Robert Fulton and the SubmarineParsons, William Barclay
History
Robert Fulton and the Submarine
Parsons, William Barclay
Fulton, Robert, 1765-1815; Submarines (Ships)
_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:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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