464 EXPLOSION OF THE FULTON. 
these incidents occurred in a shorter time than I have consum- 
ed in writing them. From the moment of my hearing the 
first alarm to that of leaving the steam-boat, was not, I am 
satisfied, near ten minutes ; I believe it was not five." 
BLOWING UP OF THE STEAM-FRIGATE 
FULTON, 
At the Navy Yard, Brooklyn, June Uh, 1829. 
The following account was written after visiting the wreck, 
on the morning after the explosion. The Fulton has, ever 
since the war, been occupied as a receiving ship, and was 
moored within two hundred yards of the shore. The maga- 
zine was in the bow of the ship, and contained, at the time of 
the explosion, but three barrels of damaged powder. The 
explosion was not louder than that produced by the discharge 
of a single cannon ; and many persons in the Navy Yard 
supposed the report to have proceeded from such a source, 
until they saw the immense column of smoke arising from the 
vessel. Others about the yard saw the masts rising into the 
air before the explosion, and immediately after, the air was 
filled with fragments of the vessel. It is not a little remark- 
able that a midshipman who was, at the time of the accident, 
asleep on board of the frigate United States, within two hun- 
dred yards of the Fulton, was not at all disturbed by the re- 
port of the explosion, and was not aware of the occurrence 
until he was told of it after he aw^oke. 
The Fulton is a complete wreck ; the bow being destroyed 
nearly to the water, and the whole of this immense vessel, 
whose sides were more than four feet thick, and all other 
parts of corresponding strength, is now lying an entire heap 
of ruins, burst asunder in all parts, and aground at the spot 
where she was moored. Although she was but 200 yards 
from the Navy Yard, and many vessels near her, not one of 
them received the least damage ; nor was the bridge which 
led from the shore to the Fulton at all injured. The sentinel 
upon the bridge received no wound whatever, and continued 
to perform his duty after the accident, as unconcerned as 
though nothing had happened. The sentinel on board the 
ship was less fortunate, and escaped with merely (a light ac- 
cident on such occasions) a broken leg. There were attach- 
