The present collection of Contributions, Papers 34-44, comprises Bulletin 240. Each of these papers has been previously published in separate form. The year of publication is shown on the last page of each paper. FRANK A. TAYLOR _Director, United States National Museum_ CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY: PAPER 39 FULTON'S "STEAM BATTERY": BLOCKSHIP AND CATAMARAN _Howard I. Chapelle_ SURVIVING DESIGNS FOR FLOATING BATTERIES 145 CONTROVERSIAL DESCRIPTIONS 147 COPENHAGEN PLANS 150 HISTORY OF DOUBLE-HULL CRAFT 152 SAIL AND INBOARD PLANS 157 RECONSTRUCTING THE PLANS 161 APPENDIX 167 [FOOTNOTES] [INDEX] [Illustration: Figure 1.--SCALE MODEL of Fulton's _Steam Battery_ in the Museum of History and Technology. (Smithsonian photo P-63390-F.)] _Howard I. Chapelle_ FULTON'S "STEAM BATTERY": BLOCKSHIP and CATAMARAN _Robert Fulton's "Steam Battery," a catamaran-type blockship, was built during the War of 1812. Until recently, not enough material has been available to permit a reasonably accurate reconstruction of what is generally acknowledged to be the first steam man-of-war._ _With the discovery, in the Danish Royal Archives at Copenhagen, of plans of this vessel, it is now possible to prepare a reconstruction and to build a model._ _This article summarizes the history of the vessel, describes the plans and the reconstruction, and also evaluates its design with particular attention to the double-hull construction._ THE AUTHOR: _Howard I. Chapelle is curator of transportation in the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology._ The identity of the first steam man-of-war has been known for many years, and a great deal has been written and published on the history of this American vessel. Until recently, the only available drawing of the ship has been a patent drawing made for Robert Fulton. This does not comply with contemporary descriptions of the steamer and the drawing or plan is out of proportion with the known dimensions. The lack of plans has heretofore made it impossible to illustrate the vessel with any degree of precision, or to build a scale model. The discovery in 1960 of some of the plans of this historic ship in the Danish Royal Archives at Copenhagen now makes possible a reasonably accurate reconstruction of the vessel and also clarifies some of the incomplete and often confusing descriptions by contemporary writers.