e--afterwards
his own---at 7 Broadway, facing Bowling Green--was one of the mansions
of early New York, and his own summer residence on Castle Point,
Hoboken, just across the Hudson, was one of the landmarks of the great
river. For many years John Stevens crossed that river; most often in an
open boat propelled by sail or by men at the oars. Being naturally of a
mechanical turn, he sought to make the crossing easier. To his library
were coming the prints that told of James Watt and the steam engine in
England, and John Fitch's boat had interested him.

Robert Fulton's Clermont, of which we shall speak presently, was
undoubtedly the pioneer of practicable steamboats. But the Phoenix,
built by John Stevens, followed close on the Clermont. And its engines
were built in America, while those of the Clermont had been imported
from England. Moreover, in June, 1808, the Phoenix stood to sea, and
made the first ocean voyage in the history of steam navigation. Because
of a monopoly of the Hudson, which the New York Legislature had granted
to Livingston and Fulton, Stevens was compelled to send his ship to the
Delaware. Hence the trip out into the waters of the Atlantic, a journey
that was not undertaken without trepidation. But, despite the fact that
a great storm arose, the Phoenix made the trip in safety; and continued
for many years thereafter to ply the Delaware between Philadelphia and
Trenton.

Robert Fulton, like many and many another great inventor, from Leonardo
da Vinci down to the present time, was also an artist. He was born
November 14, 1765, at Little Britain, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,
of that stock which is so often miscalled "Scotch-Irish." He was only a
child when his father died, leaving behind him a son who seems to have
been much more interested in his own ideas than in his schoolbooks. Even
in his childhood Robert showed his mechanical ability. There was a firm
of noted gunsmiths in Lancaster, in whose shops he made himself at home
and became expert in the use of tools. At the age of fourteen he
applied his ingenuity to a heavy fishing boat and equipped it with
paddle-wheels, which were turned by a crank, thus greatly lightening the
labor of moving it.

At the age of seventeen young Fulton moved to Philadelphia and set up as
a portrait painter. Some of the miniatures which he painted at this
time are said to be very good. He worked hard, made many good friends,
including Benjamin Franklin, and succee