendulums, 123 
 Boats, Submarine, 476 
 Boston, Steam navigation at, 273 
 
 Boston and Savannah S. S. Co., 381 
 
 Bounties, French, to steamships, 374 
 
 Brazil Line, 383 
 
 Brazil, Navy of, 490 
 
 Brazil, Trade with 375 
 
 Bremen Line, 364^ ^J^^'j 
 
 Bridgeman, Rev. E. C, 313 
 
 Bridgewater, Duke of, 16 
 
 British and American S. N. Co., 333 
 
 British and American Royal Mail 
 
 Steam Packet Company, 341 
 British India S. N. Co., 429 
 British negotiations with Fulton, 47 
 Broad-horns, 218 
 Brunei, Isambert, 337 
 Building the Clermont, 100 
 Burial-place of Fulton, 167 
 Burns and Maclver, 341 
 Bushnell's diving-boat, 44 
 
 C 
 
 Cable steamships, 443 
 California, Inland steam navigation 
 in, 244 
 
 California, Steam navigation on coast 
 of, 238 
 
 Canal-boats invented by Fulton, 32 
 Canal navigation. Treatise on, by 
 
 Fulton, 20 
 Canal, Erie, 29 
 Canal, Shrewsbury, 30 
 Canals, Advantages of, 23 
 Cannon fired under water, 60 
 Caspian Sea, Oil steamers on, 455 
 Castlereagh, Lord, Letter to, 50 
 Chancellor Livingston, 90 
 China, Steam navigation in, 314 
 China, Yirst steamers in, 313 
 China, Torpedo boats in, 496 
 
500 
 
 ROBERT FULTOIV. 
 
 China, Battle with torpedoes in, 471 
 China Merchants' S. N. Co., 316 
 China and Australia, German line 
 to, 427 
 
 Chinese str., First, to America, 250 
 
 Chinese str., First, to London, 252 
 
 Cigar steamship, 446 
 
 Claim for relief, by Fulton's heirs, 161 
 
 Clermont, The, 100 
 
 Clinton, DeWitt, eulogy of Fulton, 
 
 165 
 
 Clyde, First steamboat on, 277 
 
 Collier First steam, 296 
 
 Collins, Edward K., 366 
 
 Collins Line, 366 
 
 Colt, Col. Samuel, 65 
 
 Conipagnie dcs Messageries Mai^i- 
 
 tinies^ 427 
 Compaguie Genemie Transailantique, 
 
 400 
 
 Company : Boston and Savannah S. 
 S., 381 ; British and American 
 Royal Mail S. P., 341 ; British 
 and American S. N., 333 ; Brit- 
 ish India S. N., 429 ; China Mer- 
 chants S. N., 316 ; Collins S. S., 
 370; Dublin S. P., 299; Florio- 
 Rubattino, 428 ; Galway S. S., 
 370; Great Western S. N., 337 ; 
 Hamburg-American, 392 ; Liver- 
 pool and Great Western S. S., 
 415 ; Liverpool, New York and 
 Philadelphia S. S., 384 ; New 
 York and Cuba Mail S. S., 382 ; 
 New York, Havana, and Mexican 
 Mail S. S., 381 ; Occidental and 
 Oriental S. S., 249 ; Ocean vS. 
 N., 363 ; Ocean S. S., 382 ; Old 
 Dominion S. S., 382 ; Pacific Mail 
 S. S., 372 ; Peninsular and Ori- 
 ental, 424 ; Royal Exchange Ship- 
 ping, 422 ; Russian of Navigation 
 and Commerce, 428. {See Lillet) 
 
 Compound engine, 409 
 
 Concave lines of ship-builders, 410 
 
 Connecticut, Laws of, against Fulton 
 and Livingston, 256 
 
 Count d'Auxiron's experiment, 74 
 
 Cromwell's Line, 382 
 
 Cruisers, Torpedo, 494 
 
 Cunard Line, 341, 352 
 
 Cunard, Samuel, 340, 358 
 
 D 
 
 Death of Fulton, 157 
 Defensive torpedoes, 62, 470 
 Description of Hudson River steam- 
 boats, 183 
 Description of a Mississippi steam- 
 boat, 226 
 DeWitt Clinton's eulogy of Fulton, 
 
 165 
 
 Dingley, Hon. Nelson, 378 
 
 Diving-boat, Experiments with, 40 
 
 Dome steamboat, 446 
 
 Dominion Line, 423 
 
 Dorothea blown up, 49 
 
 Double-hull steamers, 448 
 
 Dredging machine, 32 
 
 Dublin vSteam Packet Company, 299 
 
 Dublin to Liverpool, 298 
 
 Duke of Bridgewater, 16 
 
 Dutch Line to Java, 428 
 
 E 
 
 Earl Stanhope, 16 
 Pearly steamboats in France, 290 
 Early steamboats at Liverpool, 292 
 Early steamboats in Russia, 290 
 Early steamboat in Java, 288 
 Early steamboats in Great Britain, 275 
 Early navigation of the Hudson, 128 
 Early navigation of Mississippi, 213 
 Earthquakes of 181 1, 205 
 East River ferry-boats, 132 
 Electricity, steering by, 456 
 Engine, Compound, 409 
 Engine, Oscillating, 406 
 Engine, Side-lever, 237 
 Engine, Improvements in, 406 
 Engine, Watt's. 405 
 Engines of Clermont ordered, 97 
 England to India, First steam voy- 
 age from, 310 
 England, Present naval vessels of, 
 493 
 
 English protection to steam naviga- 
 tion, 372 
 Ericsson, John, 345 
 Erie Canal, 29 
 
 Erie Lake, First steamboat on, 235 
 Evans, Oliver, 191 
 Experimental steamboats, 71 
 
INDEX. 
 
 501 
 
 Experiments in steam navigation 
 previous to Fulton, 72 
 
 F 
 
 Fairbairn, W.m., 351 
 
 Falls of the Ohio, First steamboat 
 
 through, 204 
 Fastest steamboat, 452 
 Feathering paddle-wheel, 413 
 Ferry-boat, Largest, in the world, 
 
 247 
 
 Ferry-boats on the East River, 132 
 Fires on Western steamboats, 210 
 Pairing cannon under water, 60 
 First steamboat on the Hudson, 100 
 First steamship around the world, 254 
 First battle of iron-clads, 464 
 First steamers in China, 313 
 First steamboat in Siberia, 291 
 First steamer in India, 309 
 First steamers in Asia, 309 
 First steam tow-boat, 293 
 Fish torpedoes, 67 
 Fitch, John, 77 
 
 Flat-boat journey down the Missis- 
 sippi, 193 
 
 Plat-boats, keel-boats, barges, and 
 rafts, 213 
 
 Flax-spinner, 32 
 
 Florio-Rubattino Co., 428 
 
 France, Early steamboats in, 290 
 
 France, Navy of, 491 
 
 France, Steam navigation in, 306 
 
 Franklin, Dr., 83 
 
 Freeland, H., letter from, no 
 
 P'rench bounties to steamships, 374 
 
 French mail lines, 400, 427 
 
 Fuel, Petroleum, for steamboats, 454 
 
 FuLTOv, Robert ; parentage and 
 birth, I ; education, 2 ; anecdotes 
 of school-days, 3 ; experiments 
 with rockets, 4 ; first trial of 
 paddle-wheels, 6 ; Hrst drawings, 
 
 9 ; studying art and leaving home, 
 
 10 ; ])uys farm for his mother, 11 ; 
 goes to Europe, 15 ; accjuaintance 
 with West, 17 ; publishes treatise 
 on canals, 20 ; letter about canals, 
 23 ; connection with P>ie C'anal, 
 28 ; on canal bridge at Eong, 
 30 ; his various inventions, 32 ; 
 
 Fulton, Robert — Continued, 
 loss of drawings and papers, 33 ; 
 goes to Paris, 35 ; first trial of 
 torpedoes, 35 ; paints a panorama, 
 37 ; letter to French Directory, 
 37 ; invents plunging boat, 40 ; 
 returns to England, 47 ; interview 
 with Pitt and Melville, 48 ; blows 
 up the Dorothea, 49 ; returns to 
 America, 56; torpedo experiments 
 at New York, 56 ; firing guns un- 
 der water, 60 ; lettter to Earl 
 Stanhope, 72 ; acquaintance with 
 Chancellor Livingston, 93 ; steam- 
 boat on the Seine, 94 ; planning 
 and building the Clermont, 100 ; 
 trial trip, 106 ; first voyage to Al- 
 bany, 107 ; letter to Chancellor 
 Livingston, 114 ; involved in liti- 
 gation, 121 ; builds other boats, 
 129 ; letter about steam ferry- 
 boats, 134 ; designs and builds war 
 steamer, 142 ; illness and death, 
 147 ; design for submarine boat 
 " Mute," 155 ; funeral, 158 ; eulo- 
 gies, 164 ; burial-place, 167 
 
 G 
 
 Galway S. S, Co., 370 
 Gardner guns, 473 
 Catling guns, 473 
 
 German line to China and Australia, 
 427 
 
 Germany, Navy of, 492 
 Ciibbons line of steamboats, 176 
 Glasgow, Steamboats at, 277 
 (iou bet's submarine boat, 480 
 Gouverneur Morris, eulogy of Fulton, 
 166 
 
 (irave of P'ulton, 167 
 
 Great Britain, Pearly steand:)oats in. 
 
 275 _ 
 Cireat Britain, vSteam navigation in, 
 
 307 
 
 (ireat P^astern steamship, 434 
 Great Western S. S. Co., 337 
 Greyhounds of the Atlantic, 415 
 (iriffin, Lieut. Eugene, 468 
 (iuion Line, 415 
 
 (iun])oats, Mississip):)i River, 463 
 Guns, Machine, 473 
 
502 ROBERT 
 H 
 
 Hamburg American Packet Co., 392 
 Henderson Brothers, 397 
 Henry's, William, experiment, 74 
 Hill, Rowland, 286 
 Holland, Line to Java, 428 
 Horse-boats, 135 
 Hotchkiss guns, 473 
 Hudson River, Steamboating on, 182 
 Huston's self-levelling berth, 383, 
 448 
 
 Hulls, Jonathan, 73 
 I 
 
 Improvements in steam-engine, 406 
 India, first steamer in, 309 
 Inman, Ernest S., 386 
 Inman, William, 384 
 Inman Line, 384 
 Iron-clads, 460 
 Iron steamships, 345 
 Italy, Navy of, 391 
 
 J 
 
 Japan, Steamers in, 317 
 Japanese navy, 489 
 Java, First steamboat in, 288 
 Jouffroy, Marquis de, 74 
 
 K 
 
 Kennebec, vSteam on the, 270 
 Keel-boats, barges, flat-boats, and 
 rafts, 213 
 
 L 
 
 Lakes, American, First steamboats 
 
 on, 235 
 Lardner, Dr., 328 
 
 Lardner's Description of Hudson 
 River steamboats, 183 
 
 Laws, Navigation, 380 
 
 Lengthening of ships, 410 
 
 Line : Alexandre, 382 ; Allen, 423 ; 
 Anchor, 397 ; Brazil, 383 ; Bre- 
 men, 364, 393 ; Collins, 366 ; 
 Cromwell's, 382 ; Cunard, 341, 
 352 ; Dominion, 423 ; Dutch, to 
 
 FULTON. 
 
 Line — Continued. 
 
 Java, 428 ; French Mail, 400, 427; 
 German, to Asia, 427 ; Gibbons, 
 176 ; Guion, 415 ; Hamburg, 392 ; 
 Inman, 384 ; Mallory, 381 ; Mon- 
 arch, 422 ; Morgan's, 382 ; Na- 
 tional, 402 ; N. Y. and Havre, 
 363 ; Ohio River, U. S. Mail, 230; 
 P. and O., 424 ; Red D," 382 ; 
 Red Star, 421 ; Rotterdam, 422 ; 
 State, 422 ; Thingvalla, 422 ; 
 Ward's, 382 ; Warren (Boston), 
 423 ; White Star, 419 ; Wilson, 
 422. {See Company.'" ) 
 
 Lines : to Africa, 430 ; to South 
 America, 430 ; between Europe 
 and Asia, 429 
 
 Liquid fuel, 454 
 
 Litigation about navigating the Hud- 
 son, 121 
 
 Liverpool to Dublin, 298 
 
 Liverpool and Great Western S. S. 
 Co., 415 
 
 Liverpool, Early steamboats at, 292 
 Liverpool, N. Y.. and Phila. S. S. 
 Co., 384 
 
 Livingston, Robert R., (Chancellor) 
 90 
 
 Lloyds, Austrian, 428 
 Lloyds, North German, 393 
 London, Steamboats at, 284 
 Long Island Sound, Steamers on, 
 256 
 
 Longstreet, William, 82 
 
 Lord Castlereagh, Letter to, 50 
 
 Lundborg, Captain, 447 
 
 M 
 
 Machine guns, 473 
 Machine for spinning flax, 32 
 Maine, Steam in, 270 
 Mallory Line, 381 
 Marine screw, 348 
 
 Massachusetts, Steam navigation in, 
 273 
 
 Maxim guns, 473 
 Merrimac and Monitor, 464 
 Messageries Maritimes, 427 
 Michigan, Lake, First steamboat on, 
 236 
 
 Mike Fink, 216 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Mill for sawing marble, 32 
 Miller, Taylor, & Symington, 86 
 Mississippi steamboat. Description 
 of, 226 
 
 Missouri, First Ascent of, by steam- 
 boats, 230 
 
 Morey, Samuel, 83 
 
 Morgan's Line, 382 
 
 Morris, Gouverneur, eulogy of Ful- 
 ton, 166 
 
 Morse, Joseph W., 446 
 
 Mute, 155 
 
 N 
 
 Napier, David, 303 
 
 Narragansett Bay, Steam navigation 
 
 on, 263 
 National Line, 402 
 Nautilus, 155 
 Naval steamers, 458 
 Naval vessels of recent construction, 
 
 489 
 
 Navies of the world, 469 
 
 Navigation laws, 380 
 
 Navigation of Mississippi before 
 
 steamboats, 213 
 Newcastle, Steam towing at, 295 
 New York and Cuba Mail S. S. Co., 
 
 382 
 
 New York and Havre line, 363 
 New York, Havana, and Mexican 
 
 Mail S. S. Co., 381 
 Nordenfeldt guns, 473 
 Nordenfeldt submarine boat, 476 
 North German Lloyds, 393 
 Number of steamers in Pacific coast 
 
 waters of U. S., 246 
 Number of steamboats on Western 
 
 rivers, 225, 236 
 
 O 
 
 Occidental and Oriental Steamship 
 
 Co., 249 
 Ocean S. N. Co., 363 
 Ocean tramps, 430 
 Ocean voyage, First, of a steamer, 
 
 170 
 
 Offensive torpedoes, 62, 470 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers, Exam- 
 ination of, 193 
 
 Old Dominion S. S. Co., 382 
 Oldest existing steamboat, 287 
 Oldest steamboat company in the 
 
 world, 230 
 Ontario, Lake, First steamboat on, 
 
 235 
 
 Ormsbee, Elijah, 82 
 Oscillating engine, 406 
 Overland mail route from England 
 to India, 312 
 
 P 
 
 Pacific Mail S. S. Co., 240, 372 
 
 Pacific Ocean, Steam navigation on 
 coast of, 239 
 
 Pacific Ocean, War steamers in, 252 
 
 Packets, Passenger, on Long Island 
 Sound, 262 
 
 Paddle-wheels, Fulton's first experi- 
 ment with, 8 
 
 Paddle-wheel, feathering, 413 
 
 Paddles versus screws, 349 
 
 Papin's experiment, 73 
 
 Passengers, Steerage, First, by 
 steamers, 384 
 
 Pendulum boats, 123 
 
 Peninsular and Oriental S. N. Co., 
 424 
 
 Perkins, Loftus, 444 
 Perpetual-motion fraud, 161 
 Perry, William, Letter from, 115 
 Personal appearance of Fulton, 163 
 Petroleum, fuel for steamboats, 454 
 Price, Joseph, 294 
 
 Protection, English, to steam navi- 
 gation, 372 
 
 Protection, French, to steam navi- 
 gation, 374 
 
 R 
 
 Racing on Western steamboats, 221 
 Rafts, keel-boats, flat-boats, and 
 
 barges, 213 
 Recent naval vessels, 489 
 Red " D " Line, 382 
 Red River raft, 229 
 Red Star Line, 421 
 Reed, Nathan, 81 
 
 Retaliation of Connecticut against 
 Fulton and Livingston, 256 
 
504 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Roach, John, 375 
 Roberts, Marshall O., 239 
 Rogers, Moses, 321 
 Rogers, Stephen, 321 
 Roosevelt, Nicholas J., 84, 193 
 Rotterdam Line, 422 
 Royal Exchange Shipping Co., 422 
 Rumsey, James, 77 
 Prussia, Early steamboats in, 290 
 Russian Company of Navigation and 
 Commerce, 428 
 
 S 
 
 Sawing marble. Mill for, 32 
 Sawyers and snags, 228 
 Screw, Marine, 348 
 Screw str.. First, on Lake P>ie, 236 
 Screw steamships, 345 
 Screw versus paddles, 349 
 Seacoast def^^'^.ces, Lieut. Grilhn, on, 
 |6G 
 
 Seine, Experiment upon, with steam- 
 boat, 94 
 Self-levelling berth, 383, 448 
 Shepard, I. F., 316 
 Ships, Lengthening of, 410 
 Shreve, Captain H. M., 220, 229, 233 
 Shrewsbury Canal, 30 
 Siberia, First steamboat in, 291 
 Side-lever engine, 237 
 Sloo, A. G., 239 
 
 Smallest transatlantic steamer, 444 
 
 Smith, Dr. Junius, 332 
 
 Smith, Francis P., 348 
 
 Snag-boats, 220, 229 
 
 South America, Lines to, 430 
 
 Spar torpedoes, 66 
 
 St. Lawrence, Steamboats on, 288 
 
 Stanhope, Earl, 16 
 
 State Line, 422 
 
 Steam gunboats, P^irst, in British 
 
 Navy, 154 
 Steam navigation previous to Fulton, 
 
 73 
 
 Steam tonnage of the world, 431 
 
 Steam Vessels Named in this 
 Volume. 
 
 i^See " Cojiipany^^ and ''Line.''') 
 Aaron Manby, 351 ; Acadia, 342 ; 
 
 Acheron, 491 ; Accommodation, 
 
 wSteart. Vessels — Continued. 
 
 288 ; Adriatic (Am.), 370 ; Adria 
 tic (Br.), 420 ; Africa, 345 ; Alaska, 
 415; Albany, 132, 181; Alex- 
 andrine, 492 ; Algeria, 422 ; Alida, 
 132, 183, 189 ; Alpha, 270 ; Ameri- 
 ca (Am.), 243 ; America (Cunard), 
 345 ; America, (National), 404 ; 
 Amerique, 400 ; Anchoria, 399 ; 
 Anna, 361 ; Anthracite, 444; Ara- 
 bic, 420 ; Arago, 364 ; Archer, 
 494 ; Archimedes, 348 ; Arcona, 
 492 ; Arctic, 369 ; Argo, 254 ; 
 Argyle, 284 ; Arizona, 415 ; Asia, 
 345, 411 ; Atahuallpa, 466 ; At- 
 lantic, 367 ; Australia, 494 ; Bal- 
 tic (Br.), 420 ; Baltic (Am.), 370 ; 
 Baltic (lake steamer), 238 ; Ban- 
 gor, 362 ; Bavaria, 392 ; Bay State, 
 182 ; Belgic, 420 ; Belgravia, 399 ; 
 Belle of the West, 224 ; Belle Key, 
 224 ; Benbow, 493; Bessemer, 448 ; 
 Black Prince, 462; Bosphorus, 423; 
 Bothnia, 354; Bourgogne, 400; Bo- 
 russia, 392 ; Bostona, 224 ; Bolivia, 
 399 ; Bretagne, 400 ; Britannis 
 (boat), 283; Britannia (s.s.), 342, 
 411 ; Britannic, 420; Bristol, 263; 
 British Queen, 334 ; Brisk, 494 ; 
 Buffalo, 138 ; Calais-Douvres, 448 ; 
 California (Am.), 240, 248 ; Cali- 
 fornia (Br.), 399 ; Caledonia (boat), 
 284 ; Caledonia (s.s ), 342 ; Cam- 
 den, 136 ; Cambria, 345 ; Canada 
 (Br.), 345, 403 ; Canada (Fr ), 400 ; 
 Car of Neptune, 129, 182 ; Cas- 
 talia, 448 ; Catawba, 466 ; Celtic, 
 420 ; Champagne, 400 ; Chancel- 
 lor Livingston, 140, 178, 182 ; 
 Charlotte, 293 ; Charlotte Dundas, 
 87, 94 ; Chauncey Vibard, 132 ; 
 China, 243 ; Chrysopolis, 189 ; 
 Cimbria, 393 ; Circassia, 399 ; 
 City of Peking, 243 ; City of New 
 York (Am.), 243 ; City of Tokio, 
 243 ; City of Boston, 361 ; City of 
 Augusta, 382 ; City of Baltimore, 
 3S8 ; City of Rome, 388, 411; 
 City of Montreal, 3S8 ; City of 
 Glasgow. 361, 384; City of Wash- 
 ington, 382 ; City of Alexandria, 
 382 ; City of Berlin, 388, 411 ; City 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Steam Vessels — Continued. 
 
 of Bristol, 388, 411 ; City of Brus- 
 sels, 388 ; City of Manchester, 
 385 ; City of New York (Br.) 
 388 ; Clermont, 100 ; Clyde, 282 ; 
 Colombo, 361; Columbia, 240, 
 342, 361 ; Colorado, 415 ; Comet, 
 278; Comet (Br. gunboat), 154; 
 Commander, 361 ; Condor, 491 ; 
 Connaught, 299; Connecticut, 183, 
 258 ; Copia, 361 ; Coptic, 420 ; 
 Cossack, 494 ; Cura9oa, 330 ; Da- 
 kota, 415 ; Daniel Drew, 132 ; 
 Defence, 462 ; Delaware, 423 ; 
 Demologos, 144 : Denmark, 403 ; 
 Devonia, 399 ; DeWitt Clinton, 
 182 ; Diana, 310 ; Donau, 396 ; 
 Driver, 255 ; Duke of Orleans, 
 224 ; Dumbarton Castle, 283 ; 
 Durley, 361 ; Eagle, 274 ; Eclipse 
 (American), 221, 224 ; Eclipse 
 (English), 294 ; Edward Everett, 
 Junior, 245 ; Edward Shippen, 
 224 ; Egypt, 403 ; Eider, 396 ; 
 Elbe, 396 ; Elizabeth, 280 ; Ems, 
 396 ; Emperor Nicholas, 292 ; 
 Emperor of Russia, 143 ; Em- 
 pire State, 182 ; Empress, 224 ; 
 England, 403; Enterprise, 219, 
 224, 310; Erin, 402; Esme- 
 ralda, 491 ; Etna (boat), 292 ; 
 Etna, 137, 211, 345 ; Etruria, 
 354, 455 ; Europa, 345 ; Fal- 
 con, 239, 310 ; Faraday, 443 ; 
 Fearless, 494 ; P'inance, 383 ; 
 Firefly (pass, boat), 261 ; Fire- 
 fly (ferry-boat), 133 ; Fire-Dart, 
 315 ; Forbes, 313 ; " Forty 
 Thieves," 431 ; Fo-Shune, 313 ; 
 France, 400 ; Francis B. Ogden, 
 346 ; Francis Skiddy, 132 ; Frank- 
 lin, 363 ; Fremont, 240 ; Frisia, 
 393 ; Fulda, 396 ; Fulton The 
 First, 146, 149 ; FuUon (boat), 
 136, 138, 256 ; Fulton (ship), 364 ; 
 Fulton's boat of 1803, 94 ; Ful- 
 ton Second, 459 ; Fulton Third, 
 459 ; Furnessia, 399 ; Gaelic, 420; 
 Galatea, 494 ; Gascogne, 400 ; 
 Gen. Brown, 224 ; Cieorgia, 239 ; 
 Germania, 392 ; Germanic, 420; 
 Giovanni Bausan, 491 ; Gorgon, 
 
 Steam Vessels — Continued. 
 
 307 ; Golden Age, 240, 252 ; 
 Golden Gate, 240 ; Great East- 
 ern, 434 ; Great Britain, 359 ; 
 Great Liverpool, 340, 425 ; Great 
 Republic, 243; Great Western, 331, 
 337 ; Greece, 403 ; Gloire, 462 ; 
 Hammonia, 392 ; Hendrick Hud- 
 son, 182 ; Helvetia, 402 ; Herman 
 Ludwig, 361 ; Hermann, 363 ; 
 Hibernia, 345 ; Hochung, 250 ; 
 Holsatia, 393 ; Homer, 361 ; 
 Hooper, 444 ; Hugh Lindsay, 
 311 ; Humboldt, 363 ; Iberia, 425 ; 
 Idaho, 415 ; Illinois, 239 ; Inez 
 de Castro, 397 ; Industry, 287 ; 
 Inflexible, 493 ; Ireland, 299 ; 
 Iron Witch, 238 ; Isaac Newton, 
 182 ; Ismailia, 361, 398 ; Japan, 
 243 ; Jardine, 313 ; Java, -}22 ; 
 John Bell, 397 ; John L. Stephens, 
 240 ; Jura, 345 ; Kennebec, 271 ; 
 King Coal, 297 ; King Philip, 
 231 ; Labrador, 400 ; Lafayette, 
 400 ; Lady Sherbrooke, 306 ; 
 Leinster, 299 ; Lexington, 232 ; 
 Lightning, 154 ; Liverpool, 339 ; 
 Louisiana, 402 ; Main, 396 ; Man- 
 hattan, 415 ; Majestic, 293; Manco 
 Capac, 466 ; Margary, 284 ; Mar- 
 mora, 362 ; Massachusetts, 273, 
 361 ; Mary Church, 361 ; Mary 
 Powell, 189, 452 ; Meefoo, 252 ; 
 Meteor, 311, 446 ; Meteor, 154 ; 
 Merrimac, 463 ; Merrimack, 3S3 ; 
 Mexican, 361 ; Miantonomah, 
 466 ; Midas, 314 ; Milan, 492 ; 
 Minnesota, 415 ; Mississippi River 
 gunboats, 463 ; Mint, 245 ; Mina 
 Thomas, 361 ; Minia, 444; Monad- 
 nock, 466 ; Monarch, 306 ; Mon- 
 arch (Grecian, Persian, Lydian, 
 etc.), 422 ; Monitor, 463 ; Mono- 
 cacy, 315 ; Montana, 415 ; Mosel, 
 396 ; Munstcr, 299 ; Naniwa-Kan, 
 489 ; Narcissus, 494 ; Nassau, 
 137 ; Natchez, (old), 138 (new), 
 224 ; Nebraska, 415 ; Nevada, 
 415 ; Newport, 383 ; Newton- 
 Common, 276 ; New Orleans, 137, 
 196, 197 ; New World. 183, 248 ; 
 Normandic, 400 ; North America, 
 
5o6 
 
 ROBERT FULTON. 
 
 Steam Vessels — Continued. 
 
 132, 181, 182 ; Northerner, 240 ; 
 Oceanic, 419 ; Oder, 396 ; Ohio, 
 
 239 ; Oldenberg, 493 ; Omega, 
 271 ; Oneonta, 466 ; Ontario, 235 ; 
 Oregon (boat), 182 ; Oregon 
 (Am.), 240 ; Oregon (Br.), 357, 
 415 ; Oriental, 425 ; Orlando, 
 494 ; Oruktor Amphibolis, 191 ; 
 Ozark, 234 ; Pacific, 361, 368 ; 
 Palos, 454 ; Panama, 240 ; Para- 
 gon, 130, 182 ; Patent, 272 ; 
 Pennland, 422 ; Pennsylvania, 
 402 ; Pereire, 400 ; Persia, 352, 
 411 ; Phcenix, 170 ; Pilgrim, 263 ; 
 Pittsburg, 201 ; Polyphemus, 494 ; 
 Pommerania, 393 ; Pomone, 348 ; 
 Porpoise, 494 ; Post Boy, 305 ; 
 President, 3O0 ; Princeton, 347 ; 
 Piopontus, 423 ; Queen, 402 ; 
 Queen (Br. gunboat), 462 ; Ran- 
 dolph, 224 ; Rapid, 291 ; Rari- 
 tan, 131 ; Rattler, 348 ; R. E. 
 Lee, 189 ; Rechid, 361 ; Rein- 
 deer, 224 ; Renown, 493 ; Re- 
 public, 240, 420 ; Rhein, 396 ; 
 Rhode Island, 257 ; Rhodaman- 
 thus, 331 ; Richmond, 136 ; Rob- 
 ert Bruce, 283 ; Rob Roy, 283, 
 
 304 ; Rochester, 182 ; Royal Wil- 
 liam, 330 ; Royal Tar, 425 ; Rus- 
 sia, 411, 422 ; San Rafael, 248 ; 
 Saint Theodosius, 315 ; St. Louis, 
 
 240 ; St. Laurent, 400 ; Sans- 
 pereil, 493 ; Savannah, 318 ; 
 Saxonia, 392 ; Scotia, 353 ; Scout, 
 494 ; Sea-gull, 459 ; Senator, 244, 
 245 ; Shannon, 361 ; Shelby, 224 ; 
 Shotwell, 221, 224 ; Silesia, 393 ; 
 Sirius, 331, 337 ; Snake, 309 ; 
 Soho, 306 ; Solano, 247, 248 ; 
 Sonora, 240 ; South America, 132, 
 189 ; Spain, 403 ; Spark, 304 ; 
 Stamfordliam, 361 ; Stevens' Bat- 
 tery, 175 ; Stiletto, 451 ; Stone- 
 wall, 317 ; Suevia, 393 ; Sultana, 
 224; Swallow, 182; Swiftsure, 288; 
 Takachiho-Kan, 489 ; Talbot, 
 
 305 ; Tartar, 494 ; Tecumseh, 
 224 ; Tempest, 361, 397 ; Tennes- 
 see, 240 ; Teutonia, 392 ; Thames, 
 285 ; Thuringia, 393 ; Tobago, 
 
 Steam Vessels — Continued. 
 
 240 ; Trojan, 361 ; Tuscarora, 
 224 ; Ulster, 299 ; Umbria, 354 ; 
 Undaunted, 494 ; Unicorn, 342 ; 
 United Kingdom (early steamer), 
 305 ; United Kingdom (Br.), 361, 
 398 ; Utica, 182 ; Vanderbilt, 
 183 ; Van der Capellan, 288 ; 
 Vesuvius, 137, 211 ; Ville de 
 Paris, 400 ; Virginia, 402 ; Waes- 
 land, 422 ; Walk-in-the- Water, 
 235 ; Warrior, 462 ; Washington 
 (Am.), 136, 224, 363 ; Washing- 
 ton (Fr.), 400 ; Waterloo, 298 ; 
 Werra, 396 ; Weser, 396 ; West- 
 phalia, 393 ; Wilson G. Hunt, 
 248 -; Wisconsin, 415 ; York, 133 ; 
 Zanzibar, 361 ; Zeeland, 422 
 
 vSteam vessels. Experimental, 71 
 
 Steam voyage. First, from England 
 to India, 310 
 
 Steam whistles introduced and used, 
 231 
 
 Steamboat, ** All-wheel," 451 
 Steamboat built at Pittsburgh, 196 
 Steamboat, Fastest, in world, 452 
 Steamboat, First, on Western waters 
 190 
 
 Steamboat, Oldest existing, 287 
 Steamboat racing, 221 
 Steamboating on Hudson River, 182 
 Steamboating on Western rivers, 190 
 Steamboats built by Fulton, 127 
 Steamboats, First, on the Mississippi, 
 
 Steamboats, Early, in Great Britain, 
 275 
 
 Steamer, Double-hull, 448 
 
 Steamers, First war, 458 
 
 Steamers disappeared in Atlantic 
 
 Ocean, 360 
 Steamers, War, in Pacific Ocean, 
 
 252 
 
 Steamship Cigar, 446 
 Steamship Great Eastern, 434 
 Steamships, Cable, 443 
 Steamships, Protection and bounties 
 
 to, 372 
 Steering-gear, Steam, 456 
 Steerage passengers, First carried by 
 
 steamers, 384 
 Stephens, John, 97, 170-172 
 
INDEX. 
 
 507 
 
 Stephens, Robert L., 172 
 Stephens, Edwin A., 175 
 Stephens Battery, 174 
 Stockton, Captain R. F., 346 . 
 Submarine boats, 476 
 Submarine navigation, 40, 155 
 Swift passages on the Hudson, 132 
 
 T 
 
 Taxation of steamship property, 
 372 
 
 Tea trains from San Francisco, 
 249 
 
 Temperance on Sound steamers, 
 269 
 
 Thingvalla Line, 422 
 Thomason's fire-ship, 275 
 Tonnage, Steam, of the world, 431 
 Torpedo boats, 470 
 Torpedoes in actual warfare, 471 
 Torpedoes, Fulton's, 35, 55-60 
 Tow-boat, First steam, 293 
 Tramp, Ocean, 430 
 Transatlantic mails. First American, 
 363 
 
 Transatlantic steamer, Smallest, 444 
 Transatlantic steamers disappeared 
 
 at sea, 360 
 Transatlantic voyages. Second and 
 
 third, 330 
 Treatise on canal navigation, 20 
 Trial trip of the Clermont, 106 
 Trinity churchyard, 167 
 Tuck's submarine boat, 484 
 
 U 
 
 United Kingdom, Steam navigation 
 in, 305 
 
 V 
 
 Vanderbilt, Cornelius, Commo- 
 dore "), 176 
 Vessels, Steam ( See * * Steam Vessels ") 
 Voyage, Remarkable, of "City of 
 
 New York," 243 
 Voyage of the Savannah, 320 
 Voyage of first steamboat on the 
 Ohio, 198 
 
 W 
 
 Waghorn, Lieutenant, 312 
 Ward's Line, 382 
 Warren Line, 423 
 War steamer. First, in world, 142 
 War steamer. First screw-propelled, 
 347 
 
 War steamers, First, in iic^^n'es, 458 
 War steamers in Pacific Ocean, 252 
 Watt's engine, 405 
 Webb, W. H., 240, 262 
 West, Benjamin, 10, 18, 20 
 Western rivers. Early navigation of, 
 213 
 
 Western rivers, Steamboating on, 
 190 
 
 Western waters. Number of steam- 
 boats on, 225 
 White Star Line, 419 
 Will and testament of Fulton, 160 
 Wilson Line, 422 
 Winans, Ross, 446 
 World, Navies of the, 469 
 World, Steam tonnage of the, 431 
 
 Y 
 
 Yang-tse-Kiang, Steam on, 315 
 Yokohama, San Francisco to, 249 
 
Heroes of the Nations. 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 EVELYN ABBOTT, M.A., 
 Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. 
 
 A Series of biographical studies of the lives and work 
 of a number of representative historical characters about 
 whom have gathered the great traditions of the Nations 
 to which they belonged, and who have been accepted, in 
 many instances, as types of the several National ideals. 
 With the life of each typical character will be presented 
 a picture of the National conditions surrounding him 
 during his career. 
 
 The narratives are the work of writers who are recog- 
 nized authorities on their several subjects, and, while 
 thoroughly trustworthy as history, will present picturesque 
 and dramatic stories of the Men and of the events con- 
 nected with them. 
 
 To the Life of each " Hero will be given one duo- 
 decimo volume, handsomely printed in large type, pro- 
 vided with maps and adequately illustrated according to 
 the special requirements of the several subjects. The 
 volumes will be sold separately as follows : 
 
 Large 12°, cloth extra $1 50 
 
 Half morocco, uncut edges, gilt top • • . I 75 
 
HEROES OF THE NATIONS. 
 
 A series of biographical studies of the lives and work of 
 certain representative historical characters, about whom have 
 gathered the great traditions of the Nations to which they 
 belonged, and who have been accepted, in many instances, as 
 types of the several National ideals. 
 
 The volumes will be sold separately as follows : cloth extn. 
 $1.50 ; half leather, uncut edges, gilt top, $1.75. 
 
 The following are now ready : 
 
 NELSON. By W. Clark Russell. 
 GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. By C. 
 
 R. L. Fletcher. 
 PERICLES. By Evelyn Abbott. 
 THEODORIC THE GOTH. By 
 
 Thomas Hodgkin. 
 SIR PHILIP SIDNEY. By. H. R. 
 
 Fox-Bourne. 
 JULIUS CiESAR. By W. Warde 
 
 Fowler. 
 
 WYCLIF. By Lewis Sergeant. 
 NAPOLEON. By W. O'Connor Mor- 
 ris. 
 
 HENRY OF NAVARRE. By P. F. 
 Willert. 
 
 CICERO. By J. L. Strachan-David- 
 son. 
 
 ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By Noah 
 Brooks. 
 
 PRINCE HENRY (OF PORTUGAL) 
 THE NAVIGATOR. By C. R. 
 Beazley. 
 
 JULIAN THE PHILOSOPHER. 
 By Alice Gardner. 
 
 LOUIS XIV. By Arthur Hassall. 
 
 CHARLES XII. By R. Nisbet Bain. 
 
 LORENZO DE' MEDICI. By Ed- 
 ward Armstrong. 
 
 JEANNE D'ARC. By Mrs. Oliphant. 
 
 CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. By 
 Washington Irving. 
 
 ROBERT THE BRUCE. By S^r 
 Herbert Maxwell. 
 
 HANNIBAL. By W. O'Connor Mor- 
 ris. 
 
 ULYSSES S. GRANT. By Willia 
 
 Conant Church. 
 ROBERT E. LEE. By Henry Aler 
 
 ander White. 
 THE CID CAMPEADOR. By I 
 
 Butler Clarke. 
 SAL A DIN. By Stanley Lane-Pool ; 
 BISMARCK. By J. W. Headlam. 
 ALEXANDER THE GREAT. } 
 
 Benjamin I. Wheeler. 
 CHARLEMAGl^E. By H. W. C 
 
 Davis. 
 
 OLIVER CROMWELL. By Charles 
 Firth. 
 
 RICHELIEU. By James B. Perkins. 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. By Robert 
 Dunlop. 
 
 SAINT LOUIS (Louis IX., of France). 
 
 By Frederick Perry. 
 LORD CHATHAM. By Walford 
 
 Davis Green, 
 
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 MOLTKE. By Spencer Wilkinson. 
 
 JUDAS MACCABEUS. By Israel 
 Abrahams. 
 
 HENRY V. By Charles L. Kings- 
 ford. 
 
 SOBIESKI. By F. A. Pollard. 
 ALFRED THE TRUTHTELLER. 
 By Frederick Perry. 
 
 FREDERICK II. By A. L. Smith. 
 MARLBOROUGH. By C. W. C. 
 Oman. 
 
 RICHARD THE LION-HJ^ARTED. 
 
 By T. A. Archer. 
 WILLIAM THE SILENT. By Ruth 
 
 Putnam. 
 
 JUSTINIAN. By Edward Jenks. 
 
 G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, Publishers, New York and London.