“Know ye, therefore, that we, of our special grace, hath given and granted to the said Jonathan Hulls our special license, full power, sole privilege and authority during the term of fourteen years, and he shall lawfully make use of the same for carrying ships and other vessels out to sea, or into any harbour or river. “In witness whereof we have caused these our letters to be made patent. “(Witness) CAROLINE, “Queen of Great Britain, &c. “Given by right of Privy Seal at Westminster, this 21st day of December, 1736.” In the description of his invention, Hulls states that, in his opinion, it would not be practicable to place his machine on anything but a tow-boat, as it would take up too much room for other goods to be carried on the same vessel with it, and it could not “be used in a storm, or when the waves are very raging.” Hulls’ vessel is stated to have been a stern-wheeler, a type of steamboat which is now extensively used for navigating shallow rivers in the Southern States of America and in India. The steam tow-boat brought its inventor nothing but ridicule, and he died in London in almost destitute circumstances. Next in chronological sequence come the Abbé Arnal and the Marquis de Jouffroy, of France, who, in 1781, made experiments to show the practicability of applying steam power to vessels. Two years later (1783), a Mr. Fitch tried a species of steam boiler on board a small nine-ton vessel on the Delaware River in America, propelling the vessel by paddles. [6]“In 1787 he built another boat, 45ft. by 12ft., and fitted her with a 12in. cylinder. With this vessel he is reported to have made the trip from Philadelphia to Burlington at an average rate of seven miles per hour. In 1790 he completed another and a larger boat.” But all his plans failed, and, like Hulls, his contemporaries deemed him to be crazy. He died in 1798.