MR. J. C. DYER ON STEAM NAVIGATION. 287 



firmed to me the fact of his having received Mr. Fulton's 

 plans so early as 1793, and of his having conferred with 

 him upon their practical application. In 1803 Mr. Fulton 

 constructed a steam-boat on the Seine, which satisfied him 

 of the correctness of the principle he had adopted ; and in 

 conjunction with the American Minister, Mr. Livingston, it 

 was determined to transfer their joint exertions for establish- 

 ing steam navigation to the American waters, for which pur- 

 pose a steam-engine was ordered from Messrs. Boulton 

 and Watt. From various causes of delay, Mr. Fulton did 

 not arrive in New York until 1806. During that year he 

 devoted his attention to superintend the building of the 

 ' Claremont ' in the shipyard of Mr. Charles Brown. This 

 vessel was 133 feet long, 18 feet beam, and 160 tons bur- 

 den, and was employed, as aforesaid, in the summer of 1807. 

 I have sailed in this vessel in company with Mr. Fulton, 

 and retain a vivid recollection of the general interest which 

 this great enterprise excited, and of the admiration be- 

 stowed upon its author, even by the many persons who 

 had shortly before ridiculed his projects as chimerical. 



It is not my present purpose to join issue in any of the 

 discussions concerning the original application of steam 

 power to navigation, the subject having been exhausted by 

 the respective advocates claiming it on behalf of England, 

 France, Switzerland, and America. I content myself with 

 stating the simple fact, that all of the experiments in each 

 country, which preceded those of Mr. Fulton, had already 

 proved, without any exception, utter failures, and no be- 

 nefit whatever had arisen from the application of any one 

 of the trials to navigate by steam prior to the complete 

 success of the ^Claremont' packet in the summer of 1807, 

 on the Hudson River. 



It is worthy of remark, that the sensations of astonish- 

 ment and alarm, among the spectators on shore and the 

 crews of the vessels, created by the '^ Claremont' in 1807, 



