Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1904-02-11
TERROR OF THE SEAS
UNCLE SANS FIRST STEAM WARsHip.
THE DEMOLOGOS.


In these days Of naval activity ell
over the world, when each new scheme
in marine architecture is perfected only
TO be surpassed by some newer inven-
ton, 1t is seldom recalled that the first
steam battleShip the world ever saw
was built by an American for America.
The story of the Demologos is an all
bur forgotten incident in naval annals,
vet she was the wonder of l-r day and
her career before her my>,rrious and
tragic passing, quite r'cturesQue
enough to warrant the rete.ung.
Planned by Robert Fulton. built by
order of James Madison, the Demolo-
gos appears in history il 1914. Those
were days when the good folk Of the
towns along the Atlantic seaboard
walked in fear Of attack from English
ships and slept lightly through trou-
bIed dreams. Our feet of privateers
had borne themselves gallantly and
we'll at sea, but the coast lay unpro-
tected. President Madison and his ad-
visers at Washington were quite as
much concerned over this as the fish
ermen of Maine and Delaware, and
then came Fulton with his proposal Of
floating battery"
The strange little craft of his sugges-
ton corresponds most nearly perhaps
to what we Of today might call an un-
protected gunboat for coast and harbor
service, but she had freak" features.
In addition to the boilers that were to
supply steam for the first time to a
fighting ship she was to be fitted with
furnaces in which her shot might be
heated before firing. In addition to her
twenty-six thirty-two Founders she was
to carry four guns, two forward and
two aft, which 1t 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
well 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 will be
the most formidable fighting ship ever
constructed" wrote Mr.. Fulton in con-
clusion.
The scoffers laughed, and the OBJ
jectors argued, but James Madison ap
proved and worked TO such good pur-
pose that on March IA, 1914, the houses
of congress appropriated S220,000 to
build the craft. Fulton was named
engineer, and before June had passed
the keel had been laid in the New York
yards Of Adam & Noah Brown. On
Oct. 20 she was launched, the focus Of
a national celebration, with thousands
gathered along the river fronts and
upon the shipping that filled New York
bay to cheer, not the Fulton the
First as the president had suggested
the vessel be christened, but the De-
mologos, or defender of the people,"
name chosen by the designer himself.
who turned to the classics as well as
to the elements for his inspirations.
She was mighty craft. The boiler,
over which the doubters shook their
heads In fear, was % feet long by IL
wide and deep. Her 2.473 tons were
to be driven by water wheel sixteen
feet In diameter. She was 156 feet
over all, SO feet beam, and her greatest
depth was 20 feet.
This Is how the commission intrusted
by President Madison with her con-
struction described the Demologos:
"She is a vessel resting upon two keels,
separated from end to end by canal
fifteen feet wide and sixty-six long.
One section contains the caldrons Of
copper to prepare her steam. The vast
cylinder of iron, with its piston, levers
and wheels, occupies the other. The
great water wheel revolves in the space
between. She is propelled by her en-
ginery alone.
1.-The main, or gun, deck supports her
armament and is protected by bull
wark four feet ten inches thick Of SOL
Id timber. This is pierced by portfolios
to enable her 80 Founders to fire redhot
shot. Her upper, or spar, deck is
plain"
Small wonder that England was ter
rifiedl One Of the London journals
whose agent in New York had gath
cred his information through many
devious channels gave this account Of
the Demologos under the line Terror
of the Seas"
Length on deck, 300 feet; breadth,
200 feet; thickness Of sides. 19 feet, Of
alternate oak planks and cork wood;
carries forty-two guns, four Of which
are 100 Founders, the quarter deck and
forecastle guns being A Founders. Fur
ther to annoy an enemy attempting to
board her, she can discharge 100 gal
Ions Of boiling water n minute and by
mechanism brandlsh 500 cutlasses with
the utmost regularity over her gun
wales. works also on an equal num-
her OF iron pixies of great length, dash
ing them from her sides with prodi-
gious force and Withdrawing them ev-
cry quarter Of a minute"
But this marvellous and dreaded YES
sci never faced an English foe. She
made her trial trips three Of them, n
tho summer OF 1915, establishing 4
record of ffty-three miles in eight
hours without her armament and &c
five and n half miles an hour when
fully fitted. And then, just as sbe
might have cut for herself a place in
history with her redhot shot and boil
Ing water and submarine" guns, peace
with England was declared.
The good Demologos was never III i.
into commission. What had coun r.
at peace with all the world to do VIZ
SO formidable a craft? She is comp,ct
ed, they said at Washington and 20
can be got ready fQr service at SD =
notice. Send her. over to the new no
gard at Brooklyn And so the 'ter -
Of the seas" crossed the bay and stea
cd up the East river and was anchor
Off the fiat that lay abreast of the
Don in those days, when river and har-
ior improvement committees We're
: things not yet imagined. And there for
fourteen years she watched the chang
Ing Seasons, her protected wheel, unoil-
eSl, asleep in It's well, her water unboil-
ed and her shot unheated. yet not who'll
ly useless, for she was the receiving
ship
The end SAms ON June evening In
lSo9, came suddenly, mysteriously,
traglcally There were visitors aboard,
examining, perhaps, those four famous
"submarine' guns of which ouch
mighty things had been expected, when
there came an explosion, and the De-
mologoa lay ruined and blackened
wreck, with twenty-five dead upon the
| decks that had never before been stain
| ed with blood This much the official
reports tell. though they thrC no light
on the cause Of the catastrophe, And
30 closed IN bl9eashed u" peaceful