The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1904-02-19
FIRST STEAM WARSnIP
WAS never IN BATTLE
After Years of Waiting, ExpIo.
sionW Wrecks Vessel kAlIing
26 Persons.
KNOWN. AS "DEMoLoGos'
England Was. Startled by the Eormid.
able Character Of This Mighty De-
stroyer-Rohart Fulton Waa
the First Engineer.

New York Mail and Express: Even
In q day of wars and rumors of wars.
with articles upon. the relative strength
OF navies as common as stock quota
tons or weather reports, 1t is seldom
recalled that the-f first steam battleship
the world eve saw was built by an
American for America. The story. OF
the Demologos is an all but forgotten
Incident in naval annals, yet she was
the wonder Of her day and her career.
before her mysterious and tragic pass
ing, quite picturesque enough to war
RAM the retelling.
Planned by Robert Fulton, built by
order of James Madison, the Demologos
appears in history in 1914. Those were
days when the good folk Of the town
along the Atlantic seaboard walked in
fear Of attack from English ships n
slept lightly through troubled dreams.
Our feet Of privateers a borne thom-
selves CALAMITY and well at sea, but
the coast lay unprotected. President
Madison and his advisers at Washing
ton were quite Is much concerned over
aware-and then came Fulton with his
proposal Of a floating battery"
To Fire Redhot Shot.
The strange craft of his suggestion
corresponds most nearly perhaps to
what we of today might call an un-
protected gunboat for coast n har-
Dor service, but she had freak fea-
lures. In addition to the boilers h a
were to supply steam for the first time
to a lighting ship she was to be fitted
with furnaces in which her h O might
be heated before firing. In addition to
her twenty-six s32-pounders she was to
carry four guns. two forward and two
aft, which it was planned should be
hung over bow or stern, as the case
might be. with the idea of ~discharging
heavy shot into the side Of an enemy
we'll below h water line. She was to
be fitted with pumps and pipes through
which large quantities Of water might
be spouted upon the decks n into the
ports OF her adversary. She will be
the most formidable fighting ship ever
constructed" wrote Mr.. Fulton in con-
clusion.
The scoffers laughed and the object
ors argued, but James Madison ap-
proved n worked to such good pur-
pose that on March IA, 1914. the houses
of congress appropriated 1920. 900 to
build che craft. Fulton was named en-
gtneer, and before June had passed, the
keel had beer laid in the New York
yards of Adam & Noah Brown. On Oc-
tober 20 she was launched, the focus OF
gathered along the river fronts and
upon the shipping that Allied New York
bay, to cheer, not the Fulton the
First" as the president had suggested
the vesesl to be christened, but the
"Delnologos." or Defender of the
People" a name chosen by the designer
himself, who turned to the classics as
well as to the elements for his inspira-
tons.
Was a Miahty Craft.
She was a mighty craft. The boiler
oyar u,hieh +ha ae',t 80 haane 80 y
heads in fear - was twenfY oN 'ft feet
long, " twelve feet deep. Her 2475
tons were to be driven by . water
wheel sixteen feet in diameter. She
was 1856 feet over ALI ffty-six feet hea m
and her Greatest denth was twantv
feet.
This is how the commission Entrusted
BY President Madison With her cona
struction described the nemo,osos.
.she 10 y r.ssai ras .ur Delaoiosos
separated from end re and nv = aana;
fifteen wide and siytvSsiy fee+ Iong One