The evening times. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1895-1902, 1897-04-10
STEAMSHIPS OF THE NAVY
Their Origin and History Traced
by a Naval Officer.
PADDLE WHEEL TO SCREW
FuIton's First Experiment Ericsson
Built the First Screw-ProDelIed
War vessel-Progress Incident
to the Civil War-Engineer Corps
Not quite Sixty Years Gid.

"The Steam Navy of the United States,''
by F. NJ Bennett, United States Navy, Is
the title of new naval history, and pre-
sents many new points in our history which
will excite unusual interest at this time,
when public attention is SO generally
drawn to the character and growth of the
new American Navy, and has naturally
given particular attention to naval history
as shaped by the introduction of steam,
but his work is of general interest, never
theless
The idea of substituting steam power for
sails as means of making fighting ships
more reliable and formidable is sho wn TO
have originated in the United States and
was the conception OF Robert ulton. Dur
ing the war of 1912 that distinguished en-
gineer proposed to build large and heavily
armed floating battery, moved by steam,
to be used to drive away the fleet of
frigates menacing the port of New York
His pro ect was approved by the President
and authority given to proceed with the
construction The result was a large
double-hulled vessel of nearly $500 tons
displacement, propelled by q central pad
die wheel, actuated by primitive type
OF engine and boiler.
This craft was completed in 1915, too
late to he test ed in battle with the British
frigates, and during the summer of that
year made some successful trial trips at
sea near New York. Fulton named his ship
Demologos voice Of the people"-but
the Navy Department did honor to him
by giving it his name. This was the first
steam vessel OF war ever built. Her career
was abruptly ended in 1929 by the explo-
sion of her magazine, which killed and in
tured many people and consequently de-
stroyed the vessel.
It was not until 1886 that steps were
taken to build another steamer. This was
a side-wheel vessel about $50 feet long,
capable of making 2 knots an hour, and
was remarkable from a modern point of
view in having her engines erected OH the
SPAR or upper deck. exposed to the weather
or hostile shot. The boilers were in the
hold directly Under the engines Some
years later the machinery was replaced
by better type7 and, thus improved, the
ship did much useful service, extending
to the outbreak Of the civil war, when she
was captured and destroyed by the Con-
fedefateS at PensdcOld.
Much space is devoted to all the early
steamers. man OF them experimental, that
followed the second Fulton in our Navy
One famous paddle heel frigate. the
Mississippi was builtia 1S42, and after
usefJ1i and glorions career OF over twent y
years met the fate or the Fulton, and W as
destroyed by the Confedcrates, her destruc-
ton, by a strange fatality, occurring in the
great river whose name she had borne so
braveIy and 50 hong The sidewheel gun
boat Michigan belongs to the same period,
having been put afioat on the Great Lakes
OF the Northwest, in 1S43. She is still in
active service there. She was the first
vessel in our Navy constructed OF iron.
The stevens ironclad battery was begun
at this same early date, and was the
beginning OF the iron age in naval affairs.
though never fully completed itself.
More famous than any Of these was the
Princeton. completed at Philadelphia in
1874 Tits steamer was built from the
designs and under the supervision of the
famous Swedish engineer, John Ericsson,
= who had only recently arrived in this
country The Princeton was the first
screw-propeIled war vessel ever built, and
her success furnished the argument to
overthrow the stubborn opposition OF the
old sailor officers, who did not propose to
admit steam to the Navy on any terms
Prior to the appearance Of the Princeton