Rigged Model USNM 309409 

 Reconstruction of the North River. 

 commonly called the Clermont. 

 built for the Hudson-Fulton Cele 

 bration of 1909. For a view aft, 

 see p. 112. (Smithsonian photo 44957 ■) 



ROBERT FULTON'S STEAMBOAT, 1807-08 

 Rigged Model, usnm 309401 



North Kiver^ ex Clermont 



This model, an attempt at reconstruction of Robert 

 Fulton's steamboat Clermont after her rebuilding 

 during the winter of 1807-08, represents the full- 

 sized reconstruction made for the Hudson-Fulton 

 Celebration in 1907. The rebuilding corrected 

 fatilts in both machinery and in hull revealed by the 

 experimental runs started in August 1807 and altera- 

 tions were made. 



The model shows a "praam" type vessel, flat 

 bottomed athwartships and fore-and-aft, having 

 chines instead of a round bilge. The sides are slightly 

 flaring and in section these are apparently all on the 

 same moderate curve. There is a shallow external 

 keel. The stem is nearly ttpright and slightly cur\ed, 

 the post straight and raking. At the stern is a false 

 counter, made by a "bustle," a structure somewhat 

 like the "patent stern" of the later Chesapeake Bay 

 bugeyes, that makes the sharp stern into a square 

 stern at deck, the stern structure ending in a wide, 

 shallow, rectangular transom with the whole of the 

 false counter being well above the load line. The 

 sheer is almost straight and the entrance convex and 

 sharp, the run the same but finer. An open rail along 

 the sheer is formed by a turned-stanchion-and-cap- 

 rail. The vessel is decked; forward is a low cabin 

 trunk and the foremast, the latter with topmast, yard. 



gaff, and boom. About amidships is the engine space, 

 with engine, boilers, and drive machinery. The gear- 

 driven fixed-blade paddle wheels are just forward of 

 midlength and the high stack just abaft midlength. 

 The paddle wheels have no guards or wheelboxes; 

 after her rebuilding guards and wheelboxes were 

 fitted. Aft is a long, low cabin trunk and the main- 

 mast, which has only a boom and gaff. A tiller is 

 right aft. The vessel appears long, low, and narrow. 



This model is in error in not having guards and 

 wheelboxes, in having outboard flywheels, and in 

 the omission of leeboards. The eagle figurehead has 

 also been omitted. 



The register dimensions of the North River, as the 

 Clermont was renamed after the rebuilding of 1807- 

 08, were 149 feet between perpendiculars, 17 feet 

 11 inches extreme beam, and 7 feet depth in hold. 

 Scale of model is ]i inch to the foot. 



From the Hudson River Day Line. 



STEAMBOAT, 1807-09 

 Rigged Model, usnm 160303 



Phoenix 



This model is a reconstruction of the steamboat 

 Phoenix that was built under the personal supervision 

 of Col. John Stevens in 1807-09. Originally the 

 vessel had a crosshead engine \\ith twin condensing 

 cylinders, 16 inches in diameter and 36 inches stroke. 

 The boiler was set in l)rick\\ ork and was a cylindrical 

 shell with one return flue. After makinsf the run from 



126 



