APPENDIX. 



this time she had the tide against her, and had no assistance whatever from sails. Of the gentlemen who 

 formed the company invited to witness the experiment, not one entertained a doubt of her fitness for the 

 intended purpose. 



Additional expedients were, notwithstanding, necessary to be sought for quickening and directing her 

 motion. These were devised and executed with all possible care. 



Suitable arrangements having been made, a third trial of hei powers was attempted on the eleventh day 

 of September, with the weight of twenty-six of her long and ponderous guns, and a considerable quantity 

 of ammunition and stores on board ; her draft of water w:ls short of eleven feet. She changed her course 

 by inverting the motion of the wheel, without the necessity of putting about. She fired salutes as she 

 passed the forts, and she overcame the resistance of the wind and tide in her progress down the bay. She 

 pcrf.nned beautiful manoeuvres around the United States' Frigate Java, then at anchor near the light-house. 

 She moved with remarkable celerity, and she was perfectly obedient to her double helm. It was observed 

 that the explosion of powder produced very little concussion. The machinery was not affected by it in the 

 smallest degree. Her progress, during the firing, was steady and uninterrupted. On the most accurate 

 calculations, derived from heaving the log, her average velocity was five and a-half miles per hour. 

 Notwithstanding the resistance of currents, she was found to make headway at the rate of two miles an 

 hour against the ebb of the East River, running three and a-half knots. The day's exercise was satisfactory 

 to the respectable company who attended, beyond their utmost expectations. It was universally agreed that 

 we now possessed a new auxiliary against every maratime invader. The City of New York, exposed as it 

 is, was considered as having the means of rendering itself invulnerable. The Delaware, Chesapeake, I 

 Island Sound, and every other bay and harbor in the nation, may be protected by the same tremendous 

 power. 



Among the inconveniences observable during the experiment, was the heat endured by the men who 

 attended the fires. To enable a correct judgment to be formed on this point, one of the Commissioners 

 (Dr. Mitchel) descended and examined, by a thermometer, the temperature of the hold, between the two 

 boilers. The quicksilver, exposed to the radiant heat of the burning fuel, rose to one hundred and sixteen 

 degrees of Fahrenheit's scale. Though exposed thus to its intensity, he experienced no indisposition 

 afterwards. The analogy of potteries, forges, glass-houses, kitchens, and other places, where laborers are 

 habitually exposed to high heats, is familiar to persons of business and of reflection. In all such occupations, 

 the men, by proper relays, perform their services perfectly well. 



The Government, however, will understand that the hold of the present vessel could be rendered cooler 

 by other apertures for the admission of air, and that on building another steam frigate, the comfort of the 

 firemen might be provided for, as in the ordinary steamboats. 



The Commissioners congratulate the Government and the nation on the event of this noble project. 

 Ilonorable alike to its author and its patrons, it constitutes an era in warfare and the arts. The arrival of 

 peace, indeed, has disappointed the expectations of conducting her to battle. That last and conclusive act of 

 showing her superiority in combat, has not been in the power of the Commissioners to make. 



If a continuance of tranquillity should be our lot, and this steam vessel of war be not required for the 



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PAPER 39: HI IONS ""SHAM HATTER'S 



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