Des Arc citizen., 1859-03-25
A Survivor Of Fulton's First Steam
 boat Crew. G .A

A correspondent of the New York Journal of Commerce has obtained from Capt. Mckinney ey-who was one of Full toms crew when that inventor fried his first steamer, the Clermont--the following interesting account of that craft and her first trip to Albany in 1907:
 Captain Mckinney says the boat was not one hundred and forty feet long. She was fiat bottomed like skid. She was painted lead color. The Clermont drew twenty-two inches of water, and the rud- der went below the bottom of ihe boat. To the rudder-post two pieces of wood were fastened. These projected some four or five feet, and a bolt extended across to prevent the rudder from ( going down lower than it ought" In addition, the rudder was so arranged for shoal water that it could be lifted to the surface, if necessa- Try. Her wheels extended below the bot tom of the boat
 A Ay-wheel was attached to the paddle wheel, having a rim four inches wide, which MT. Jackson, the engineer, told Captain Mckinney, twas to make the paddIe-wheel pass the center without a jerk" ''There was big hut" continued Capt. Mckinney, "just inside the boat into which the shaft fitted It could be un- shipped with crow-bar, and the revolu- ton ofone of the wheels stopped when they wanted to turn the boat round. There were two rows of fire bricks which the boiler rested upon. These bricks were i'm ported from England, and cost six cents each. The boiler was of copper. top arched the bottom curved upward. The boiler fed itself"
 The captains description of some of the machinery will be both amusing and in- structive 10 those who have watched the of this branch of mechanics. His own language, in describing the apparatus for supplying water to the boiler, will give a far more graphic idea than any which we could hope to convey. "A grind was suspended from the center by a wire inside the boiler. A lead pipe ran from the boiler to the water. The top of the grndstone was level with the water in the boiler; as the water boiled away, the stone would fall as the boiler was filled up, the stone would rise. Machinery working like pump. handle connected this grind stone with the cock of the water-pipe out side of the boiler. As the grindstone fell it would open the cock wider, and the re- verse, etc., etc.
 Captain Mckinney says that when the Clermont started on her triPto Albany, she left New York, according to his recol- lections, about 9 o'clock in the morning, and went up as far as the Livingston Manor the first day. There she remained all night and received passengers-some of the Livingston family. The next mor- ming proceeded on her journey and arrived at Albany late in the afternoon. All the way up the river the steamboat attracted great attention. People thronged the banks or pulled out into the stream to have a closer view of this new monster. The Clermont made about six knots an hour. On the first trip the crew consisted of only half a dozen men, while those whom Cap tain Mckinney took to be passengers might number twenty-five or thirty per- sons.
 At Albany he says that Fulton went ashore, telling them to let no one come on board, and the boat was pushed blanks length from the shore. But the engineer disobeyed as soon as Fulton was out of sight and admitted the people at York - | ;tl:.~ i, Lo.J Tbaxr co,no o,, hoard sn fast that in five minutes they took twelve dollars. So many came at last that they were compelled to turn the tide Tn the opposite direction, and ordered them all ashore. Fulton's captain, says our hero, was named Hunt, and on the passage down was bribed (so Madame Rumor said) by the sloop-owners to run the experimental steamboat ashore. In accomplishing the wish of the shippers, one of the wheels