REMINISCENCES OF ROBERT FULTON
Among the relics of Robert Fulton in possession of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers at their house in New York City is a manuscript (hitherto unpublished, it is believed), in which in 1859 the only surviving associate of the inventor recorded his recollections. These simple and obviously honest reminiscences from the hand of a plain man become of interest, however deficient in literary art. He was J. B. Calhoun of Brooklyn, and told his story thus:
“In 1807 Mr. Fulton’s first boat, theNorth River, of Clermont, commenced running on the Hudson River to Albany. Between 1809 and 1811, he had two more, theCar of Neptuneand theParagon. Each steamer had two masts—on the foremast was a square sail, two topsails, and a jib. On the mainmast was a spanker and topsail. The foremast had at the heel trunnions by which the mast could be lowered when the wind was ahead. When the wind was fair, all hands, passengers too, were called to raise the mast and set sail.
These steamers had high or poop decks some four feet above the main deck; the entrance to the cabin was by the old-fashioned ship companionway—not a house on deck. These steamers, being on the bottom as flat as a house floor, each had two heavy side lee boards, to prevent making leeway when sail was set. In those days neither the pilot nor engineer had an assistant, nor the captain any clerk. In leaving New York at five, the pilot would take the wheel until supper; after supper he would again take the wheel and keep it till next morning; he had no fine pilot-house, not even an awning to protect him from the hot sun nor the most severe weather. When coming to landings, instead of a bell to ring, the pilot blew a tin horn some five feet long; the bell was used only for meal times....
Mr. Fulton had at North Point, Jersey City, four large shops, and a dry-dock some 200 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 16 feet deep to repair his boats in; the first dry-dock in this country. In those days such a thing as a cut-off, a throttle-valve, or an eccentric was not known by the engineer.
To make the trip to Albany took from twenty-six to thirty hours,burning in that time about thirty cords of firewood. None of Mr. Fulton’s steamers made the trip in less than twenty-five hours. In 1813 Mr. Louis Rhoda, Mr. Fulton’s chief engineer, was killed on the trial trip of the ferry-steamboat on the East River, theNassau, by being caught in the engine when in motion. He had his entire right shoulder taken from his body by the crank. Mr. Rhoda was the first engineer killed in this country.”
Then follows a paragraph descriptive of Fulton’s personal appearance and manners. The sketch adds:
“His death was rather sudden; so much so that many attributed it to suicide. This was not so; he died a calm, natural death in the bosom of his family, at No. 5 Broadway, opposite the Bowling Green. In attending court at Trenton, N. J., he had taken a cold, and on returning home to New York the ferryboat on which he was was caught in the ice, and was thus delayed some three hours. It was a cold, stormy day in January; this confirmed and increased his illness, which finally sent him to his grave.”
In 1811 Mr. Fulton built at Pittsburgh, Pa., a boat for the New Orleans trade; she was called theNew Orleans, the first steamer on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
In 1810–11 a company was formed—they built two boats to run in opposition to Mr. Fulton’s. One was calledPerseverance, Captain Bunker, and the otherThe Hope, Captain Sherman, afterwards well known on Lake Champlain. These steamers were some faster than Mr. Fulton’s. After a long contest in courts of law, the two Albany boats were confiscated to Mr. Fulton, and he had them soon broken up at Albany, in sight of their former owners.
In 1812–13 some gentlemen in New York built a steamer called theFulton, to run to Albany, by Mr. Fulton’s consent, under the following terms: The new boat was to charge $10 for each passenger, paying Mr. Fulton $3 out of every $10 paid by the passengers; this did not prove profitable, and the next season theFultonwas placed on the East River and the Sound, being the first steamer ever before on the Sound.... It was expected that the steamerFultonwould make the trip to Albany in thirteen or fourteen hours’ time, but I think she never made the trip in less than sixteen or seventeen hours.
The first steamer on the Potomac River, Va., was built by Mr. Fultonin the last days of his life; she was called theWashington; she was intended to run between Washington City and Norfolk; she went there in May, 1815; the writer of these lines went out with her and stayed long enough to teach a black man, a slave, how to start and how to manage the engine.
The first steamer for the great Western Lakes was built at Black Rock on the Niagara River by Mr. Noah Brown of New York, in 1818. She was a handsome vessel of 360 tons’ burden, full brig-rigged. She was called theWalk-in-the-Water. She was owned by Dr. J. B. Stewart, then of Albany. The writer put up her engine. She was totally lost in a terrible gale on Lake Erie, in October, 1820. In these years from 1818 to 1820, no dividends were made from the earnings of the steamer. Such was the little travel on those lakes at these times that if the steamer carried thirty or forty passengers, it was doing pretty well. The strength of the Black Rock Rapids was so strong that besides the power of the engine, it required the use of eight pairs of oxen to get the steamer up the rapids on to the lake, a distance of two miles.
The first steamer that made the trip to Albany in twelve hours was the steamerSun, of which the writer was the engineer. She was a double engine, called the Woolf engine, high and low pressure—had six high-pressure boilers, 24 feet long, and 30 inches in diameter, intended to carry 120 pounds of steam—cylinder, four feet stroke.
The first attempt to use hard coal on a steamer on the Hudson River was made by the Messrs. Mowatt on the steamerSunand theHenry Eckfordin 1825. Wood and coal were tried together; then coal alone. The trial was not successful, but it was soon seen that what was wanted was a strong draft or the use of some kind of a blower. The writer received $50 for making the trial. In those days, blowers were unknown. The first blower was introduced by the late Robert L. Stevens, on board theNorth Americain 1826.
About the year 1827 the steam chimney was introduced by the late J. P. Allaire. He claimed he had a patent for the same, but I think he had not.
In 1825 the steam towing business was commenced by the late Mowatts on the Hudson River, with the steamboatHenry Eckfordand six barges. About the same year Mr. William C. Redfield introduced thepassenger-barge, towing, with the steamersSwift-sureandAbe Commerceand the bargesLady ClintonandLady Van Rensselaer; it was an aristocratic [venture]—got up to catch the support of the rich and powerful, but it did not succeed well, and in two years it went down.
All the fixtures about the ferry landings, the bridges, the floating box underneath, the chains and pulleys, were all invented by Mr. Fulton.
I have many things in my memory in regard to him. All of the above was written wholly from memory; not one word or a line of reference have I had before me while writing this historical record of old times. When I get in good health I have much to say on these subjects.
Apparently he never “got in good health,” for no other record of his than this is known.
[Fleuron]