EARLY TORPEDO EXPERIMENTS. 



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Fulton's boat is pretty evidently the original from which Jules Verne took the idea 

 of his wonderful submarine ship, the Nautilus. It was utilised for an important torpedo 

 experiment, and a shallop was successfully blown up at Brest in the presence of Admiral Villaret 

 and other officials. The submarine boat approached within two hundred yards of the hull which 



OUTLINE OF FITCH 8 FIRST BOAT. 



was to be destroyed, and fired its torpedo under water. The French Government employed 

 him for a time to cruise about and watch our vessels, but no opportunity seems to have 

 occurred for any attack, and he was evidently looked upon as a failure. In 1803, a 

 correspondence passed between the English Government and Fulton, and he was induced 



FITCH S SECOND BOAT. 



to come to London, where he had an interview with Mr. Pitt and Lord Melville. "When 

 Mr. Pitt first saw a drawing of a torpedo, with a sketch of the mode of applying it, 

 and understood what would be the effects of its explosion, he said, that if introduced 

 into practice, it could not fail to annihilate all military marines/' Fulton accompanied 

 an expedition sent against the French flotilla in the roads of Boulogne, where his torpedoes 

 were launched, but did no damage. 



On the 15th October, 1805, he blew up a strongly built Danish brig, of the burden 

 of 200 tons, which had been provided for the experiment, and which was anchored in 

 Walmer roads, near Deal, within a mile of Walmer Castle, the then residence of Mr. Pitt. 

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