engaged in suppressing piracy during 1823. In
1825 she was laid up at Philadelphia, and in 1840 she was sold for
$4,750.

It is a curious fact that the battery did not receive an official name,
as did the sailing blockship on the ways at New Orleans, which at the
end of the War of 1812 was officially listed as the _Tchifonta_. Nor was
the battery given a number, as were the gunboats. In official
correspondence and lists, the steam battery is referred to as the
"Fulton Steam Frigate," or as the "Steam Battery," but in later years
she was referred to as the "Fulton" or "Fulton the First." Perhaps the
explanation is that as she was the only one of her kind she was not
numbered, and as she was not considered fit for coastal or extended
ocean voyages, she was not given a name.

Surviving Designs for Floating Batteries

The designs of American blockships that have survived are those of the
_Tchifonta_,[6] 145 feet long, 43-foot moulded beam, 8-foot 6-inch depth
in hold, and about 152 feet 9 inches on deck. She was to carry a battery
of 22 long guns (32-pdr.), on the main deck 12 carronades (42-pdr.), on
forecastle and quarter decks. She was to have been rigged to rather
lofty and very square topgallant sails, and would have been capable of
sailing fairly well, though of rather shoal draft, drawing only about 8
feet 6 inches when ready for service. She was sold on the stocks at the
end of the war and her later history is not known.

Another and earlier design for a blockship, or floating battery, was
prepared by Christian Bergh for Captain Charles Stewart in 1806. This
was a sailing vessel for the defense of the port of New York, planned to
mount 40 guns (32-pdr.), on her two lower decks and 14 carronades
(42-pdr.), on her spar deck. She was to be 103 feet 6 inches between
perpendiculars, a 44-foot moulded beam, 10-foot depth of hold, and
drawing about 9 feet when ready for service. She was intended to be
ship-rigged, but was never built.[7] A few small sloop-rigged block
vessels also were built during Jefferson's administration. The
sloop-of-war _Saratoga_, built on Lake Champlain by the Browns, in 1813,
was practically a blockship. A plan for a proposed "Guard Ship," or
"Floating Battery," was made by James Marsh at Charleston, South
Carolina, in 1814. This was an unrigged battery, 200 feet extreme
length, 50-foot moulded beam, 9-foot depth of hold, to mount 32 guns
(42-pdr.), on a flush deck, with a covering deck abo