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 circumstance 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 class.
The project was zealously embraced by the Executive, and the national
legislature in March, eighteen hundred and fourteen, passed 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
Association, 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
multitudes of spectators who thronged the surrounding shores, 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 mass, 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 assured 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.