Fulton's "Steam Battery": Blockship and Catamaran Part 3

In very recent years there has been a revival in interest in sailing double-hull boats that is enthusiastic as to very small craft and somewhat restrained as to large boats. A few projects are under development for double-hull craft, power and sail, of over 90-foot length, including an oceanographic research vessel. In general, however, the performance of double-hull boats has shown that Chapman's estimate of the type was reasonably correct and that there are limitations, particularly in maneuverability in the double-hull craft that could have been found by reference to the history of past experiments with the type.

NAVAL STEAMERS.

THE DEMOLOGOS; OR, FULTON THE FIRST.

At the close of the year eighteen hundred and thirteen, Robert Fulton exhibited to the President of the United States, the original drawing from which the engraving on Plate One is sketched, being a representation of the proposed war-steamer or floating-battery, named by him, the Demologos. This sketch possesses more than ordinary interest, from the circ.u.mstance that it is, doubtless, the only record of the _first war-steamer in the world_, designed and drawn by the immortal Fulton, and represented by him to the Executive, as capable of carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for red hot shot, and being propelled by the power of steam, at the rate of _four_ miles an hour.

It was contemplated that this vessel, besides carrying her proposed armament on deck, should also be furnished with submarine guns, two suspended from each bow, so as to discharge a hundred pound ball into an enemy's ship at ten or twelve feet below her water-line. In addition to this, her machinery was calculated for the addition of an engine which would discharge an immense column of water upon the decks, and through the port-holes of an enemy, making her the most formidable engine for warfare that human ingenuity has contrived.

The estimated cost of the vessel was three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, nearly the sum requisite for a frigate of the first cla.s.s.

The project was zealously embraced by the Executive, and the national legislature in March, eighteen hundred and fourteen, pa.s.sed a law, authorizing the President of the United States to cause to be built, equipped, and employed, one or more floating batteries, for the defense of the waters of the United States.

The building of the vessel was committed by the Coast and Harbor Defense a.s.sociation, to a sub-committee of five gentlemen, who were recognized by the Government as their agents for that purpose, and whose interesting history of the Steam Frigate is copied in Note A, of the Appendix to this volume.

Robert Fulton, whose soul animated the enterprise, was appointed the engineer; and on the twentieth day of June, eighteen hundred and fourteen, the keel of this novel steamer was laid at the ship-yard of Adam and Noah Brown, her able and active constructors, in the city of New York, and on the twenty-ninth of the following October, or in little more than four months, she was safely launched, in the presence of mult.i.tudes of spectators who thronged the surrounding sh.o.r.es, and were seen upon the hills which limited the beautiful prospect around the bay of New York.

The river and bay were filled with steamers and vessels of war, in compliment to the occasion. In the midst of these was the enormous floating ma.s.s, whose bulk and unwieldy form seemed to render her as unfit for motion, as the land batteries which were saluting her.

In a communication from Captain David Porter, U. S. Navy, to the Hon.

Secretary of the Navy, dated New York, October 29, 1814, he states,--"I have the pleasure to inform you that the "FULTON THE FIRST," was this morning safely launched. No one has yet ventured to suggest any improvement that could be made in the vessel, and to use the words of the projector, '_I would not alter her if it were in my power to do so._'

"She promises fair to meet our most sanguine expectations, and I do not despair in being able to navigate in her from one extreme of our coast to the other. Her buoyancy astonishes every one, she now draws _only eight feet three inches water_, and her draft will only be _ten_ feet with all her guns, machinery, stores, and crew, on board. The ease with which she can now be towed with a single steamboat, renders it certain that her velocity will be sufficiently great to answer every purpose, and the manner it is intended to secure her machinery from the gunner's shot, leaves no apprehension for its safety. I shall use every exertion to prepare her for immediate service; her guns will soon be mounted, and I am a.s.sured by Mr. Fulton, that her machinery will be in operation in about six weeks."

On the twenty-first of November, the Steam Frigate was moved from the wharf of Messrs. Browns, in the East River, to the works of Robert Fulton, on the North River, to receive her machinery, which operation was performed by fastening the steamboat "Car of Neptune," to her larboard, and the steamboat "Fulton," to her starboard side; they towed her through the water from three and a-half to four miles per hour.

The dimensions of the "Fulton the First" were:--

Length, one hundred and fifty-six feet.

Breadth, fifty-six feet.

Depth, twenty feet.

Water-wheel, sixteen feet diameter.

Length of bucket, fourteen feet.

Dip, four feet.

Engine, forty-eight inch cylinder, and five feet stroke.

Boiler, length, twenty-two feet; breath, twelve feet; and depth, eight feet.

Tonnage, two thousand four hundred and seventy-five.

By June, eighteen hundred and fifteen, her engine was put on board, and she was so far completed as to afford an opportunity of trying her machinery. On the first of June, at ten o'clock in the morning, the "Fulton the First," propelled by her own steam and machinery, left the wharf near the Brooklyn ferry, and proceeded majestically into the river; though a stiff breeze from the south blew directly ahead, she stemmed the current with perfect ease, as the tide was a strong ebb. She sailed by the forts and saluted them with her thirty-two pound guns. Her speed was equal to the most sanguine expectations; she exhibited a novel and sublime spectacle to an admiring people. The intention of the Commissioners being solely to try her enginery, no use was made of her sails. After navigating the bay, and receiving a visit from the officers of the French ship of war lying at her anchors, the Steam Frigate came to at Powles' Hook ferry, about two o'clock in the afternoon, without having experienced a single unpleasant occurrence.

On the fourth of July, of the same year, she made a pa.s.sage to the ocean and back, and went the distance, which, in going and returning, is fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes, without the aid of sails; the wind and tide were partly in her favor and partly against her, the balance rather in her favor.

In September, she made another trial trip to the ocean, 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. This performance was not more than equal to Robert Fulton's expectations, but it exceeded what he had premised to the Government, which was that she should be propelled by steam at the rate of from three to four miles an hour.

The English were not uninformed as to the preparations 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 at that time, the author states that he has taken great care to procure _full_ and _accurate_ information of the Steam Frigate launched in New York, and 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 cutla.s.ses_ with the utmost regularity over her gunwales; works also an equal number of heavy iron pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute"!!

The war having terminated before the "_Fulton the First_" was entirely completed, she was taken to the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, and moored on the flats abreast of that station, where she remained, and was used as a receiving-ship until the fourth of June, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, when she was blown up. The following letters from Commodore Isaac Chauncey (then Commandant of the New York Navy Yard) to the Honorable Secretary of the Navy, informing him of the distressing event, concludes this brief history of the _first steam vessel of war ever built_.

U. S. NAVY YARD, NEW YORK, _June 5th, 1829_.

SIR:

It becomes my painful duty to report to you a most unfortunate occurrence which took place yesterday, at about half past two o'clock, P. M., in the accidental blowing up of the Receiving Ship Fulton, which killed twenty-four men and a woman, and wounded nineteen; there are also five missing. Amongst the killed I am sorry to number Lieutenant S. M.

Brackenridge, a very fine, promising officer, and amongst the wounded are, Lieutenants Charles F. Platt, and A. M. Mull, and Sailing-Master Clough, the former dangerously, and the two last severely; there are also four Midshipmen severely wounded. How this unfortunate accident occurred I am not yet able to inform you, nor have I time to state more particularly; I will, as soon as possible, give a detailed account of the affair.

I have the honor to be, Sir, Very respectfully, J. CHAUNCEY.

HON. JOHN BRANCH, _Secretary of the Navy, Washington._

U.S. NAVY YARD, NEW YORK, _June 8th, 1829_.

Sir:

I had been on board the "Fulton" all the morning, inspecting the ship and men, particularly the sick and invalids, which had increased considerably from other ships, and whom I had intended to ask the Department permission to discharge, as being of little use to the service. I had left the ship but a few moments before the explosion took place, and was in my office at the time. The report did not appear to me louder than a thirty-two pounder, although the destruction of the ship was complete and entire, owing to her very decayed state, for there was not on board, at the time, more than two and a-half barrels of damaged powder, which was kept in the magazine for the purpose of firing the morning and evening gun. It appears to me that the explosion could not have taken place from accident, as the magazine was as well, or better secured, than the magazines of most of our ships, yet it would be difficult to a.s.sign a motive to those in the magazine for so horrible an act, as voluntarily to destroy themselves and those on board. If the explosion was not the effect of design, I am at a loss to account for the catastrophe.

I have the honor to be, Sir, Very respectfully, J. CHAUNCEY.

HON. JOHN BRANCH, _Secretary of the Navy, Washington_.

APPENDIX.

NOTE A.

STEAM FRIGATE.

_Report of HENRY RUTGERS, SAMUEL L. MITCHEL, and THOMAS MORRIS, the Commissioners superintending the construction of a steam vessel of war, to the Secretary of the Navy._

NEW YORK, _December 28th, 1815_.

SIR: