Robert Fulton and the Submarine

by William Barclay Parsons

But, it may be said that my Experiments have been so Public that no part of my plan is now a Secret, I would ask who has seen the Plans and System which I have exhibited to this Committee where is to be found did any gentleman here know them all or any part of them perfectly before I appeared,? It is true there have been Ideas of this subject scattered in the World but the impracticability of any important result has always been attached to them which Idea I perceive has much weight in this Committee.

He urged on the Arbitrators that a list of questions which he sets forth in his notes bearing on the efficacy of his bombs should be submitted to Lord Kieth, Commodore Owen, Admiral Demet, Captain Seccombe, Captain Salt, Captain King, Lieutenant Wm. Robinson and Captain Thomas Johnson of the Nile Cutter. He concludes his appeal to the Arbitrators in the following spirited language:

Now Gentlemen I beg you to believe that I have not taken these measures nor made use of these Arguments to draw from you either Capital or Annuity I am not a Man much governed by a thirst for Money, an honorabel fame is to me a much more noble feeling, But I like truth candor, and Justice to all Parties concerned with me in this Business, I have therefore used these Arguments for the following reasons.

First, That at this meeting it is right for me to Shew you in the most striking manner in my power what I conceive your danger and should you not see it as I do and future bad consequences should result to this Country the fault will not rest with me but with you and His Majesty’s Ministers, and I shall not have to accuse myself of want of Candour—

Second, I have used them to gratify two friends who have been kind to me, and who are more governed by the hope of gain than I am, I have now acquitted myself to this Government and to them, And neither this Government nor they have more to expect of me Therefore Gentlemen should your award not meet their views of Wealth, I shall feel free to act as I think proper And I will take the fame and Consequences of these Engines on myself Abandoning all calculations of a pecuniary kind, and the whole of the Drawings and Papers here exhibited shall be published within one year with all my Experiments in France and Negotiations with this Government. In fact I will do my utmost to make it a good Philosophic Work and give it to the World. I will then form a Committee of the most respectable Men in America and proceed regularly in Experiments on the large Scale publishing the result from time to time and thus drawing the attention of the ingenious and Enterprising to such Pursuits I shall hope to succeed in my first object that of annihilating all Military Marines and giving liberty to the Seas.

Gentlemen a man who has the candour to give you this in Writing has but little deception or fear in his character and will not abandon so glorious an Enterprise for trifling Rebuffs or mean consideration

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 an Annuity of £20,000 a Year, I would sacrifise all to the safety & independance of my Country, But I hope England and America will understand their mutual Interest to well to War with each other And I have no desire to introduce my Engines into practice for the benefit of any other Nation.

At the end of the “Notes” he adds his own views and a record that the decision, adverse to him, was signed soon after the conference was concluded.

After the Arguments used in the preceding Paper, one would have thought that Justice and Policy would have induced the Arbitrators to hear Evidence on the practicability and probable consequences of such Engines, before they would venture to decide on a Work of Art of so much consequence, they did not however call in one Evidence nor hear one opinion and to my great astonishment the Award was Signed in one Hour after I left the room. Such inconceivable blindness to the Interest of the Nation, and Injustice to me on the part of Sir Charles Blagden and Captn. Hamilton, Induced me to write the following Letter to Lord Grenville and this I did that Ministers may have no excuse to plead that they were lead into Error by their Arbitrators, and again that my two friends may be convinced that I never abandoned their Interest as long as there was one reasonable hope of succeeding to their wishes.

There is a footnote to the copy as follows: