gone to
rest from his labors.

The ship was a complete success, and was the first steam vessel of war
ever built. She was called the "Fulton the First," and was for many
years used as the receiving ship at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. She was an
awkward and unwieldy mass, but was regarded as the most formidable
vessel afloat; and as the pioneer of the splendid war steamers of to-day
is still an object of great interest. The English regarded her with
especial uneasiness, and put in circulation the most marvelous stories
concerning her. One of these I take from a treatise on steam navigation
published in Scotland at this period, the author of which assures his
readers that he has taken the utmost pains to obtain full and accurate
information respecting the American war steamer. His description is as
follows:

"Length on deck three hundred feet, breadth two hundred feet, thickness
of her sides, thirteen feet, of alternate oak plank and corkwood;
carries forty-four guns, four of which are 100-pounders, quarter-deck
and forcastle guns, 44-pounders; and further, to annoy an enemy
attempting to board, can discharge one hundred gallons of boiling water
in a minute, and by mechanism brandishes three hundred cutlasses, with
the utmost regularity, over her gunwales; works also an equal number of
heavy iron pikes of great length, darting them from her sides with
prodigious force, and withdrawing them every quarter of a minute!"

Fulton followed up the "Clermont," in 1807, with a larger boat, called
the "Car of Neptune," which was placed on the Albany route as soon as
completed. The Legislature of New York had enacted a law, immediately
upon his first success, giving to Livingston and himself the exclusive
right to navigate the waters of the State by steam, for five years for
every additional boat they should build in the State, provided the whole
term should not exceed thirty years. "In the following year the
Legislature passed another act, confirmatory of the prior grants, and
giving new remedies to the grantees for any invasion of them, and
subjecting to forfeiture any vessel propelled by steam which should
enter the waters of the State without their license. In 1809 Fulton
obtained his first patent from the United States; and in 1811 he took
out a second patent for some improvement in his boats and machinery. His
patents were limited to the simple means of adapting paddle wheels to
the axle of the crank of Watt's engine.

"Mean