The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-09-07
0JRF|RSTS1EANN NARSH|P
Built By Order of James Madi-
son in 1914.
DEFENDER OF THE PEOPLE
Fulton's Masterpiece, That Startled
England, But Was Never in
FiGht.-"Terror of the Seas"
Threw Red-Hot Shot and squlrted
Boiling Water.

of wars, with articles upon the rela
I've strength of nayies as common a.
tock quotations or weather reports
is seldom recalled that the frs
steam battleship the world ever 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 myste.
rlous and tragic passing, quite pic.
turesque enough to warrant the re.
telling.
Planned by Robert Fulton, built bv
order OF James Madison, the Demo-
logos appears in history in 1914.
those were days when the good folk
OF the towns along the Atlantic sea-
board walked in fear of attack from
English ships and slept lightly through
troubled dreams. Our fleet of pri.
vateers had borne themselves gal.
lantly and well at sea, but the coast
lay unprotected.
The strange little craft of his sug.
gestion corresponds most nearly per-
maps to what we of to-day might call
an unprotected gunboat for coast and
harbor service, but she had freak"
features. In addition to the boilers
that were to supply steam for the
nrst time to a fighting ship she was
to be fitted with furnaces in which
her shot might be heated before fir.
Ing. In addition to her twenty.six
32-pounders she was to carry four
guns, two forward and two aft. which
1t was planned should be hung over
DOW 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
ntted with pumps and pipes through
Which large quantities of water might
De spouted upon the decks and into
the ports OF her adversary. "She will
De the most formidable fighting shin
ever constructed" wrote Mr.. Fulton
In conclusion.
The scoffers laughed and the obiec.
tors argued, but James Madison ap-
proved and worked to such good pur.
Vose that on March A. 1914, the
iouses OF Congress appropriated
100000 to build the craft. Fulton
Yas named engineer, and before June
lad passed the keel had been laid
the New York yards Of Adam G.
Noah Brown. On October 60 she was
aunched, the focus of national cele-
brn...vn, 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 Demo
;logos." or Defender Of the People,"
a name chosen by the designer him
self, who turned to the classics as
well as to the elements for his in
spirations.
She was mighty craft. The boiler
over which the doubters shook their
heads in fear was % feet long, by ~
wide and deep. Her 2,475 tons were
to be driven by water wheel l6 feet
in diameter She was 1876 feet over
ALL Sc feet beam and her greatest
depth was 20 feet.
This Is how the commission in.
trusted by President Madison with her
construction described the Demo-
logos "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 enginery
alone.
THE main, or gun, deck supports
her armament. and is protected by
bulwark four feet ten inches thick
of solid timber This is pierced by
port holes to enable her 32-pounders to
Are red-hot shot; her upper, or spar,
deck Is plain"
Small wonder that England was ter
rified! 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 Ter
ror Of the Seas"
Length on deck, 300 feet; breadth,
200 feet; thickness OF sides, IL rect,
Of alternate oak plank and cork wood {;
carries AZ guns, four of which are 100
Dounders, the quarter deck and fore
castle guns being 44-pounders. Fur
ther to annoy an enemy attempting
to board her, she can discharge 10C
gallons of boiling water minute. and
by mechanism brandish 300 cutlassei
with the utmost regularity over heI
gunwales works also on an equal
number of iron pixies Of great length
dashing them from her sides with po
digious force and Withdrawing then
every quarter Of minute"
But this marvellous and dreaded yes
sci never faced English foes. Sh'
made her trial trips, three Of them, il
the summer of 1916, establishing {
record" of fifty-three miles in eigh
hours without her armament, and o
Ave and half miles an hour whel