ne was to be 130 hp, and the total cost, $200,000. In his letters to
the Secretary of the Navy, Fulton stated that Adam and Noah Brown would
build the hull for $69,800 and that he would build the engine, machinery
and boilers for $78,000, a total of $147,800. He intended to have the
boilers, valves, fastenings, and air pumps of brass or copper, which
would raise the machinery costs 59 percent above that of stationary
engines and boilers then in use.

On May 23, 1814, the Secretary of the Navy authorized the Coast Defense
Society and its committee to act as Navy agents and to enter into the
contracts required to build a vessel, and to draw on the Navy
storekeepers or Navy Yard commandants for such stores or articles on
hand needed for construction. The contracts were prepared and the
committee now was officially empowered to act for the Society, with
Rutgers, Wolcott, Morris, Dearborn, Mitchill, and Fulton. On June 4,
Dearborn asked the Navy Department for $25,000 advance, for work had
started. On the 6th, he informed the Secretary that he had been ordered
to assume command of the defenses of Boston and that Rutgers had been
appointed chairman of the construction committee in his place.

It is apparent that the Navy Department was pressed for funds, due to
the very extensive shipbuilding programs on Lakes Erie, Ontario, and
Champlain in addition to the seagoing vessels being built in some of the
coastal ports. This was certainly one cause for the Secretary of the
Navy's reluctance to carry out the requirements of the bill passed by
Congress immediately after its signature and, also, this reluctance
caused the supervisory committee much embarrassment in its
administration of the contract.

Another factor which caused difficulty in the administration of the
contract was the position of Adam and Noah Brown. The brothers were
deeply involved in the shipbuilding program on the Lakes, in which they
were associated at times with Henry Eckford. The Browns constructed a
blockhouse, shops, and quarters at Erie; in addition to Perry's two
brigs and five of his schooners, they also built some of the Lake
Ontario vessels and, later, the _Saratoga_ on Lake Champlain. In their
New York yard, whose operation continued throughout the war, they built
some large letter-of-marques: the _General Armstrong_, _Prince de
Neufchatel_, _Zebra_, _Paul Jones_, and some smaller vessels. They also
cut down the 2-decked, merchant ship _China_ into a