Busy days followed as Fulton made ready to take his final farewell of France. Barlow also was about to return to America, to spend his last days in peaceful retirement. Before leaving, Fulton packed a great number of his drawings and papers in a large box to ship to America; but the vessel was wrecked at sea and the box, when finally recovered, was so wet that much of the writing was impossible to decipher. Cadwallader Colden, who wrote the first life of Fulton, laments this accident and gives it as the chief reason that so little is known of Fulton’s life in England and France. But by the light of many gathered facts, the story of the years has been pieced together. Napoleon was ready to declare himself emperor, and this took place on May 18th, 1804. This act was a disappointment to Fulton who had hoped that the French Revolution would result in the formation of a republic. He and Barlow were both glad to leave Paris at this time. Indeed, Fulton’s contract with Livingston necessitated his trip to England to get the engine, so the overtures of the British statesmen came just at the right time. Rebuffed and disappointed, after years of waiting for Napoleon’s recognition of his plans, Fulton, as a neutral, had perfect liberty to transfer his interests as well as himself to another country. He embarked for England in May, and in due season reached London. CHAPTER XI EXPERIMENTS WITH A SUBMARINE Lord Hawksbury wrote Fulton, “If you should be disposed to accept active employment from the British government, you may rely on the most liberal treatment and recompense proportioned to your efficient service.” No wonder that Fulton departed happily from France. Arriving in London, he established himself in lodgings and tried once more to order the engine for the American boat; he also tried to induce the British Ministry to accept his submarine torpedo. As his work in France had been publicly known, he signed his letters to the English statesmen “Robert Francis,” an assumed name which was no secret to the English but served to protect the torpedo project from the notice of French spies, should there be any. At Boulogne, Napoleon was gathering his army for a possible invasion of England. France, enriched fifteen million dollars by the American purchase of Louisiana, was prepared to strike a new blow. History made rapidly during those days; maps and ruling powers were changing. Fulton swung his energies to a fresh scene of action at a crucial time. He was indeed “playing with fire.” Fulton’s danger during his submarine experiments in the harbor of Brest, was small compared with the risk he would run should he fall into the hands of the French while using torpedoes against them. Fulton had been told by Napoleon’s commission that any one employing such weapons of destruction would certainly be hung if captured by the enemy; how much greater the likelihood now if France found the spurned machines effectively turned against Napoleon’s troops.