The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-07-26
Who Invented the Steamboat

Every scn00lDoy In TINS Droau lana,
unless perchance he lives in Fairlee,
VT, will answer, "Robert Fulton"
Fulton's name has been, for nearly
three generations, so linked with the
birth of steamboat navigation that it is
heresy to dispute his title, and to rival
claimant attaches something of the re-
proach that recently befell the man
who asserted claim to the Tichborne
estate in England There has recently
been a revival of the discussion of the
question as to whom belongs the honor
of priority of an invention that in
stantly revolutionized navigation and
commerce. A writer in the New Eng
land Magazine for June claims the dis
tinction for John Fitch. Replying to
this article, Governor Fuller of Yer
mont has recently explained in letter
to the Brattleboro Reformer that Fitch's
invention, after several failures, culmi-
mated in 1890 in the production of
steamboat propelled By oars, that Fitch
did not progress beyond this point, and
that, being on the wrong trail, his eff
forts ended in complete failure, as did
those of others who, from 1870 to 1890,
were seeking by various means to pro-
vide substitute for wind or physical
power in propelling water craft. Hav-
ing disposed of the Ne,c England Mag
azine'S contention in behalf of Fitch,
Governor Fuller continues:
at is at this critical point in the history
of steam navigation that Samuel Morey,
whose father owned the ferry on the Con
necticut river between Oxford, N. H., and
and, without having knowledge of what
others had done, his fertile mind seizes hold
of the problem at the point where all others
had failed, and between 1890 and 1893 built
paddle-wheel steamboat and began the
successful navigation of the Connecticut
river at Fairlee, VT Thus we see, upon
lines entirely new, and so distinct and novel
that there can be no confusion as to identity
or results, adopting the rotary motion of
through to complete triumph. He then
went to Connecticut, where he built an
other steamboat and sailed in it to New
York and thence to Bordentown, n. j.,
where it was continued in successful opera
| ton. Here he met John Fitch, Livingston,
Fulton and Others who not only were in
terested in the subject, but who became in
timately acquainted with his steamboat and
its successful navigation of the waters in
and about their localities. And
the invention of Samuel Morey, coming on
after the failure of all other inventions,
stands out clear and distinct by itself, as
the first successful paddle-wheel steamboat,
and Morey as the successful inventor and
the introducer of modern steam navigation. -
The discussion appears to be some
what archaeological, so far into the re-
mote past does the rapid development
of steam navigation seem to push the
first rude conception or embodiment
of the idea of propelling vessels by
steam. The general public, if it re-
CARDS the matter at all, doubtless feels
only languid interest in the desultory
contention, and is content to suffer
Fulton to sleep invested with all the
honors of original invention as well as
those-which will hardly be denied
him-of making steamboat navigation a
commercial success. But if one should
spend day in the vicinity of Fairlee
pond, what he might hear and see
would awaken lively interest in the
question of priority of steamboat inven-
ton, and the evidence in the case would
convince him that to Captain Samuel
Morey, and not to Robert Fulton, be-
long the honors of original invention.
The evidence is conclusive that Captain
Morey, up here in the wilderness OF
northern New England, evolved from
his own inner consciousness the idea of
propelling boat by a paddle-wh
driven by steam power, and that he
carried this idea to successful issue on
the Connecticut river between Oxford,
n. H., where he was then living, and
Fairlee, VT, about the year 1898. The
evidence is conclusive that the boat was
built, and sailed the waters of the
Connecticut, moved by paddle-wheel
driven by steam engine of Captain
Morey's own invention and construc
ton. 1t appears to be proved, further
that Fulton, with Chancellor Living
ston of New York as his powerful patror
and financial hacker, had negotiation
and interviews with Captain Morey, saw
his boat and examined his inventions
} and that from this coigne of vantage
some fourteen years later projected tn
/ historic Clermont. Fulton thereupol
: appropriated unto himself all the honor
of the original invention, in the posses
sion of which he has reposed, practi
cally undisturbed, for more than three