Figure 1^st. _Transverse section A her Boiler. B the steam Engine. C the water wheel. E E her wooden walls 5 feet thick, diminishing to below the waterline as at F.F draught of water 9 feet D D her gun deck_ _Scale 1/12 inch=1 foot_ Waterline _Scale 1/24 inch=1 foot_ Figure II^d. _This shews her gun deck, 140 feet long 24 feet wide, mounting 20 guns. A the Water wheel_ Figure III^d _Side View_ _Scale 1/24 inch=1 foot_ ROBERT FULTON _November 1813._ _S M^c Elroy del._ _"Stuart's Naval & Mail Steamers U.S."_ _Sarony & Major. Eng. N.Y._] [Illustration: Figure 2.--"DEMOLOGOS," A WOOD ENGRAVING based on the sketch which Robert Fulton showed to President Madison in 1813. This wood engraving appears as plate 1 in Charles B. Stuart's _Naval and Mail Steamers of the United States_, and illustrates the section on Naval Steamers, from which the account "The Demologos; or, Fulton the First," is here reproduced (pp. 167-171). Stuart obtained the sketch, assumed to have been made for Fulton's patent on the design of the _Steam Battery_, from the files of the U.S. Navy Department.] On December 24, 1813, Robert Fulton invited a group of friends--prominent merchants, professional men and naval officers--to his home in New York City and there presented a proposal for a project of great local interest. At that time the War of 1812 was in its second year and the economic effect of the British naval blockade was being felt severely. The blockade cut off seaborne trade and posed a constant threat of attack upon New York and other important ports, particularly Baltimore. To defend the ports, it had been proposed to build mobile floating batteries or heavily built and armed hulks with small sailing rigs, but the high cost of these and their doubtful value in helping to break the blockade, compared to the value and action of a very heavy, large frigate, or a 74-gun ship, caused authorities to hesitate to proceed with the construction of any blockships or floating batteries. Fulton's proposal concerned a floating battery propelled by steam power. He believed that steam propulsion not only would give it effective maneuverability with no loss of gunpower, but also would allow a successful attack upon the Royal Navy blockading ships during periods of protracted calm, when sailing men-of-war were nearly helpless. The blockaders then could be attacked and picked off, one by one, by the heavily armed steamboat.