Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 227, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1914 — STEAM NAVY NOW IS LITTLE OVER 100 YEARS OLD [ARTICLE]

STEAM NAVY NOW IS LITTLE OVER 100 YEARS OLD

Strange Craft Which Was Fore-, runner of Dreadnaught. r iin ", ■ FULTON’S ORIGINAL WARSHIP y ease I With Twin Hulls and One Paddle Wheel Made Four Miles an Hour In Fair WeatherRotted In Navy Yard.

Philadelphia.—Just a little more than one hundred years ago the steam navy of the United States had its material beginning. On that day, June 20, 1814, for the same reason, the steam'navies of the entire world had their origin. Such is our debt to the mechanical genius of Robert Fulton, who planned and built the epoch-mak-ing craft, the Demologos, y. writer in the Philadelphia Inquirer says. Of course, as all of us know, steam navigation was not a novelty in 1814, but the vessels so propelled were craft ot peace and limited their routes to the protected waters of rivers. Fulton’s Demologos was designed to withstand the heaviest blows that the biggest fighting ship afloat could bring to hear, and, at the same time, the craft was to navigate the open sea without drawing her motive power from the free winds of the heavens. Remember, we were then in the throes of our war with England, and it was Fulton's desire to build a ship that would be ablfi to make our harbors unassailable while having the power to destroy whole squadrons of the foe. Rather an 'ambitious scheme, no doubt, but something that might have been proved entirely practicable had the Demologos ever had a chance to measure her forces against those of the foe. ■ - Fulton’s Floating Battery.

Toward theudoae of 1813 Fulton laid before the president of the United States plans for a war steamer or floating battery. Strange to say, knowing how Inventors are commonly treated today, his extraordinary project was favorably received, and in March of the year following congress authorized the building and equipping of “one or more floating batteries for the defense of the waters of the United States.” The Demologos, or, as she was afterward officially known, the Fulton, was begun on the 20th of June, 1814. by the laying of her keels at the shipyard of Adam & Noah Brown in the city of New York. The craft had two keels because she really was given two hulls. Fulton used a single paddle wheel and he wanted to place this vital part of his propulsive ipechanism where it could not be reached by an enemy's cannon bails.

Notwithstanding many difficulties due to the existing war with Great Britain, the Fulton was launched on the 29th of October, 1814, and the occasion waS'One of national rejoicing and much local ceremony. To the average eye the body of the craft appeared bulky and unwieldy, but no less an authority than Capt. David Porter said: “I would not alter her if it were in my power to do so." The Biggest Steamer Then Afloat. ' The Fulton had a length of 150 feet, a breadth of 56 feet and a tonnage of 2,475, and at that time was hundreds of tons bigger than the largest steamer of the day afloat Difficulty was experienced in obtaining suitable guns for her armament A goodly number of her cannon came from Philadelphia, and in order to eacapa possible capture by British ships 20 of these weapons w,ere transported overland upon the miry roads of New Jersey. They were dragged by horses. •Unfortunately, Fulton’s untimely death on the 24th of February, 1815, prevented him from seeing the completion of the ship, and, too, hia demise likewise delayed her finishing. However, her engines were made ready by the last of June and by a happy coincidence she eras taken out

for a trial run on Independence day. According, tp the old accounts, I’She made a trip to the ocean eastward of Sandy Hook and back again, a distance of 53 miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes, without the aid of sails, the wind and tide being partly favorable and partly against her, the balance rather in her favor.” Later, on the 11th of September with all of her guns on board and carrying a considerable quantity of ammunition, the Fulton made another trial trip, during which she fired off her cannon successfully and without the slightest injury to the craft or to her machinery. It is said that her perfonShnce more than equaled Fulton’s expectations, and that she actually exceeded what he had promised the government —that is, that she should be able to make under steam from three to four miles an hour. Blew Up at Brooklyn Navy Yard. Inasmuch aB the war with England had- been ended, the Fulton had no chance to show what she could do in action, and the government authorities assigned Tier to the Brooklyn navy yard to serve as receiving ihip for the station. There she lay quietly rotting away and inactive until the fateful 4th of June, 1820, when the powder In her magazine—about two and a half barrels —blew up, killing 24 and wounding 19 of her people while incidentally wrecking the historic craft. Not until six years later was any effort made to build another steam vessel for the United States navy.

In June, 1835, the secretary of the navy discovered that congress, back in 1816, had provided money for the construction of a steam vessel and steps were At once taken to profit by that appropriation.

The ship ordered was later known as the U. S. S. Fulton (second), but there was no one in the navy capable of designing the necessary engines, and it was not until the first half of 1836 that a man of sufficient skill was found in Charles H. Haswell, the memorable father of the engineer corps of our fighting fleet. So well did Mr. Haswell do his work that the U. S. S. Fulton, launched May 18, 1837, was able to make about fifteen miles an hour in smooth water. Followiqg the Fulton we built two much larger side wheel frigates, the Mississippi and Missouri, profiting by what Mr. Haswell had shown possible in the earlier craft The Mississippi was built in .-Philadelphia and the Missouri in New York, and both ships turned oat to be very fine specimens of the steam propelled man-o'-war.

But side wheels were a handicap when Bhips were under sail alone,-for then these big wheels, had to he dragged through the water, and, be-, sides, they were very much exposed not only to the violence of stormy seas, but to the possible attack of an enemy's shot The engineering revolution which was to overcome these drawbacks was effected by that notable Swedish genius, the late Capt. John Ericsson, and this time 'the city of Philadelphia was to be the birthplace of probably one of the most startling changes in . Warship propulsion—a change that has persisted to this very day for sound mechanical and military reasons. Ericsson’s Screw Propelled Craft Ericsson had demonstrated while In England in 1836 the possibilities of screw propulsion, but the august dignitaries of the British admiralty poohpoohed his measure by patronizing indulgence. His only real encourage aient came from Americana, and among -these was Capt. Robert 8. Stockton of. the United States navy, then temporarily in London. Captain Stockton persuaded Ericsson to follow him back to America, and in -1841 induced the navy department to build a screw propelled ship of war. This vessel was the original U. 8. 8. Princeton. Apart from this novelty the Princeton was unique in the type of engines with which she was equipped, also doe to the engineering skill of Ericsson. By reason of his cunning it was made possible for the first time to put the entire propelling mechanism below the water line apd beyond the reach of an enemy’s shot and shell. In addition to this, the screw propeller was not the same drag upon the ship when under canvas as were the older side wheels, and later it was found possible to disconnect the propeller from the engines and leave it to revolve easily with still less resistance to progress.

On the same ship Ericsson had installed a large gun of hiß design, and that successful weapon may quite justly be said to have paved the way for the formidable cannon with which his wonder Monitor was equipped for her memorable fight with the Confederate ram and armed battery, the modified frigate Merrlmac. Parent of Modern 'Dreadnaught In the Monitor whicfr-Ericsson gave us in the hour of greatest national peril he produced more than he probably then realized. For it is unquestionably from the Monitor, with Its heavily armored sides and turrets, that the modern dreadnaught in general principle has evolved. The main difference today lies in the fact that we have virtually built about the essentials Of Ericsson’s Monitor, with its battery of big guns, a higher shipshaped structure for the purpose of getting greater seaworthiness and speed and much, more habitable accommodations for the present complement of 1,000 men and more. The advent .of the steel ship with us in the early ’Bos started us anew in the upbuilding of our fighting fleet, which had-sadly dwindled during the period following the Civil war. The story of the new navy is something., with which we are all pretty familiar, and yet it has grown in fact froih the start "Fulton gave us In 1814 by the laying of the keels of the craft he dubbed the Demoldgos. Just fancy the contrast hetween that strange vessel of 2,475 tons and a speed of four miles and a modern dreadnaught like the Texas of 28,000 tons and a speed of 21 knots an hour! A hundred years has transformed the steam fighting ship with its more frequently used spread ot canvas into a seagoing battle monster depending entirely upon machinery and motive energy dug out of the bowels of the earth, and yet, withal, capable of holding her own in the face of the roughest seas and the worst of gales. The -steam that Fulton showed us how to use has been turned into hundreds of auxiliary services tin shipboqfd today, and through that energy electricity is generated and the brilliancy of sunshine rivaled, while by virtue of the same potent force its very heat is the agency by which ice is furnished Jacky in the tropics. Not only that, but this refrigeration makes it possible for him to have fresh meats and vegetables month in and month out, no matter how far from port, where the ancient sailorman ate "salt-horse,” hardtack and beans.