NAVAL STEAMERS. 



inattentive to their progress. It is certain that the Steam Frigate lost none of her terrors in 

 the reports or imaginations of the enemy. In a treatise on steam vessels, published in Scotland 

 at that time, the author states that he has taken great care to procure full and accurate 

 information of the Steam Frigate launched in New York, and which he describes in the follow- 

 ing words : — 



"Length on deck, three hundred feet; breadth, two hundred feet ; thickness of her sides, 

 thirteen feet of alternate oak plank and cork wood — carries forty-four guns, four of which are 

 hundred pounders ; quarter-deck and forecastle guns, forty-four pounders; and further to annoy 

 an enemy attempting to board, can discharge one hundred gallons of boiling water in a minute, 

 and by mechanism, brandishes three hundred cutlasses with the utmost regularity over her gun- 

 wales ; works also an equal number of heavy iron pikes of great length, darting them from 

 her sides with prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute " ! ! 



The war having terminated before the "Fulton the First" was entirely completed, she 

 was taken to the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, and moored on the flats abreast of that station, where 

 she remained, and was used as a receiving-ship until the fourth of June, eighteen hundred and 

 twenty-nine, when she was blown up. The following letters from Commodore Isaac Chauncey 

 (then Commandant of the New York Navy Yard) to the Honorable Secretary of the Navy, 

 informing him of the distressing event, concludes this brief history of the first steam vessel of 

 war ever built. 



U. S. Navv Yard, New York, | 

 June bth, 182'J. f 



Sir: 



It becomes my painful duty to report to you a most unfortunate occurrence 

 which took place yesterday, at about half past two o'clock, P. M., in the accidental blowing 

 up of the Receiving Ship Fulton, which killed twenty-four men and a woman, and wounded 

 nineteen ; there are also five missing. Amongst the killed I am sorry to number Lieutenant 

 S. M. Brackenridge, a very fine, promising officer, and amongst the wounded are, Lieutenants 

 Charles F. Piatt, and A. M. Mull, and Sailing-Master Clough, the former dangerously, and the 

 two last severely ; there are also four Midshipmen severely wounded. How this unfortunate 

 accident occurred I am not yet able to inform you, nor have I time to state more particularly ; 

 I will, as soon as possible, give a detailed account of the affair. 

 I have the honor to be, Sir, 



Very respectfully, 



J. CHAUNCEY. 



Hon. John Branch, 



Sfertfary of the Xavy, Wa$hington. 



16 



70 I'.l I.I.ETIN L'K): CONTRIBUTIONS FROM Till. MUSEUM OF HISTORY AND TECHNOLOGY 



