In 1809 the first steamboat, the Accommodation, was seen on the St.
Lawrence, and in 1811 the first (built at Pittsburgh) appeared on the
Mississippi. A year after this the Comet, already alluded to, was put
upon the Clyde by Henry Bell. She was only 40 feet long on the keel,
and 10-1/2 broad, with two small paddle-wheels on each side, driven
by a gearing which geared into a wheel on the axle of each set of
paddle-wheels. Her original engines are still in existence, and are
deposited in the Museum at South Kensington, where they were set up by
the same engineer (Mr. John Robertson) who placed them in the Comet.
Fulton also has the honor of being the first to design and build a
war steamer, which for her time was a most remarkable production, and
by far the largest steam vessel built before 1838. She was a fitting
monument to the genius of the man who unfortunately did not live to see
her completion and successful trials.
The Demologos, or Fulton the First, was laid down June 20, 1814,
and launched October 29th of the same year. “Her dimensions were:
length, 150 feet; breadth, 56 feet; depth, 20 feet; water-wheel, 16
feet diameter, length of bucket 14 feet, dip 4 feet; engine, 48-inch
cylinder, 5 feet stroke; boiler length 22 feet, breadth 12 feet, and
depth 8 feet; tonnage, 2,475.”
The commissioners appointed to examine her say in their report:
“She is a structure resting upon two boats, keels separated from end to
end by a canal 15 feet wide and 66 feet long. One boat contains the
caldrons of copper to prepare her steam. The vast cylinder of iron,
with its piston, levers, and wheels, occupies a part of its fellow:
the great water-wheel revolves in the space between them: the main or
gun deck supporting her armament is protected by a bulwark _four feet_
ten inches thick of solid timber. This is pierced by 30 port-holes, to
enable as many 32-pounders to fire red-hot balls.
... She is rigged with 2 short masts, each of which supports a large
lateen yard and sails. She has 2 bowsprits and jibs, and 4 rudders, 2
at each extremity of the boat, so that she can be steered with either
end foremost. Her machinery is calculated for the addition of an engine
which will discharge an immense column of water, which is intended to
throw upon the decks and through the ports of an enemy.” She was also
intended to carry four 100-pounders.
She made her first trial on June 1, 1815, and on the Fourth of July she
steamed outside of Sandy Hook and back, a distance of 53 miles, in 8
hours and 20 minutes. She was then supposably light, as it is stated
that she was again tried September 11, 1815, with 26 of her guns on
board, and ammunition and stores to bring her down to nearly 11 feet
draught. She steamed from 4-1/2 to 5 miles an hour, Fulton having only
promised 3, and may certainly be considered to have been a success. She
was never commissioned, but was used as a receiving ship at New York
until June 4, 1829, when she accidentally blew up.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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