So far as the Hudson was concerned the decision of the courts crushed Captain Bunker, and frightened off any other possible trespassers on the monopoly. But Bunker had determined to become a steamship owner, and being crowded out of the Hudson he started a line of steamers as near New York City as he could, the Long Island Sound Line. The first of his vessels he named after his late opponent Fulton. She was built in 1813 and plied for the whole of her first season in 1814 on the Hudson River, as, the United States being then at war with England, it was feared that she would be captured if she ventured up the Sound. [Illustration: THE “PARAGON.” BUILT 1811.] At the time the Fulton boats had to meet Bunker’s opposition, the third Fulton steamboat, the _Paragon_, made its first appearance on the river. She was both faster and larger than her predecessors. She was fitted with two masts, one stepped very far forward, and the other very far aft. The foremast carried an immense square foresail with a little square topsail above it, and there was also a large triangular sail carried on the stay from the end of the bowsprit to the cap of the lower mast. The aftermast carried an ordinary trysail or mizzen. The vessel had a large rudder and was steered from amidships, according to a contemporary print. The following year another Fulton steamer, the _Firefly_, came on the scene. She was a small vessel, only 81 feet in length, and though designed for the lower river service, was used elsewhere as occasion demanded. Fulton by this time was himself planning the placing of steamers on other rivers, and in 1814 the _Richmond_ was launched from his designs for the James River in Virginia. The British-American War at this time rendered it unsafe to send her south, and as the _North River_, late _Clermont_, was about worn out by now, the _Richmond_ took her place. Fulton seems to have been associated to some extent with Bunker, for the latter’s boat, _Fulton_, was designed by Fulton himself. She was a sloop-rigged vessel with a single mast stepped well forward, and made considerable use of sails. She was 134 feet in length and 26 feet beam, and had a large square engine-house that extended rather above the sides of her paddle-boxes. Hitherto all the American steamers had been of the wall-sided, flat-bottomed type inaugurated by the _Clermont_. The _Fulton_ was the first steamer to be constructed with a round bottom like a sailing ship.