the great disappointment of the commissioners, until winter rendered it impossible for her to act.
Under all this pressure, they nevertheless persevered in the important object confided to them. But their exertions were further retarded, by the premature and unexpected death of the engineer. The world was deprived of his invaluable labours, before he had completed this favourite undertaking. We will not inquire, wherefore, in the dispensations of Divine Providence, he was not permitted to realize his grand conception. His discoveries, however, survive for the benefit of mankind, and will extend to unborn generations.
At length all matters were ready for a trial of the machinery to urge such a bulky vessel through the water. This essay was made on the first day of June, 1815. She proved herself capable of opposing the wind, and of stemming the tide, of crossing currents, and of being steered among vessels riding at anchor, though the weather was boisterous and the water rough. Her performance demonstrated, that the project was successful no doubt remained that a floating battery, composed of heavy artillery, could be moved by steam. The commissioners returned from the exercise of the day, satisfied that the vessel would answer the intended purpose, and consoled themselves that their care had been bestowed upon a worthy object.
But it was discovered that various alterations were necessary. Guided by the light of experience, they caused some errors to be corrected, and some defects to be supplied. She was prepared for a second voyage with all practicable speed.
On the 4th day of July she was again put in action. She performed a trip to the ocean, eastward of Sandy Hook, and back again, a distance of fifty-three miles, in eight hours and twenty minutes. A part of this time she had the tide against her, and had no assistance whatever from sails. Of the gentlemen who formed the company invited to witness the experiment, not one entertained a doubt of her fitness for the intended purpose.
Additional experiments were, notwithstanding, necessary to be sought, for quickening and directing her motion. These were devised and executed with all possible care.
Suitable arrangements having been made, a third trial of her powers was attempted on the llth day of September, with the weight of twenty-six of her long and ponderous guns, and a considerable quantity of ammunition and stores on board; her draft of water was short of eleven feet. She changed her course, by inverting the motion of the wheels, without the necessity of putting about. She fired salutes as she passed the forts, and she overcame the resistance of wind and tide in her progress down the bay. She performed beautiful manœuvres around the United States frigate, Java, then at anchor near the light-house. She moved with remarkable celerity, and ihe was perfectly obedient to her double helm. It was observed, that the explosions of powder produced very little concussion.
The machinery was not affected by it in the smallest degree. Her progress, during the firing, was steady and uninterrupted. On the most accurate calculations, derived from heaving the log, her average velocity was five and one-half miles per hour. Notwithstanding the resistance of currents, she was found to make head way at the rate of two miles an hour against the ebb of the East River, running three and one-half knots. The day's exercise was satisfactory to the respectable company who attended, beyond their utmost expectations. It was universally agreed, that we now possessed a new auxiliary against every maritime invader. The city of New York, exposed as it is, was considered as having the means of rendering itself invulnerable. The Delaware, the Chesapeake, Long Island Sound, and every other bay and harbour in the nation, may be protected by the same tremendous power.
Among the inconveniences observable during the experiment, was the heat endured by the men who attended the fires. To enable a correct judgment to be formed on this point, one of the commissioners (Dr Mitchill,) descended, and examined by a thermometer the temperature of the hold between the two boilers. The quicksilver, exposed to the radiant heat of the burning fuel, rose to one hundred and sixteen degrees of Fahrenheit's
