Fulton's "Steam Battery": Blockship and Catamaran

by Howard Irving Chapelle

On the fourth of July she was again put in action. She performed a trip to the ocean, eastward of Sandy Hook, and back again, a distance of fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes. A part of this time she had the tide against her, and had no assistance whatever from sails. Of the gentlemen who formed the company invited to witness the experiment, not one entertained a doubt of her fitness for the intended purpose.

Additional expedients were, notwithstanding, necessary to be sought for quickening and directing her motion. These were devised and executed with all possible care.

Suitable arrangements having been made, a third trial of her powers was attempted on the eleventh day of September, with the weight of twenty-six of her long and ponderous guns, and a considerable quantity of ammunition and stores on board; her draft of water was short of eleven feet. She changed her course by inverting the motion of the wheel, without the necessity of putting about. She fired salutes as she passed the forts, and she overcame the resistance of the wind and tide in her progress down the bay. She performed beautiful manœuvres around the United States’ Frigate Java, then at anchor near the light-house. She moved with remarkable celerity, and she was perfectly obedient to her double helm. It was observed that the explosion of powder produced very little concussion. The machinery was not affected by it in the smallest degree. Her progress, during the firing, was steady and uninterrupted. On the most accurate calculations, derived from heaving the log, her average velocity was five and a-half miles per hour. Notwithstanding the resistance of currents, she was found to make headway at the rate of two miles an hour against the ebb of the East River, running three and a-half knots. The day’s exercise was satisfactory to the respectable company who attended, beyond their utmost expectations. It was universally agreed that we now possessed a new auxiliary against every maratime invader. The City of New York, exposed as it is, was considered as having the means of rendering itself invulnerable. The Delaware, Chesapeake, Long Island Sound, and every other bay and harbor in the nation, may be protected by the same tremendous power.

Among the inconveniences observable during the experiment, was the heat endured by the men who attended the fires. To enable a correct judgment to be formed on this point, one of the Commissioners (Dr. Mitchel) descended and examined, by a thermometer, the temperature of the hold, between the two boilers. The quicksilver, exposed to the radiant heat of the burning fuel, rose to one hundred and sixteen degrees of Fahrenheit’s scale. Though exposed thus to its intensity, he experienced no indisposition afterwards. The analogy of potteries, forges, glass-houses, kitchens, and other places, where laborers are habitually exposed to high heats, is familiar to persons of business and of reflection. In all such occupations, the men, by proper relays, perform their services perfectly well.

The Government, however, will understand that the hold of the present vessel could be rendered cooler by other apertures for the admission of air, and that on building another steam frigate, the comfort of the firemen might be provided for, as in the ordinary steamboats.

The Commissioners congratulate the Government and the nation on the event of this noble project. Honorable alike, to its author and its patrons, it constitutes an era in warfare and the arts. The arrival of peace, indeed, has disappointed the expectations of conducting her to battle. That last and conclusive act of showing her superiority in combat, has not been in the power of the Commissioners to make.

If a continuance of tranquillity should be our lot, and this steam vessel of war be not required for the public defense, the nation may rejoice that the fact we have ascertained is of incalculably greater value than the expenditure—and that if the present structure should perish, we have the information never to perish, how, on a future emergency, others may be built. The requisite variations will be dictated by circumstances.

Owing to the cessation of hostilities, it has been deemed inexpedient to finish and equip her as for immediate and active employ. In a few weeks every thing that is incomplete could receive the proper adjustment.

After so much has been done, and with such encouraging results, it becomes the Commissioners to recommend that the steam frigate be officered and manned for discipline and practice. A discreet commander, with a selected crew, could acquire experience in the mode of navigating this peculiar vessel. The supplies of fuel, the tending of the fire, the replenishing of the expended water, the management of the mechanism, the heating of shot, the exercise of the guns, and various matters, can only become familiar by use. It is highly important that a portion of seamen and marines should be versed in the order and economy of the steam frigate. They will augment, diffuse, and perpetuate knowledge. When, in process of time, another war shall call for more structures of this kind, men, regularly trained to her tactics, may be dispatched to the several stations where they may be wanted. If, on any such disposition, the Government should desire a good and faithful agent, the Commissioners recommend Captain Obed Smith to notice, as a person who has ably performed the duties of inspector from the beginning to the end of the concern.