ebb tides; and in order to
facilitate their landing, Fulton contrived a species of floating dock,
and a means of decreasing the shock caused by the striking of the boat
against the dock. These boats could accommodate eight four-wheel
carriages, twenty-nine horses, and four hundred passengers. Their
average time across the North River, a mile and a half wide, was twenty
minutes.

The introduction of the steamboat gave a powerful impetus to the
internal commerce of the Union. It opened to navigation many important
rivers (whose swift currents had closed them to sailing craft), and made
rapid and easy communication between the most distant parts of the
country practicable. The public soon began to appreciate this, and
orders came in rapidly for steamboats for various parts of the country.
Fulton executed these as fast as possible, and among the number several
for boats for the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Early in 1814, the city of New York was seriously menaced with an attack
from the British fleet, and Fulton was called on by a committee of
citizens to furnish a plan for a means of defending the harbor. He
exhibited to the committee his plans for a vessel of war to be propelled
by steam, capable of carrying a strong battery, with furnaces for
red-hot shot, and which, he represented, would move at the rate of four
miles an hour. These plans were also submitted to a number of naval
officials, among whom were Commodore Decatur, Captain Jones, Captain
Evans, Captain Biddle, Commodore Perry, Captain Warrington, and Captain
Lewis, all of whom warmly united in urging the Government to undertake
the construction of the proposed steamer. The citizens of New York
offered, if the Government would employ and pay for her after she was
built, to advance the sum ($320,000) necessary for her construction. The
subject was vigorously pressed, and in March, 1814, Congress authorized
the building of one or more floating batteries after the plan presented
by Fulton. Her keel was laid on the 20th of June, 1814, and on the 31st
of October, of the same year, she was launched, amid great rejoicings,
from the ship-yard of Adam and Noah Brown. In May, 1815, her engines
were put on board, and on the 4th of July of that year she made a trial
trip to Sandy Hook and back, accomplishing the round trip--a distance of
fifty-three miles--in eight hours and twenty minutes, under steam alone.
Before this, however, peace had been proclaimed, and Fulton had