Figure 6.Figure 6.
The lines plan agreed rather closely to Montgéry’s description of the hull. After careful fairing it was found the lines drawing would produce a vessel 153 feet 2 inches overall outside the stems, or about 151 feet over the planked rabbets, with a moulded beam of 56 feet and extreme beam of 58 feet. The moulded depth was 22 feet 9 inches and the width of the race was 14 feet 10 inches, plank to plank. The room and space of framing shown was 2 feet. The designed draft appears to be 13 feet and this would bring the port sills 5 feet 6 inches above the loadline and the underside of the gun-deck beams about 2 feet 9 inches above the loadline.
The lines plan is a Danish copy, probably of the building plan by Noah Brown, and may be based on the plan Montgéry obtained from Brown. The spar deck has the iron stanchions (Gurley translated these as “chandeliers”) which are set inboard 4 feet from the plank-sheer. This gives room for cotton bales, outboard the stanchions, to form a barricade. As will be seen by comparing the original Danish drawing with the model drawing, the construction indicates that the iron stanchions should be carried around the ends of the hull in the same manner as along the sides, since the lower ends of the iron stanchions pass through the spar deck and are secured to the inside of the inner ceiling of the gun deck. The rudders are as shown in the Danish drawing, and it is supposed that they were operated ferryboat fashion, one at each end of the vessel. Hence, each pair of rudders was toggled together by a cross-yoke. This was probably operated by a tiller (possibly the cross-yokes and tillers were of iron) pivoted under the beams of the gun deckclose to the ends of the ship. Tiller ropes led from a tackle under the gun-deck through trunks to the spar deck, where the wheels were placed. This allowed proper sweep to the tillers and operation of each pair of rudders. The paddle wheel was apparently of iron, with wooden blades, and agrees with Montgéry’s description. In the plan for the model it is shown raised 18 inches above the original design position, to agree with trial requirements.
It should be observed that the close CL-to-CL frame spacing created a hull having frames touching one another, at least to above the turn of the bilge, so the vessel was almost solid timber, before being planked and ceiled, from keel to about the loadline. The sides are not only heavily planked but, after the frames were ceiled with extraordinarily heavy, square timbering, a supplementary solid, vertical framing was introduced inboard and another ceiling added. The sides scale about 5 feet from outside the plank to the inboard face of the inner ceiling at the level of the gunports.
The hulls were tied together athwartship by the deck beams of the gun deck and spar deck, except in the wake of the paddle wheel. Knees were placed along the sides of the race at alternate gun-deck beams. In addition, the 12 1-foot-square timbers, crossing the race at the rabbets of the hulls, (mentioned by Montgéry) are shown. These must have created extraordinary resistance, even at the low speed of this steamer. The deck details shown are the results of reconstruction of the inboard works.
Figure 7.—Original lines of Robert Fulton's Steam Battery, a Danish copy dated September 12, 1817; found in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.Figure 7.—Original lines of Robert Fulton’sSteam Battery, a Danish copy dated September 12, 1817; found in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.
Figure 7.—Original lines of Robert Fulton’sSteam Battery, a Danish copy dated September 12, 1817; found in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.
The use of catamaran hulls, or “double-hulls,” has been periodically popular with ship designers since the time of Charles II of England. The earliest of such vessels known in the present day were four sloops or shallops designed 1673-1687 by Sir William Petty, who was an inventor in the field of naval architecture and received some attention from Charles II and from the Royal Society.
The first Petty experiment, theSimon & Jude,latercalledInvention I, was launched October 28, 1662. She was designed with two hulls cylindrical in cross section, each 2 feet in diameter, and 20 feet long. A platform connected the hulls, giving the boat a beam of a little over 9 feet. She had a 20-foot mast stepped on one of the crossbeams connecting the hulls, with a single gaff sail. In sailing trials she beat three fast boats: the King’s barge, a large pleasure boat, and a man-of-war’s boat. This“double-bottom,” also called a “sluiceboat” or “cylinder,” was later lengthened at the stern to make her 30 feet overall.
Figure 7.Figure 7.
The King did not support Petty, to the latter’s great disappointment, and Petty next built a larger double-bottom,Invention II. This catamaran was lapstrake construction. Not much is known of this boat except that she beat the regular Irish packet boat, running between Holyhead and Dublin, in a race each way, winning a £20 wager. She was launched in July 1663; what became of her was not recorded.
A third and still larger boat, theExperiment, launched December 22, 1664, appears to have been a large sloop. This vessel sailed by way of the Thames in April 1665 and went to Oporto, Portugal. She left Portugal October 20, 1665, for home, but apparently went down with all hands in a severe storm.
Figure 8.—Danish copy of original sail plan of Robert Fulton's Steam Battery, dated September 12, 1817, in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.Figure 8.—Danish copy of original sail planof Robert Fulton’sSteam Battery, dated September 12, 1817, in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.
Figure 8.—Danish copy of original sail planof Robert Fulton’sSteam Battery, dated September 12, 1817, in Rigsarkivet, Copenhagen.
Figure 9.—Lines of Fulton's Steam Battery, as reconstructed for a model in the Museum of History and Technology.Figure 9.—Lines of Fulton’sSteam Battery, as reconstructed for a model in the Museum of History and Technology.
Figure 9.—Lines of Fulton’sSteam Battery, as reconstructed for a model in the Museum of History and Technology.
Figure 10.—A reconstruction of inboard works of the Steam Battery, for construction of the model in the Museum of History and Technology.Figure 10.—A reconstruction of inboard worksof theSteam Battery, for construction of the model in the Museum of History and Technology.
Figure 10.—A reconstruction of inboard worksof theSteam Battery, for construction of the model in the Museum of History and Technology.
For 18 years Petty did no more with the type, but finally, in July 1684, he laid down a still larger sloopwith two decks and a mast standing 55 feet above her upper deck. She was namedSt. Michael the Archangeland is probably the design in Pepys’Book of Miscellaneous Illustrationsin Magdalene College, Cambridge, England. This vessel proved unmanageable and was a complete failure.
Figure 11.—Model lines redrawn to outside of plank to show hydrodynamic form of the Steam Battery.Figure 11.—Model lines redrawnto outside of plank to show hydrodynamic form of the Steam Battery.
Figure 11.—Model lines redrawnto outside of plank to show hydrodynamic form of the Steam Battery.
Though the double canoes of the Pacific Islands were probably known to some in Europe in 1662, there is no evidence that Petty based his designs on such craft. He appears to have produced his designs spontaneously from independent observations and resulting theories. Before Petty concluded his experiments, a number of double-hull craft had been produced by others; however, some “double” craft, such as “double shallops” may have been “double-enders,” as shown by a “double-moses boat” of the 18th century and later.[16]
The use of two canoes, joined by a platform or by poles was common in colonial times; in Maryland and Virginia, dugouts so joined were used to transport tobacco down the tidal creeks to vessels’ loading. Such craft were also used as ferries. M. V. Brewington’sChesapeake Bay Log Canoes[17]and Paul Wilstack’sPotomac Landings[18]illustrate canoes used in this manner. A catamaran galley, two round-bottom hulls, flat on the inboard side (a hull split along the centerline and the inboard faces planked up), 113 feet long and each hull a 7-foot moulded beam, 6-foot 6 inches moulded depth, and placed 13 feet apart, was proposed by Sir Sidney Smith, R.N., in the 1790’s, and built by the British Admiralty. NamedTaurus, she is shown by the Admiralty draught to have been a double-ender, with cabins amidships on the platform, an iron rudder at each end (between the hulls) steered with tillers (to unship), and with a ramp at one end. The plans are undated, signed by Captain Sir Sidney Smith, and a field-carriage gun is shown at the ramp end of the boat. This, and the heavy rocker in the keels, suggests theTauruswas intended for a landing boat. No sailing rig is indicated, but tholes for 12 oars or sweeps on each side are shown. The oarsmen apparently sat on deck, or on low seats, with stretchers in hatchesbetween each pair of tholes (Admiralty Collection of Draughts, The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England).
Figure 12.—General plan of the Taurus, a catamaran galley gunboat proposed by Sir Sidney Smith, R.N., to the British Admiralty in the early years of the French Revolution. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.Figure 12.—General planof theTaurus, a catamaran galley gunboat proposed by Sir Sidney Smith, R.N., to the British Admiralty in the early years of the French Revolution. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Figure 12.—General planof theTaurus, a catamaran galley gunboat proposed by Sir Sidney Smith, R.N., to the British Admiralty in the early years of the French Revolution. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Another experimenter with the double-hull type of vessel was a wealthy Scot named Patrick Miller who was particularly interested in manual propulsion of vessels, employing geared capstans to operate paddle wheels. In a letter dated June 9, 1790, Miller offered Gustav III of Sweden a design for a double-hulled 144-gun ship-of-the-line (rating as a 130-gun ship) propelled by manually operated capstans connected to a paddle wheel between the hulls. She was rigged to sail, with five masts and was to be 246 feet long, 63 feet beam, and 17 feet draft; the hulls were 16 feet apart.
This project was submitted by the King to Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, the great Swedish naval architect, who made an adverse report. Chapman pointed out in great detail that the weight of the armament, the necessary hull structure, the stores, crew, ammunition, spars, sails, rigging and gear, would greatly exceed Miller’s designed displacement. He also pointed out the prime fault of catamarans under sail—slow turning in stays. He suggested that the speed under sail would be disappointing. He doubted that a double-hull ship of such size could be built strong enough to stand a heavy sea. He remarked that English records showed that a small vessel of the catamaran type had been built between 1680 and 1700 which had sailed well (this may have been one of Petty’s boats), and that “36 years ago” he had seen 8 miles from London, a similar boat that had been newly built by Lord Baltimore and was about 50 feet long; this was a failure and was discarded after one trial. Therefore, said Chapman, the Miller project was not new but rather an old idea. Chapman’s final remark is perhaps the best illustration of his opinion of the catamaran, “Despite all this, two-hull vessels are completely sound when the theory can be properly applied; that is in vessels of very light weight, and of small size, with crews of one or two men.”
A “model” of such a double-hull ship—theExperiment, built at Leith, Scotland, in 1786 by J.Laurie—was sent to Sweden by Miller. She was 105 feet long, 31 feet beam, and cost £3000. This vessel arrived in the summer of 1790 and King Gustav in a letter dated July 26 ordered Col. Michael Anckerswärd to welcome the vessel at Stockholm. The King presented Miller with a gold snuffbox and a painting was made of the vessel. TheExperimenthad five paddle wheels in tandem between her hulls, operated by geared capstans on deck. These gave her a speed of 5 knots but caused the crew to suffer from exhaustion in a short time. The vessel was badly strained in a storm and was finally abandoned at St. Petersburg, Russia.[19]
Figure 12.Figure 12.
Miller later turned to the idea of employing steam instead of manual power and built a 25-foot double-hulled pleasure boat of iron fitted with a steam engine built by William Symington. Also namedExperiment, she was an apparent success, so Miller had a 60-foot boat built of the double-hull design and fitted with an engine built by Symington. She reached a speed of 7 mph on the Forth and Clyde Canal. However, Miller lost interest when he found that the Symington engine was unreliable and that Great Britain showed very little public support for such projects.
Fulton was acquainted with Symington’s work and probably had heard of Miller’s vessels. At any rate, he employed the double-hull principle in his steam ferryboats, the first of which was theJersey, a 188-ton vessel built by Charles Browne, which began service July 2, 1812. The next year he had a sister ship built, theYork. These vessels were based on his patent drawing of 1809. In 1814 he had another vessel of this type built, theNassau. It was, therefore, logical that he should apply this design to theSteam Battery. The double-hull design had worked well in these ferries, and the design would give protection from shot to the paddle wheel. TheBatterywould have the ability to run forward or astern so as not to be exposed to a raking fire from the enemy while maneuvering in action. The application of this “ferryboat” principle to theBatteryreduced the need for extreme maneuverability, the catamaran’s weakest point, even at low speed.
The resistance factors in the design are of relatively small importance, for the speed possible under steam in this period was very low. However, the plans show an apparently efficient hull form for the power available, aside from the drag of the beams across the race in the vicinity of the keel. The displacement was adequate. The height of the gun-deck above the water at the race made theBatteryunsuitable for rough-water operation, but there is no evidence that Fulton or the sponsors of the vessel considered theBatteryas a coastwise or seagoing steamer. However, the clearance of the gun deck above the water and the dip of the paddle wheel would have made the additional weight of an upper- or spar-deck battery prohibitive even had experience in action proven it desirable.
Figure 13.—Lines of Taurus. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.Figure 13.—Lines ofTaurus. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Figure 13.—Lines ofTaurus. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
The sail and rigging plan is likewise a Danish copy and shows the two-masted lateen rig employed. The hull is shown with bulwarks and gunports on the spar deck but no other evidence that theBatterywas finished in this manner has been found. The rig resembles that of some of Josiah Fox’s designs for Jeffersonian gunboats—double-enders designed to sail in either direction but without the jibs. The topmastsdo not appear to be more than signal poles and apparently were not fitted with sails; however, some European lateeners did have triangular topsails over a lateen and it is possible theBatterymay have carried such sails. Considering the stability and displacement of theBattery, the rig is very small and not sufficiently effective. Shrouds were not required; the masts were supported by runners that were shifted when the yards were reversed, and in tacking. Apparently the jibstays also could be slacked off so that the lateen yards would not have to be dipped under them.
Figure 14.—Rudder detail of Taurus. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.Figure 14.—Rudder detailofTaurus. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Figure 14.—Rudder detailofTaurus. From the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
The inboard profile is on tracing paper and the notes are in French. This drawing is of a simplified hull form having flat-bottom hulls with chines. It is possible that this is a tracing of a preliminary drawing obtained by Marestier or Montgéry, but no documentation can be found. Its importance is thatitshows in some detail the engine and boilers, as well as the wheelbox, and another drawing of the paddle wheel, more or less duplicating the wheel shown in the Danish plan. No details of the deck arrangements are shown in any of the plans, except for the dome skylight over the fireroom in the boiler hull.
Both the lines plan and the inboard drawing show construction midsections and hull connections. These plans show that the engine was not inclined, but rather was vertical, contrary to Fulton’s patent drawing. The piston rod and the crosshead obviously passed through its gun deck in a large hatch. Also it is plain that there must have been large hatches afore and abaft the wheelbox to make the stepped wheelbox construction desirable. There also must have been a hatch in the gun deck under the domed skylight. It is improbable that the engine and skylight hatches were used for ladderways, passing scuttles, or companionways.
The boilers are shown in the inboard profile about as described and drawn by Marestier but with two stacks on each boiler, one to each flue; Marestier’s sketch in his report on American steamships shows the flues of each boiler trunked into a single stack. The battery had two boilers and the stacks are at the boilers’ fire-door end. The steam lines came off the crown of the boilers and probably passed through the ends of the wheelbox to the engine; a trunk for the steam lines would undoubtedly have been necessary.
Figure 15.—Sketch of 130-gun ship proposed by Patrick Miller to King Gustav III of Sweden in 1790. In Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm.Figure 15.—Sketch of 130-gun shipproposed by Patrick Miller to King Gustav III of Sweden in 1790. In Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm.
Figure 15.—Sketch of 130-gun shipproposed by Patrick Miller to King Gustav III of Sweden in 1790. In Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm.
Figure 16.—Patrick Miller's manually propelled (paddle-wheel) catamaran ship Experiment, built at Leith, Scotland, 1786. Scale drawing in Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm.Figure 16.—Patrick Miller’smanually propelled (paddle-wheel) catamaran shipExperiment, built at Leith, Scotland, 1786. Scale drawing in Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm
Figure 16.—Patrick Miller’smanually propelled (paddle-wheel) catamaran shipExperiment, built at Leith, Scotland, 1786. Scale drawing in Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm
The engine is shown to have had counterbalanced side levers, one on each side, and a single flywheel on the outboard side. The cylinder is over the condenser or “cistern,” connected by the steam line and valve box on the side. The cylinder crosshead is shown in the inboard profile to have reached the underside of the beams of the upper deck. The crosshead was connected by two connecting rods to the side levers. These levers operated the paddle wheel by connecting rods to cranks on the paddle-wheel shaft. There isanother pair of connecting rods from the side levers to the crosshead of the air pump. All connecting rods are on one arm of the side levers, the other end having only a counterbalance weight beyond the fulcrum bearing. The flywheel has a shaft fitted with two gears, and is driven through idler gears from gears on the paddle-wheel shaft; it turns at about twice the speed of the paddle wheel. No other pumps or fittings are shown in the engine hull, although manual pumps were probably fitted to fill and empty the boilers. Piping is not shown.
Figure 17.—Painting of the Experiment in the Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm.Figure 17.—Painting of theExperimentin the Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm.
Figure 17.—Painting of theExperimentin the Statens Sjöhistoriska Museum, Stockholm.
The four rudders, toggled in pairs, are shown in both the lines and inboard drawings, but the shape is different in the two plans. Operation must have been by a tiller under the gun-deck beams. The outer end of the tiller may have been pivoted on the toggle bar and the inboard end fitted, as previously described, with steering cable or chain tackles. This seems to be the only practical interpretation of the evidence.
In the model it was necessary to reconstruct the deck arrangements without enough contemporary description. The outboard appearance and hull form, rig, and arrangement of armament require no reconstruction, for all that is of importance is shown in the lines and rig drawings, or in the inboard profile. The masts are shown to have been stepped over the race on the gun deck. The iron stanchions are shown in the lines drawing and in the construction section. However, their position at the ends of theBatteryare apparently incorrectly shown in the original lines plan. The construction section shows these stanchions to have been stepped on the inside face of the inner ceiling and, as the ceiling structure was carried completely around the ship, the stanchions in the ends must have been placed inboard, as along the sides. The bowsprit was above deck and would probably be secured in the knighthead timbers atthe ends of the hull, as well as by the heel bitts shown in the Danish lines drawing. With the riding bitts shown inboard of the heel bitts at each end of the vessel, it is obvious that she would work her ground tackle at both ends and would therefore require two capstans; the wheelbox would prevent effective use of a single one. The capstans might be doubleheaded, as in some large frigates and ships-of-the-line.
Figure 18.—Sail plan of Fulton's Steam Battery as reconstructed for model in the Museum of History and Technology.Figure 18.—Sail plan of Fulton’sSteam Batteryas reconstructed for model in the Museum of History and Technology.
Figure 18.—Sail plan of Fulton’sSteam Batteryas reconstructed for model in the Museum of History and Technology.
As to the remaining deck fixtures, hatches and fittings, these must be entirely a matter of speculation. Ladderways, passing scuttles, hatches, trunks, galley, heads and cabins were obviously required in a fighting ship and can only be located on the theory that, when completed, theBatterywas a practical vessel.
It has been stated that the officers’ cabins were over the race; the logical place for the heads, galley, wardroom and mess also would be over the race, giving the remaining part of the gun deck for the necessary hatches, ladderways, trunks, etc., in the two hulls, space required for armament, and to sling the hammocks of a watch below. As the vessel was never fully manned, apparently, the space for hammocks is not a serious problem in a reconstruction. If the vessel had been manned as proposed by 500 men, hammocks for over 200 would have been required, which would give very crowded quarters in view of the limited space available.
Though no specific requirements were stated in the reports of the trials, it seems reasonable to suppose that additional hatches were cut in the decks to improve the fireroom ventilation. In the reconstruction drawings, these hatchways as well as the other deck openings and deck fittings—such as bilge pumps, companionways, skylights, binnacles, wheels and wheel-rope trunks, cable trunks, steampipe casings, and stack fiddleys—have been located in an effort to meet the imagined requirements of the working of a ship of this unusual form.
Figure 19.—Model of Steam Battery in the Museum of History and Technology. (Smithsonian photo 63990-E.)Figure 19.—Model ofSteam Batteryin the Museum of History and Technology. (Smithsonian photo 63990-E.)
Figure 19.—Model of Steam Battery in the Museum of History and Technology. (Smithsonian photo 63990-E.)
Figure 19.—Model ofSteam Batteryin the Museum of History and Technology. (Smithsonian photo 63990-E.)
Figure 20.—Lines of steamer Congo, built in 1815-1816 for the British Admiralty and converted to a sailing survey vessel. From Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.Figure 20.—Lines of steamerCongo, built in 1815-1816 for the British Admiralty and converted to a sailing survey vessel. From Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
Figure 20.—Lines of steamerCongo, built in 1815-1816 for the British Admiralty and converted to a sailing survey vessel. From Admiralty Collection of Draughts, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
There are some unanswered questions that arose in the preparation of the reconstruction drawings. As has been shown, the original inboard arrangement plan found in Copenhagen shows four smokestacks, while Marestier’s sketch of the vessel’s boilers showstrunked flues indicating that two stacks were used. It is possible that the boilers were first fitted so that four stacks were required; alterations made as a result of steaming trials may well have included the introduction of trunked flues and the final use of two stacks in line fore-and-aft. This would have required a rearrangement of the fiddley hatches amidships.
Another troublesome question was the doubtful arrangement of the four companionways on the spar deck. Perhaps only two were fitted, one on each side of the officers’ staterooms while the ladderways at the crew’s end of the ship were simple ladder hatches.
The decision to use four bilge pumps is based upon the lack of drag in the keel of the hulls, which would prevent accumulation of bilge water at one end of the hull. The use of four single-barrel pumps instead of four double-barrel pumps may be questioned, for chain pumps requiring two barrels would have been practical.
Allowance for stores was made by use of platforms in the hold. It is known from statements made to the Court of Inquiry, that the magazines were amidships and that a part of these was close to the boilers. Fuel and water would be in the lower hold under the platforms; hatches and ladderways are arranged to permit fueling the ship.
A few prints or drawings of the ship, aside from the patent drawing, have been found. There are two prints that show the launch of the vessel. One, a print of 1815, is in possession of the Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, Va., and is reproduced in Alexander Crosby Brown’sTwin Ships, Notes on the Chronological History of the Use of Multiple Hulled Vessels.[20]A poor copy of this print appears on page 13 of Bennett’sSteam Navy of the United States, and another and inaccurate sketch is shown on page 8. These pictures were of no use in the reconstruction as they show no details that are not in the Copenhagen plans. The patent drawing does not show deck details and in fact does not represent the vessel as built in any respect other than in being a catamaran with paddle wheel amidships between the hulls.
TheSteam Batterydid not have any particular influence on the design of men-of-war that followed her. In the first place, steampower was not viewed with favor by naval officers generally. This was without doubt due to prejudice, but engines in 1820-30 were still unreliable when required to run for long periods, as experienced by the early ocean-going steamers. The great weight of the early steam engines and their size in relation to power were important, and also important were practical objections that prevented the design of efficient naval ocean steamers until about 1840; even then, the paddle wheels made them very vulnerable in action. Until the introduction of the screw propellor it was not possible to design a really effective ocean-going naval steamer; hence until about 1840-45, sail remained predominant in naval vessels for ocean service, and steamers were accepted only in coast defense and towing services, or as dispatch vessels.
No immediate use of the double hull in naval vessels of the maritime powers resulted from the construction of theSteam Battery. The flat-bottom chine-built design employed by Fulton inNorth River,Raritan, and other early steamboats was utilized in the design for a projected steamer by the British Admiralty in 1815-16. This vessel was about 76 feet overall, 16-foot beam, and 8-foot 10 inches depth in hold. Her design was for a flat-bottom, chine-built hull with no fore-and-aft camber in the bottom, a sharp entrance, and a square-tuck stern with slight overhang above the cross-seam. Her side frames were straight and vertical amidships, but curved as the bow and stern were approached. She was to be a side-paddle-wheel steamer, and her hull was diagonally braced; the wheel and engine were to be about amidships where she was dead flat for about 14 feet. However, the engine and boilers were not installed; the engine was utilized ashore for pumping, and the vessel was completed in the Deptford Yard as a sailing ship. Under the nameCongoshe was employed in the African coast survey. Her plan is in the Admiralty Collection of Draughts, at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England.
The double hull continued to be employed in both steam and team ferryboats in the United States and in England and France. A few river and lake steamers were also built with this design of hull. Continued efforts to obtain fast sailing by use of the double hull produced a number of sailing catamarans; of these the Herreshoff catamarans of the 1870’s showed high speed when reaching in a fresh breeze.
Designs for double-hulled steamers appeared during the last half of the 19th century; in 1874 theCastalia, a large, double-hull, iron, cross-channel steamer, was built by the Thames Iron-works Company atBlackwall, England. She was 290 feet long, and each hull had a beam of 17 feet. The paddle wheel was placed between the hulls and, ready for sea, she drew 6-1/2 feet. She ran the 22 miles between Dover and Calais in 1 hour and 50 minutes, a speed much slower than that of the paddle-wheel, cross-channel steamers having one hull. Another double-hull steamer was built for this service by Hawthorn, Leslie and Company, Newcastle-on-Tyne, Scotland, in 1877. First namedExpress, she was renamedCalais-Douvreswhen she went into service in May 1878. Her length was 302 feet, her extreme beam 62 feet, and each hull had a beam of 18 feet, 3 inches. She drew 6-foot 7-1/2 inches ready for sea and the paddle wheel was between the hulls. On her trials she made 14 knots and burned coal excessively. Sold to France in 1880, she was taken out of service in 1889. Though popular, she was not faster than the single-hull steamers in this service and had been a comparatively expensive vessel to build and operate.
The many attempts to produce a very fast double-hull steamer and large sailing vessels have led to disappointment for their designers and sponsors. In the history of naval architecture, since Petty’s time, there have been a number of periods when the new-old idea of the double hull has become popular. Craft of this type have been commonly well publicized but, on the whole, their basic designs have followed the same principles over and over again and have not produced the sought-for increase in speed and handiness.
In very recent years there has been a revival in interest in sailing double-hull boats that is enthusiastic as to very small craft and somewhat restrained as to large boats. A few projects are under development for double-hull craft, power and sail, of over 90-foot length, including an oceanographic research vessel. In general, however, the performance of double-hull boats has shown that Chapman’s estimate of the type was reasonably correct and that there are limitations, particularly in maneuverability in the double-hull craft that could have been found by reference to the history of past experiments with the type.
NAVAL STEAMERS.THE DEMOLOGOS; OR, FULTON THE FIRST.At the close of the year eighteen hundred and thirteen, Robert Fulton exhibited to the President of the United States, the original drawing from which the engraving on Plate One is sketched, being a representation of the proposed war-steamer or floating-battery, named by him, the Demologos. This sketch possesses more than ordinary interest, from the circumstance that it is, doubtless, the only record of thefirst war-steamer in the world, designed and drawn by the immortal Fulton, and represented by him to the Executive, as capable of carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for red hot shot, and being propelled by the power of steam, at the rate offourmiles an hour.It was contemplated that this vessel, besides carrying her proposed armament on deck, should also be furnished with submarine guns, two suspended from each bow, so as to discharge a hundred pound ball into an enemy’s ship at ten or twelve feet below her water-line. In addition to this, her machinery was calculated for the addition of an engine which would discharge an immense column of water upon the decks, and through the port-holes of an enemy, making her the most formidable engine for warfare that human ingenuity has contrived.The estimated cost of the vessel was three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, nearly the sum requisite for a frigate of the first class.The project was zealously embraced by the Executive, and the national legislature in March, eighteen hundred and fourteen, passed a law, authorizing the President of the United States to cause to be built, equipped, and employed, one or more floating batteries, for the defense of the waters of the United States.The building of the vessel was committed by the Coast and Harbor Defense Association, to a sub-committee of five gentlemen, who were recognized by the Government as their agents for that purpose, and whose interesting history of the Steam Frigate is copied in Note A, of the Appendix to this volume.Robert Fulton, whose soul animated the enterprise, was appointed the engineer; and on the twentieth day of June, eighteen hundred and fourteen, the keel of this novel steamer was laid at the ship-yard of Adam and Noah Brown, her able and active constructors, in the city of New York, and on the twenty-ninth of the following October, or in little more than four months, she was safely launched, in the presence of multitudes of spectators who thronged the surrounding shores, and were seen upon the hills which limited the beautiful prospect around the bay of New York.The river and bay were filled with steamers and vessels of war, in compliment to the occasion. In the midst of these was the enormous floating mass, whose bulk and unwieldy form seemed to render her as unfit for motion, as the land batteries which were saluting her.In a communication from Captain David Porter, U. S. Navy, to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, dated New York, October 29, 1814, he states,—“I have the pleasure to inform you that the “Fulton the First,” was this morning safely launched. No one has yet ventured to suggest any improvement that could be made in the vessel, and to use the words of the projector,‘I would not alter her if it were in my power to do so.’“She promises fair to meet our most sanguine expectations, and I do not despair in being able to navigate in her from one extreme of our coast to the other. Her buoyancy astonishes every one, she now drawsonly eight feet three inches water, and her draft will only betenfeet with all her guns, machinery, stores, and crew, on board. The ease with which she can now be towed with a single steamboat, renders it certain that her velocity will be sufficiently great to answer every purpose, and the manner it is intended to secure her machinery from the gunner’s shot, leaves no apprehension for its safety. I shall use every exertion to prepare her for immediate service; her guns will soon be mounted, and I am assured by Mr. Fulton, that her machinery will be in operation in about six weeks.”On the twenty-first of November, the Steam Frigate was moved from the wharf of Messrs. Browns, in the East River, to the works of Robert Fulton, on the North River, to receive her machinery, which operation was performed by fastening the steamboat “Car of Neptune,” to her larboard, and the steamboat “Fulton,” to her starboard side; they towed her through the water from three and a-half to four miles per hour.The dimensions of the “Fulton the First” were:—Length, one hundred and fifty-six feet.Breadth, fifty-six feet.Depth, twenty feet.Water-wheel, sixteen feet diameter.Length of bucket, fourteen feet.Dip, four feet.Engine, forty-eight inch cylinder, and five feet stroke.Boiler, length, twenty-two feet; breath, twelve feet; and depth, eight feet.Tonnage, two thousand four hundred and seventy-five.By June, eighteen hundred and fifteen, her engine was put on board, and she was so far completed as to afford an opportunity of trying her machinery. On the first of June, at ten o’clock in the morning, the “Fulton the First,” propelled by her own steam and machinery, left the wharf near the Brooklyn ferry, and proceeded majestically into the river; though a stiff breeze from the south blew directly ahead, she stemmed the current with perfect ease, as the tide was a strong ebb. She sailed by the forts and saluted them with her thirty-two pound guns. Her speed was equal to the most sanguine expectations; she exhibited a novel and sublime spectacle to an admiring people. The intention of the Commissioners being solely to try her enginery, no use was made of her sails. After navigating the bay, and receiving a visit from the officers of the French ship of war lying at her anchors, the Steam Frigate came to at Powles’ Hook ferry, about two o’clock in the afternoon, without having experienced a single unpleasant occurrence.On the fourth of July, of the same year, she made a passage to the ocean and back, and went the distance, which, in going and returning, is fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes, without the aid of sails; the wind and tide were partly in her favor and partly against her, the balance rather in her favor.In September, she made another trial trip to the ocean, and having at this time the weight of her whole armament on board, she went at an average of five and a half miles an hour, with and against the tide. When stemming the tide, which ran at the rate of three miles an hour, she advanced at the rate of two and a-half miles an hour. This performance was not more than equal to Robert Fulton’s expectations, but it exceeded what he had premised to the Government, which was that she should be propelled by steam at the rate of from three to four miles an hour.The English were not uninformed as to the preparations which were making for them, nor inattentive to their progress. It is certain that the Steam Frigate lost none of her terrors in the reports or imaginations of the enemy. In a treatise on steam vessels, published in Scotland at that time, the author states that he has taken great care to procurefullandaccurateinformation of the Steam Frigate launched in New York, and which he describes in the following words:—“Length on deck,three hundred feet; breadth,two hundred feet; thickness of her sides,thirteen feetof alternate oak plank and cork wood—carries forty-four guns, four of which arehundred pounders; quarter-deck and forecastle guns, forty-four pounders; and further to annoy an enemy attempting to board, can dischargeone hundred gallons of boiling water in a minute, and by mechanism, brandishesthree hundred cutlasseswith the utmost regularity over her gunwales; works also an equal number of heavy iron pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute”!!The war having terminated before the “Fulton the First” was entirely completed, she was taken to the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, and moored on the flats abreast of that station, where she remained, and was used as a receiving-ship until the fourth of June, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, when she was blown up. The following letters from Commodore Isaac Chauncey (then Commandant of the New York Navy Yard) to the Honorable Secretary of the Navy, informing him of the distressing event, concludes this brief history of thefirst steam vessel of war ever built.U. S. Navy Yard, New York,June 5th, 1829.Sir:It becomes my painful duty to report to you a most unfortunate occurrence which took place yesterday, at about half past two o’clock, P. M., in the accidental blowing up of the Receiving Ship Fulton, which killed twenty-four men and a woman, and wounded nineteen; there are also five missing. Amongst the killed I am sorry to number Lieutenant S. M. Brackenridge, a very fine, promising officer, and amongst the wounded are, Lieutenants Charles F. Platt, and A. M. Mull, and Sailing-Master Clough, the former dangerously, and the two last severely; there are also four Midshipmen severely wounded. How this unfortunate accident occurred I am not yet able to inform you, nor have I time to state more particularly; I will, as soon as possible, give a detailed account of the affair.I have the honor to be, Sir,Very respectfully,J. CHAUNCEY.Hon. John Branch,Secretary of the Navy, Washington.U.S. Navy Yard, New York,June 8th, 1829.Sir:I had been on board the “Fulton” all the morning, inspecting the ship and men, particularly the sick and invalids, which had increased considerably from other ships, and whom I had intended to ask the Department permission to discharge, as being of little use to the service. I had left the ship but a few moments before the explosion took place, and was in my office at the time. The report did not appear to me louder than a thirty-two pounder, although the destruction of the ship was complete and entire, owing to her very decayed state, for there was not on board, at the time, more than two and a-half barrels of damaged powder, which was kept in the magazine for the purpose of firing the morning and evening gun. It appears to me that the explosion could not have taken place from accident, as the magazine was as well, or better secured, than the magazines of most of our ships, yet it would be difficult to assign a motive to those in the magazine for so horrible an act, as voluntarily to destroy themselves and those on board. If the explosion was not the effect of design, I am at a loss to account for the catastrophe.I have the honor to be, Sir,Very respectfully,J. CHAUNCEY.Hon. John Branch,Secretary of the Navy, Washington.
At the close of the year eighteen hundred and thirteen, Robert Fulton exhibited to the President of the United States, the original drawing from which the engraving on Plate One is sketched, being a representation of the proposed war-steamer or floating-battery, named by him, the Demologos. This sketch possesses more than ordinary interest, from the circumstance that it is, doubtless, the only record of thefirst war-steamer in the world, designed and drawn by the immortal Fulton, and represented by him to the Executive, as capable of carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for red hot shot, and being propelled by the power of steam, at the rate offourmiles an hour.
It was contemplated that this vessel, besides carrying her proposed armament on deck, should also be furnished with submarine guns, two suspended from each bow, so as to discharge a hundred pound ball into an enemy’s ship at ten or twelve feet below her water-line. In addition to this, her machinery was calculated for the addition of an engine which would discharge an immense column of water upon the decks, and through the port-holes of an enemy, making her the most formidable engine for warfare that human ingenuity has contrived.
The estimated cost of the vessel was three hundred and twenty thousand dollars, nearly the sum requisite for a frigate of the first class.
The project was zealously embraced by the Executive, and the national legislature in March, eighteen hundred and fourteen, passed a law, authorizing the President of the United States to cause to be built, equipped, and employed, one or more floating batteries, for the defense of the waters of the United States.
The building of the vessel was committed by the Coast and Harbor Defense Association, to a sub-committee of five gentlemen, who were recognized by the Government as their agents for that purpose, and whose interesting history of the Steam Frigate is copied in Note A, of the Appendix to this volume.
Robert Fulton, whose soul animated the enterprise, was appointed the engineer; and on the twentieth day of June, eighteen hundred and fourteen, the keel of this novel steamer was laid at the ship-yard of Adam and Noah Brown, her able and active constructors, in the city of New York, and on the twenty-ninth of the following October, or in little more than four months, she was safely launched, in the presence of multitudes of spectators who thronged the surrounding shores, and were seen upon the hills which limited the beautiful prospect around the bay of New York.
The river and bay were filled with steamers and vessels of war, in compliment to the occasion. In the midst of these was the enormous floating mass, whose bulk and unwieldy form seemed to render her as unfit for motion, as the land batteries which were saluting her.
In a communication from Captain David Porter, U. S. Navy, to the Hon. Secretary of the Navy, dated New York, October 29, 1814, he states,—“I have the pleasure to inform you that the “Fulton the First,” was this morning safely launched. No one has yet ventured to suggest any improvement that could be made in the vessel, and to use the words of the projector,‘I would not alter her if it were in my power to do so.’
“She promises fair to meet our most sanguine expectations, and I do not despair in being able to navigate in her from one extreme of our coast to the other. Her buoyancy astonishes every one, she now drawsonly eight feet three inches water, and her draft will only betenfeet with all her guns, machinery, stores, and crew, on board. The ease with which she can now be towed with a single steamboat, renders it certain that her velocity will be sufficiently great to answer every purpose, and the manner it is intended to secure her machinery from the gunner’s shot, leaves no apprehension for its safety. I shall use every exertion to prepare her for immediate service; her guns will soon be mounted, and I am assured by Mr. Fulton, that her machinery will be in operation in about six weeks.”
On the twenty-first of November, the Steam Frigate was moved from the wharf of Messrs. Browns, in the East River, to the works of Robert Fulton, on the North River, to receive her machinery, which operation was performed by fastening the steamboat “Car of Neptune,” to her larboard, and the steamboat “Fulton,” to her starboard side; they towed her through the water from three and a-half to four miles per hour.
The dimensions of the “Fulton the First” were:—
Length, one hundred and fifty-six feet.Breadth, fifty-six feet.Depth, twenty feet.Water-wheel, sixteen feet diameter.Length of bucket, fourteen feet.Dip, four feet.Engine, forty-eight inch cylinder, and five feet stroke.Boiler, length, twenty-two feet; breath, twelve feet; and depth, eight feet.Tonnage, two thousand four hundred and seventy-five.
Length, one hundred and fifty-six feet.
Breadth, fifty-six feet.
Depth, twenty feet.
Water-wheel, sixteen feet diameter.
Length of bucket, fourteen feet.
Dip, four feet.
Engine, forty-eight inch cylinder, and five feet stroke.
Boiler, length, twenty-two feet; breath, twelve feet; and depth, eight feet.
Tonnage, two thousand four hundred and seventy-five.
By June, eighteen hundred and fifteen, her engine was put on board, and she was so far completed as to afford an opportunity of trying her machinery. On the first of June, at ten o’clock in the morning, the “Fulton the First,” propelled by her own steam and machinery, left the wharf near the Brooklyn ferry, and proceeded majestically into the river; though a stiff breeze from the south blew directly ahead, she stemmed the current with perfect ease, as the tide was a strong ebb. She sailed by the forts and saluted them with her thirty-two pound guns. Her speed was equal to the most sanguine expectations; she exhibited a novel and sublime spectacle to an admiring people. The intention of the Commissioners being solely to try her enginery, no use was made of her sails. After navigating the bay, and receiving a visit from the officers of the French ship of war lying at her anchors, the Steam Frigate came to at Powles’ Hook ferry, about two o’clock in the afternoon, without having experienced a single unpleasant occurrence.
On the fourth of July, of the same year, she made a passage to the ocean and back, and went the distance, which, in going and returning, is fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes, without the aid of sails; the wind and tide were partly in her favor and partly against her, the balance rather in her favor.
In September, she made another trial trip to the ocean, and having at this time the weight of her whole armament on board, she went at an average of five and a half miles an hour, with and against the tide. When stemming the tide, which ran at the rate of three miles an hour, she advanced at the rate of two and a-half miles an hour. This performance was not more than equal to Robert Fulton’s expectations, but it exceeded what he had premised to the Government, which was that she should be propelled by steam at the rate of from three to four miles an hour.
The English were not uninformed as to the preparations which were making for them, nor inattentive to their progress. It is certain that the Steam Frigate lost none of her terrors in the reports or imaginations of the enemy. In a treatise on steam vessels, published in Scotland at that time, the author states that he has taken great care to procurefullandaccurateinformation of the Steam Frigate launched in New York, and which he describes in the following words:—
“Length on deck,three hundred feet; breadth,two hundred feet; thickness of her sides,thirteen feetof alternate oak plank and cork wood—carries forty-four guns, four of which arehundred pounders; quarter-deck and forecastle guns, forty-four pounders; and further to annoy an enemy attempting to board, can dischargeone hundred gallons of boiling water in a minute, and by mechanism, brandishesthree hundred cutlasseswith the utmost regularity over her gunwales; works also an equal number of heavy iron pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute”!!
The war having terminated before the “Fulton the First” was entirely completed, she was taken to the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, and moored on the flats abreast of that station, where she remained, and was used as a receiving-ship until the fourth of June, eighteen hundred and twenty-nine, when she was blown up. The following letters from Commodore Isaac Chauncey (then Commandant of the New York Navy Yard) to the Honorable Secretary of the Navy, informing him of the distressing event, concludes this brief history of thefirst steam vessel of war ever built.
U. S. Navy Yard, New York,June 5th, 1829.
Sir:
It becomes my painful duty to report to you a most unfortunate occurrence which took place yesterday, at about half past two o’clock, P. M., in the accidental blowing up of the Receiving Ship Fulton, which killed twenty-four men and a woman, and wounded nineteen; there are also five missing. Amongst the killed I am sorry to number Lieutenant S. M. Brackenridge, a very fine, promising officer, and amongst the wounded are, Lieutenants Charles F. Platt, and A. M. Mull, and Sailing-Master Clough, the former dangerously, and the two last severely; there are also four Midshipmen severely wounded. How this unfortunate accident occurred I am not yet able to inform you, nor have I time to state more particularly; I will, as soon as possible, give a detailed account of the affair.
I have the honor to be, Sir,Very respectfully,J. CHAUNCEY.
Hon. John Branch,Secretary of the Navy, Washington.
U.S. Navy Yard, New York,June 8th, 1829.
Sir:
I had been on board the “Fulton” all the morning, inspecting the ship and men, particularly the sick and invalids, which had increased considerably from other ships, and whom I had intended to ask the Department permission to discharge, as being of little use to the service. I had left the ship but a few moments before the explosion took place, and was in my office at the time. The report did not appear to me louder than a thirty-two pounder, although the destruction of the ship was complete and entire, owing to her very decayed state, for there was not on board, at the time, more than two and a-half barrels of damaged powder, which was kept in the magazine for the purpose of firing the morning and evening gun. It appears to me that the explosion could not have taken place from accident, as the magazine was as well, or better secured, than the magazines of most of our ships, yet it would be difficult to assign a motive to those in the magazine for so horrible an act, as voluntarily to destroy themselves and those on board. If the explosion was not the effect of design, I am at a loss to account for the catastrophe.
I have the honor to be, Sir,Very respectfully,J. CHAUNCEY.
Hon. John Branch,Secretary of the Navy, Washington.