The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-02-26
STEAM WARSHIP
Was never IN BATTLE
After Years Of Waiting, Explo-
sion Wrecks Vessel Killing
25 Persons.
AS "DEMOLOGOS"
England Was Startled by the Formid-
able Character of This Mighty De-
stroyer-Robert Fulton Was
the First Engineer.

New York Mail and Express: Even
In a day Of wars and rumors OF wars,
with articles upon the relative strength
of navies as common as stock quota
lions or weather reports, 1t Is seldom
recalled that the first steam battleship
the world ever saw was built by an
American for America. The story or
the DemoIogos 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
rant 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 and
slept lightly through troubled dreams.
Our fleet Of privareers had borne them
selves CALAMITY and well at sea, put
the coast lay unprotected. Preslueht
| Madison and his advisers at Washlng-
ton were quite as much concerned over
this as the fishermen of Maine or Del
aware-and then came Fulton with his
proposal Of a floating battery
To Fire Rsdhot Shot.
The strange craft of his suggestion
corresponds most nearly perhaps to
what we Of today might call an IN
protected gunboat for coast and har-
Dor service. but she had freak fea-
lures. In addition to the boilers that
were to supply steam for the first time
to a fghting ship she was to be fitted
with furnaces in which her shot might
be heated before firing. In addition to
her twenty-siX 32-pounders she was TO
carry four guns, two w ana Two
aft, which it was planned should De
hung over bow or stern, as the case
- ~ - a 10 I - re ltcnh p" n p
heavy shot into the side Of an enemy
we'll below the water line. She was to
be fitted with pumps and pipes through
which large quantities Of water might
be spouted upon the decks and into the
ports Of her adversary. She VIII be
the most formidable fighting ship ever
constructed" wrote Mr.. Fulton In con-
clusion.
The s%coffers laughed and the object
ors argued, but James Madison ap-
proved and worked to such good pur-
pose that on March ID, 1914. he houses
Of congress appropriated 100000 to
build the craft. Fulton was named en-
gineer, and before June had passed, the
keel had been laid in the New YORK
yards Of Adam & Noah Brown. On Oc-
tober 20 she was launched, the focus Of
q national celebration, with thousands
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 c~hristened, 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-
lions.
Was a Mighty Craft.
She was a mighty craft. The boiler
over which the doubters shook their
- 49, To- 800 -,r M yyn . fnaf
long, by twelve feet deep. Her 2.475
tors were to be driven by a water
wheel sixteen feet in diameter. She
was 1856 feet over all, ~ffty-six feet beam
and her greatest depth was twenty
feet.
y by President Madison with her con-
struction described the Demologos:
"She is a vessel resting upon two keels.
separated from end to end by q .canal
y fifteen wide and siXty-six feet long. One
II section contains the caldrons Of copper
|, to prepare her steam. The vast cylin-
y der Of iron, with it's piston, levers and
!! wheels, occupies the other. The great
Il water wheel reEolves In the space be-
tween. She is propelled by her. en-
, ginery alone.
u The main, or gun, deck supports he
armament, and is protected by a bull
/ wark four feet ten inches thick, O.
~ SWIM llIlDCI. u - p1ClCCu NY POI
holes to enable her ~32-pounders to fir
redhot shot; her upper, or par, decks
plain"
i'll Small wonder that England was ter
rifed! One OF the London!journal
whose agent in New York had gathere,
e his information through many deviou
channels gave this account of the Dem
a, ologos. under the line. Terror of tn
a SLehgth On deck, 800 feet; breadth
ell 200 feet; thickness Of sides, thfrteel
feet, of alternate oak plank and cord
r wood: carries forty-tyo, guns, four 8
!, which are f~00-pounders, the quarter
leck and forecastle guns being Al
FOUNDERS. Further to an enem,
attempting to board her, she can dis
charge 1O0egallons Of boiling water
al minute, and by mechanism brandis
a. 300 %cutlasses with the utmost regular
= ty oyer her gunWales; works also O.
m equal humber ef iron .pikes>of grea
- ~ #"