The record-union., 1898-04-01

on the East River, June 20, 1914.
Many difficulties We're encountered in
obtaining proper ship timber at that
war time and in finding skilled work
men in the neighborhood, there having
previously been a greater demand for
that class of labor in the shipyards on
the Delaware and elsewhere. All diff
ficulties We're overcome, however, by
the indefatigable inventor, and she was
launched on October 29th of the same
year, four months after the work had
been undertaken.
Her launching attracted widespread
attention, and thousands of citizens
from the city and vicinity gathered to
see her enter the water There were
bands of music. flying flags and ap-
plauding shouts to inspire the eye-wit-
nesses.
The Fulton's length was $50 feet,
beam 56 feet, and depth 20 feet Her
water wheel had a diameter of 16 feet,
and her engine was 4S-inch cylinder
with a stroke of 3 feet Her boilers
were - feet long. u feet wide and s
feet deep. Her tonnage was about
2,515. Her maximum draught was II
! feet, and she was capable of going
under steam alone at rate of five miles
an hour.
Captain David Porter, who command
ed her on her trial trips, wrote to the
Secretary of the Navy as follows: Il
have the pleasure to inform you that the
Fulton First was this morning safely
/ launched. No one has yet Ventured 10
suggest any Improvement that could be
made in the vessel, and, to use the word
of her protector, I would not alter her
if it were in my power to do So"
The ship resembled in many respects
! the early ferry boats designed by Full
! ton, was exceedingly heavy, and of the
double-construction type, which per-
mitted her center-Wheel to revolve be-
tween her two hulls. The bulWarks
that protected her thirty-two Founders
were made of solid timber five feet
thick. She was rugged with two masts,
each OF which supported a large lateen
yard and sails. She had two bowsprits
and jibs. and four rudders two at each
end; for, like ferry boat, she moved
with either end foremost, and was thus
spared the necessity of turning about.
1t was FultOnS plan to provide this
marine terror with four 100 pound
guns, two supported under each bow,
| so as to send ball into an enemy some
ter or twelve feet below her water line.
| She was also designed to carry an en-
! gine that should throw an immense jet
| Of hot water over a ships deck and into
her portfolios. Peace having been rati-
| fed before she was equipped for sea,
/ this apparatus was never brought into
practical use, and so she was denied the
| satisfaction of throwing hot water in
her enemys face. There We're no guns
at New York with which to fit her out
at the time Of her launch, so some were
brought from Philadelphia for that pur-
pose. To prevent their capture by the
British squadron off the coast twenty
of these heavy cannons We're dragged
from Philadelphia to New York over the
muddy roads of New Jersey.
The Fulton's First cost when COM
pleted was $500, 900 about the sum
necessary to build a first-class frigate
of the dav. She made her trial trip
June l. 1915, leaving the wharf under
| steam alone. She performed certain
crab-like evolutions in the bay, and
came to her anchorage without having
! encountered a mishaD. Some changes
were made in her machinery, and her
second trip was made July 4th. On this
| occasion she went out to sea, eastward
/ of Sandy Hook, and returning, made the
distance of fifty-three miles in eight
hours and twenty minutes, against wind
and tide. She made her next trip in
| September, and then was esnt to the
Brooklyn navy yard, to be used as a re-
ceiving ship, where she stayed until she
| blew up.
| The Fulton was regarded by Ameri-
cans as the greatest fighting machine
afloat, and would have certainly struck
terror to the hearts of her enemies if
the description of her published in Scot
land at the time of her launching could
be taken as the truth. In this she was
seriously stated to be of length on
deck of 800 feet; breadth, 200 feet;
| thickness of her sides, 13 feet of alter
nate oak planks and cork wood carries
forty-four guns. four of which are 100
Founders; and further, to annoy ali
enemy attempting to board, can dis
| charge 100 gallons of hot water a min
ute; and, by mechanism, brandishes 300
| cutlasses with the utmost regularity
over her gunwales; works also an equal
number of heavy iron spikes OF great
length darting them from her sides with
prodigious force, and Withdrawing them
every quarter of a minutei"-New York
Evening Post.