The use of catamaran hulls, or "double-hulls," has been periodically
popular with ship designers since the time of Charles II of England. The
earliest of such vessels known in the present day were four sloops or
shallops designed 1673-1687 by Sir William Petty, who was an inventor in
the field of naval architecture and received some attention from Charles
II and from the Royal Society.
The first Petty experiment, the _Simon & Jude_, later called _Invention
I_, was launched October 28, 1662. She was designed with two hulls
cylindrical in cross section, each 2 feet in diameter, and 20 feet long.
A platform connected the hulls, giving the boat a beam of a little over
9 feet. She had a 20-foot mast stepped on one of the crossbeams
connecting the hulls, with a single gaff sail. In sailing trials she
beat three fast boats: the King's barge, a large pleasure boat, and a
man-of-war's boat. This "double-bottom," also called a "sluiceboat" or
"cylinder," was later lengthened at the stern to make her 30 feet
overall.
[Illustration: Figure 7.]
The King did not support Petty, to the latter's great disappointment,
and Petty next built a larger double-bottom, _Invention II_. This
catamaran was lapstrake construction. Not much is known of this boat
except that she beat the regular Irish packet boat, running between
Holyhead and Dublin, in a race each way, winning a £20 wager. She was
launched in July 1663; what became of her was not recorded.
A third and still larger boat, the _Experiment_, launched December 22,
1664, appears to have been a large sloop. This vessel sailed by way of
the Thames in April 1665 and went to Oporto, Portugal. She left Portugal
October 20, 1665, for home, but apparently went down with all hands in a
severe storm.
[Illustration: Figure 8.--DANISH COPY OF ORIGINAL SAIL PLAN of Robert
Fulton's _Steam Battery_, dated September 12, 1817, in Rigsarkivet,
Copenhagen.]
[Illustration: Figure 9.--LINES OF FULTON'S _Steam Battery_, as
reconstructed for a model in the Museum of History and Technology.]
[Illustration: Figure 10.--A RECONSTRUCTION OF INBOARD WORKS of the
_Steam Battery_, for construction of the model in the Museum of History
and Technology.]
For 18 years Petty did no more with the type, but finally, in July
1684, he laid down a still larger sloop with two decks and a mast
standing 55 feet above her upper deck. She was named _St. Michael the
Archangel_ and is probably the design in Pepys' _Book of Miscellaneous
Illustrations_ in Magdalene College, Cambridge, England. This vessel
proved unmanageable and was a complete failure.
[Illustration: Figure 11.--MODEL LINES REDRAWN to outside of plank to
show hydrodynamic form of the _Steam Battery_.]
Though the double canoes of the Pacific Islands were probably known to
some in Europe in 1662, there is no evidence that Petty based his
designs on such craft. He appears to have produced his designs
spontaneously from independent observations and resulting theories.
Before Petty concluded his experiments, a number of double-hull craft
had been produced by others; however, some "double" craft, such as
"double shallops" may have been "double-enders," as shown by a
"double-moses boat" of the 18th century and later.[16]
The use of two canoes, joined by a platform or by poles was common in
colonial times; in Maryland and Virginia, dugouts so joined were used to
transport tobacco down the tidal creeks to vessels' loading. Such craft
were also used as ferries. M. V. Brewington's _Chesapeake Bay Log
Canoes_[17] and Paul Wilstack's _Potomac Landings_[18] illustrate canoes
used in this manner. A catamaran galley, two round-bottom hulls, flat on
the inboard side (a hull split along the centerline and the inboard
faces planked up), 113 feet long and each hull a 7-foot moulded beam,
6-foot 6 inches moulded depth, and placed 13 feet apart, was proposed by
Sir Sidney Smith, R.N., in the 1790's, and built by the British
Admiralty. Named _Taurus_, she is shown by the Admiralty draught to have
been a double-ender, with cabins amidships on the platform, an iron
rudder at each end (between the hulls) steered with tillers (to unship),
and with a ramp at one end. The plans are undated, signed by Captain Sir
Sidney Smith, and a field-carriage gun is shown at the ramp end of the
boat. This, and the heavy rocker in the keels, suggests the _Taurus_ was
intended for a landing boat. No sailing rig is indicated, but tholes for
12 oars or sweeps on each side are shown. The oarsmen apparently sat on
deck, or on low seats, with stretchers in hatches between each pair of
tholes (Admiralty Collection of Draughts, The National Maritime Museum,
Greenwich, England).
[Illustration: Figure 12.--GENERAL PLAN of the _Taurus_, a catamaran
galley gunboat proposed by Sir Sidney Smith, R.N., to the British
Admiralty in the early years of the French Revolution. From the
Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.]
Another experimenter with the double-hull type of vessel was a wealthy
Scot named Patrick Miller who was particularly interested in manual
propulsion of vessels, employing geared capstans to operate paddle
wheels. In a letter dated June 9, 1790, Miller offered Gustav III of
Sweden a design for a double-hulled 144-gun ship-of-the-line (rating as
a 130-gun ship) propelled by manually operated capstans connected to a
paddle wheel between the hulls. She was rigged to sail, with five masts
and was to be 246 feet long, 63 feet beam, and 17 feet draft; the hulls
were 16 feet apart.
This project was submitted by the King to Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, the
great Swedish naval architect, who made an adverse report. Chapman
pointed out in great detail that the weight of the armament, the
necessary hull structure, the stores, crew, ammunition, spars, sails,
rigging and gear, would greatly exceed Miller's designed displacement.
He also pointed out the prime fault of catamarans under sail--slow
turning in stays. He suggested that the speed under sail would be
disappointing. He doubted that a double-hull ship of such size could be
built strong enough to stand a heavy sea. He remarked that English
records showed that a small vessel of the catamaran type had been built
between 1680 and 1700 which had sailed well (this may have been one of
Petty's boats), and that "36 years ago" he had seen 8 miles from London,
a similar boat that had been newly built by Lord Baltimore and was about
50 feet long; this was a failure and was discarded after one trial.
Therefore, said Chapman, the Miller project was not new but rather an
old idea. Chapman's final remark is perhaps the best illustration of his
opinion of the catamaran, "Despite all this, two-hull vessels are
completely sound when the theory can be properly applied; that is in
vessels of very light weight, and of small size, with crews of one or
two men."
A "model" of such a double-hull ship--the _Experiment_, built at Leith,
Scotland, in 1786 by J. Laurie--was sent to Sweden by Miller. She was
105 feet long, 31 feet beam, and cost £3000. This vessel arrived in the
summer of 1790 and King Gustav in a letter dated July 26 ordered Col.
Michael Anckerswärd to welcome the vessel at Stockholm. The King
presented Miller with a gold snuffbox and a painting was made of the
vessel. The _Experiment_ had five paddle wheels in tandem between her
hulls, operated by geared capstans on deck. These gave her a speed of 5
knots but caused the crew to suffer from exhaustion in a short time. The
vessel was badly strained in a storm and was finally abandoned at St.
Petersburg, Russia.[19]
[Illustration: Figure 12.]
Miller later turned to the idea of employing steam instead of manual
power and built a 25-foot double-hulled pleasure boat of iron fitted
with a steam engine built by William Symington. Also named _Experiment_,
she was an apparent success, so Miller had a 60-foot boat built of the
double-hull design and fitted with an engine built by Symington. She
reached a speed of 7 mph on the Forth and Clyde Canal. However, Miller
lost interest when he found that the Symington engine was unreliable and
that Great Britain showed very little public support for such projects.
Fulton was acquainted with Symington's work and probably had heard of
Miller's vessels. At any rate, he employed the double-hull principle in
his steam ferryboats, the first of which was the _Jersey_, a 188-ton
vessel built by Charles Browne, which began service July 2, 1812. The
next year he had a sister ship built, the _York_. These vessels were
based on his patent drawing of 1809. In 1814 he had another vessel of
this type built, the _Nassau_. It was, therefore, logical that he should
apply this design to the _Steam Battery_. The double-hull design had
worked well in these ferries, and the design would give protection from
shot to the paddle wheel. The _Battery_ would have the ability to run
forward or astern so as not to be exposed to a raking fire from the
enemy while maneuvering in action. The application of this "ferryboat"
principle to the _Battery_ reduced the need for extreme maneuverability,
the catamaran's weakest point, even at low speed.
The resistance factors in the design are of relatively small importance,
for the speed possible under steam in this period was very low. However,
the plans show an apparently efficient hull form for the power
available, aside from the drag of the beams across the race in the
vicinity of the keel. The displacement was adequate. The height of the
gun-deck above the water at the race made the _Battery_ unsuitable for
rough-water operation, but there is no evidence that Fulton or the
sponsors of the vessel considered the _Battery_ as a coastwise or
seagoing steamer. However, the clearance of the gun deck above the water
and the dip of the paddle wheel would have made the additional weight of
an upper- or spar-deck battery prohibitive even had experience in action
proven it desirable.