• CATALOGUE OF THE WATERCRAFT COLLECTION. 51 



ing of the New York Historical Society, and then published in 

 August of the same year in the " Historical Magazine " No. 8, of 

 volume 2. Doctor Eenwick was professor of Natural and Experi- 

 mental Philosophy in Columbia College, New York, for many years ; 

 and' was the author of several treatises on the steam engine, among 

 wliich was a much quoted article. On the Steamboats of the United 

 States of America, contributed to Tregold's Treaties on the Steam 

 Engine, published in London, 1838 : 



" The first time that I ever heard of an attempt to use steam for 

 propelling vessels w^as from a classmate of mine who resided during 

 the summer months at Belleville, in New Jersey. He had in the 

 summer of 1803 seen an experiment on the Passaic River which he 

 stated to have been directed by John Stevens, of Hoboken. Ac- 

 cording to his account the propulsion was attempted by forcing water 

 by steam of a pump from an aperture in the stern of the vessel. 



" From some vague indications it would appear that the elder 

 Brunei, afterwards so distinguished in Europe, was in the employ- 

 ment of Mr. Stevens on this occasion. In the month of May, 1804, 

 in company with the same young gentleman and another classmate, 

 now the distinguished missionary, John H. Hill, of Athens, Greece, 

 I went to walk in the Battery. As we entered the gate from Broad- 

 way we saw what we in those days considered a crowd running 

 toward the river. On inquiring the cause, we were informed that" 

 Jack Stevens^ was going over to Hoboken in a queer sort of a boat. 

 On reaching the bulkhead by which the Battery was then bounded 

 we saw lying against it a vessel about the size of a Whitehall row- 

 boat, in which was a small engine, but there was no visible means 

 of propulsion. The vessel was speedily under way, my late much- 

 valued friend. Commodore Stevens, acting as cockswain; and I 

 presume the smutty-looking personage who fulfilled the duties of 

 engineer, fireman, and crew was his more practical brother, Robert 

 L. Stevens. 



"A few years since at the last fair of the American Institute held 

 at iNiblo's I was asked to serve on a committee to report upon a boat 

 and engine, exhibited by the Messrs. Stevens, for the purpose of 

 sustaining the claim of their father to the honor of being the first 

 inventor of the propeller. The circumstances I have just recounted 

 had taken so strong a hold on my memory that I at once recognized 

 the engine exhibited as that which I had seen at the Battery nearly 

 50 years before. 



" In respect to the propeller, I could say nothing. One of my 

 colleagues on the committee, however, Mr. Curtis, at that time United 

 States inspector of steamboats for the port of New York, recognized 



* Jolin Cox Stevens. 



