Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Marine Review (Cleveland, OH), November 1909, p. 463

The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

November, 1909 not, and a speed of about 314 miles was achieved. Concerning Fulton's plans for the introduction of steam navigation on the Hudson, the book is quite rich in private memoranda--calculations made by Fulton concerning types of boats and probable earnings on the trip from New York to Albany. Letters are also submitted showing the difficulties which Fulton encountered in getting a steam engine for his boat from Boulton & Watt of England. The first engine was ordered in 1803, but the order was declined because the firm was unable to get permission to forward the en- gine to the United States. Fulton then endeavored to obtain an engine through James Monroe, the American minister to Great Britain, but apparently met with no success--at any rate he did not get the engine. In January, 1805, he made a payment of £584 upon the en- gine and in March received permission to ship it to America. It is not known what date the engine arrived in Amer- ica, but it was in Mr. Barker's ware- house on South street, New York, for several months prior to its erection in the boat. This was constructed by Charles Brownne at Corlear's Hook on the East river and was named Cler- mont in honor of Livingstone's coun- try place on the Hudson. The commercial success which the Clermont attained led within a few - months to the necessity of its -enlarge- ment and development and this recon- struction obscured the knowledge of the initial plans for the first American boat which until recently had. been considered lost. An important discov- ery of four folios of Fulton's original drawings at the New Jersey Historical Society presented about 30 years ago by the late Solomon Alosson, a Hol- lander, who had a fondness of collect- ing historical data, has brought to light two of Fulton's original drawings of 1806. These plans are reproduced in the book for the first time. 'Mr. Frank E. Kirby in commenting on them says: "The discovery of these plans of Rob- ert Fulton's is the most important ad- dition to the authentic history of early steam navigation." The book then relates the early trips of the Clermont, including letters. from Fulton himself and much matter con- cerning the regulation of passengers, which makes quite amusing reading to- day. Fulton was 42 when he built the Clermont. His engagement to the daughter of Chancellor Livingstone was announced on one of these trips. Dur- ing the remainder of his life, which was only eight years, he built no less than 17 steamboats. TAE Marine REVIEW "Manual for Engineers", published by the University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, Tenn., pocket size, price 50 cents. This little manual has been revised and its information brought up to date. Some of the important tables in the book are as follows: Areas and circumferences of circles; square and cube root; sines, tangents and secants, both natural and . common; steam tables dealing with capacity of turbines; tables for electric wiring and interest tables. Lloyds Register of American Yachts. 440 pages. 7 x 9 in. Cloth or canvas binding. Published by Lloyds Register of Shipping, 17 Battery Place, N.Y: A new evidence of the widening in- fluence of the motor boat on older and more conservative forms of yachting is seen this year in the Yacht Register. The handsome and_ elaborate binding of blue cloth and gold which, as best suited to the saloon of the large yacht or the library of the club house as heretofore been distinctive of the book, is now supplemented by a very plain: but ship-shape binding in yacht can- vas, at a lower price, to meet the more modest means of the owners of the small power cruiser, as well as the rougher use on the small craft. Useful as it is on a yacht, to the cruiser in the small craft the Yacht Register is. simply indispensable; the owner of a large yacht with professional skipper and crew, is independent alike of the shore and of other vessels, the little fellow, on the other hand, is directly interested for aid and company on the clubs which he may visit and the own- ers of the many yachts of his own class which he may meet. What he most wants to know is where the clubs are located, who the officers may be, who own the yachts which he meets by day and anchors among by night, and from what ports and clubs they may. hail? These questions, and many more like them, are answered fully and correctly in the Yacht Register. The new volume contains the parti- culars of 3,355 yachts, distributed over the waters of the United States, Can- ada and the West Indies, with a list of the names, addresses and clubs of the 3,200 owners of these yachts. No fixed limit of size is followed, but such small yachts as are of. more than local .interest, the open launches which defend the British international trophy and the A. P..B. A. gold, cup, and the small sloops of the Sonder-class, with other notable small yachts, are included. . a8 full particulars of 412 yacht clubs and 25 yachting associations are 463 given, with the burgess in colors of 404 of those organizations, A special feature of the book is the collection of private signals of yacht owners, 30 plates with 1,921 flags, making it pos- sible to identify a yacht whenever the flag is visible. The club list shows an increase throughout the interior, where launch clubs are being formed in large num- bers on the rivers and small streams previously considered unfitted for any form of yachting, and also in the ex- treme Northwest, in the vicinity of Vancouver, B. C., and Seattle, where yachting is growing rapidly in popular- ity. The yacht list is marked by the absence of many famous old yachts, notably those of the Burgess era, Puri- tan, Mayflower and many. smaller craft which have disappeared from the Reg- ister either through conversion to trad- ing use or through a total breaking-up for their lead. On the other hand, there is a marked increase in the num- ber of cruising launches of all sizes from 30 up to 100 ft., most of them of the new "raised-deck" type which gives such excellent room below, and all fitted with gasoline engines. The book as a whole gives evidence that in spite of the poor business conditions of. the past few years and the' great: change that has taken place in the © decreasing number of sailing craft, yachting is still one of the most pop- ular and flourishing of American sports. 'SOCIETY .OF NAVAL ARCHI- TECTS AND MARINE EN- GINEERS. | The seventeenth meeting of the society of naval architects and marine engi- neers will be held in Assembly room No. 1, Engineering Societies building, 29 West Thirty-ninth street, New York, -- on Thursday and Friday, Nov. 18 and 19. The sessions will begin at 10 o'clock each day. On Friday evening the customary banquet will be held at Delmonico's. The program of papers is as follows: Thursday, Nov. 18, 1909. 1. "Evolution of Screw Propulsion in the United States." By Charles H. Cramp. 2. "The Influence of Parallel Middle Body Upon Resistance." By Naval Constructor D. W. : Taylor, U. S. N., vice president. 3. "The Influence of the Position of the Midship Section on the Resist- ance of Some Types of Vessels." By

Powered by / Alimenté par VITA Toolkit
Privacy Policy