rd, and the steamboat "Fulton," to her starboard side; they towed
her through the water from three and a-half to four miles per hour.

The dimensions of the "Fulton the First" were:--

Length, one hundred and fifty-six feet.

Breadth, fifty-six feet.

Depth, twenty feet.

Water-wheel, sixteen feet diameter.

Length of bucket, fourteen feet.

Dip, four feet.

Engine, forty-eight inch cylinder, and five feet stroke.

Boiler, length, twenty-two feet; breath, twelve feet; and depth,
eight feet.

Tonnage, two thousand four hundred and seventy-five.

By June, eighteen hundred and fifteen, her engine was put on board, and
she was so far completed as to afford an opportunity of trying her
machinery. On the first of June, at ten o'clock in the morning, the
"Fulton the First," propelled by her own steam and machinery, left the
wharf near the Brooklyn ferry, and proceeded majestically into the
river; though a stiff breeze from the south blew directly ahead, she
stemmed the current with perfect ease, as the tide was a strong ebb. She
sailed by the forts and saluted them with her thirty-two pound guns. Her
speed was equal to the most sanguine expectations; she exhibited a novel
and sublime spectacle to an admiring people. The intention of the
Commissioners being solely to try her enginery, no use was made of her
sails. After navigating the bay, and receiving a visit from the officers
of the French ship of war lying at her anchors, the Steam Frigate came
to at Powles' Hook ferry, about two o'clock in the afternoon, without
having experienced a single unpleasant occurrence.

On the fourth of July, of the same year, she made a passage to the ocean
and back, and went the distance, which, in going and returning, is
fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes, without the aid of
sails; the wind and tide were partly in her favor and partly against
her, the balance rather in her favor.

In September, she made another trial trip to the ocean, and having at
this time the weight of her whole armament on board, she went at an
average of five and a half miles an hour, with and against the tide.
When stemming the tide, which ran at the rate of three miles an hour,
she advanced at the rate of two and a-half miles an hour. This
performance was not more than equal to Robert Fulton's expectations, but
it exceeded what he had premised to the Government, which was that she
shoul