CATALOGUE OF THE WATEECRAFT COLLECTIOlSr. 55 



of the previous April; that the boring had been in progress from 

 that date to the date of the letter, July 3, two men working day and 

 night, relieving each other, " one almost living in the cylinder '' ; 

 and that he expected " that about six weeks would be required to 

 finish it." 



An inspection of the rude workmanship of the twin-screw engine, 

 as well as that of the boiler, will explain the reason for the abandon- 

 ment by Colonel Stevens of his plan of screw propulsion. There 

 were no tools or competent workmen in America at that date to prop- 

 erly construct the steam engines and the boilers that he planned 

 between 1800 and- 1806. Success was impossible. 



"\^nien he finally realized this, unwearied by his attempts to intro- 

 duce steam navigation, dating from the year 1791, he reverted to 

 the paddle wheel with its slow-moving engine, and with the boilers 

 then in use, carrying steam at the pressure of 2 or 3 pounds above the 

 atmosphere. He was engaged in building the Phoenix when Fulton 

 arrived from Euroj)e with the engine made for him by Watt in 

 1806, which, complete in all its details, and in these respects far in 

 advance of any engine that could then have been built in this coun- 

 try, achieved success. Fulton's engine was the first steam engine 

 that was allowed to be exported from England. 



The paddle steamboat Phoenix was completed a few weeks after 

 Fulton's vessel ; and, as she w^as debarred from navigating the waters 

 of the Hudson by the monopoly given to Fulton by the legislature 

 of the State of New York, she was sent by sea to Philadelphia. The 

 Phoenix was the first steamboat that navigated the ocean. 



Colonel Stevens always maintained that with proi^er machinery, the 

 screw would be found superior to the paddle for seagoing vessels. In 

 1816 he presented a plan to our Government for a man-of-war pro- 

 pelled by a screw. This may still remain in the archives of the Gov- 

 ernment at Washington. 



In regard to the claim in behalf of Fulton, for the introduction of 

 steam navigation, no one had admitted the justice of that claim more 

 unqualifiedly than his unsuccessful rival. Fulton's fame rests not 

 merely upon the success of the Clermont in 1807, but upon what he 

 accomplished in the interval between that date and that of his death 

 in 1814. Colonel Stevens in the letter to the Medical and Philosoph- 

 ical Society says : 



" It is an unquestionable fact that he [Fulton] was the person who 

 for any practical useful purpose, applied water wheels on each side 

 of a steamboat." And again, " Fulton has, however, incontestably 

 the merit of being the first person who applied steamboats to useful 

 purposes." 



