United States floating battery Demologos

Demologos, first steam warship
History
United States of America
Name:	Demologos or Fulton
Ordered:	1814
Builder:	Robert Fulton
Laid down:	1814
Launched:	1815
Commissioned:	1816
Fate:	Blown up, 4 June 1829
General characteristics
Class and type:	Steam battery
Displacement:	1,450 tons
Length:	153 ft 2 in (46.69 m)
Beam:	58 ft (18 m)
Draft:	13 ft (4.0 m)
Propulsion:	Steam, 1 cylinder 120 hp (89 kW)
Speed:	5.5 knots (10.2 km/h; 6.3 mph)
Armament:	30 × 32-pounder guns 2 × 100-pounder Columbiads fitted to fire at enemy ships below their waterline
Armor:	5' reinforced timber planking

30 × 32-pounder guns

Demologos was the first warship to be propelled by a steam engine. She was a wooden floating battery built to defend New York Harbor from the Royal Navy during the War of 1812. The vessel was designed to a unique pattern by Robert Fulton, and was renamed Fulton after his death. Because of the prompt end of the war, Demologos never saw action, and no other ship like her was built.

On 9 March 1814, Congress authorized the construction of a steam warship to be designed by Robert Fulton, a pioneer of commercial steamers in North America. The construction of the ship began on 20 June 1814, at the civilian yard of Adam and Noah Brown, and the ship was launched on 29 October. After sea trials she was delivered to the United States Navy in June 1816. The ship was never formally named; Fulton christened it Demologos or Demologus, though following his death in February 1815, the ship was named Fulton.

By the time she was completed, the war for which Demologos had been built had ended. She saw only one day of active service, when she carried President James Monroe on a tour of New York Harbor. A two-masted lateen rig was added by the orders of her first commander, Captain David Porter. In 1821 her armament and machinery were removed. The remainder of her career was spent laid up in reserve; after 1825 she served as the floating barracks for Brooklyn Navy Yard. She came to an end on 4 June 1829 in a gunpowder explosion.

Demologos had an entirely unique and innovative design. A catamaran, her paddlewheel was sandwiched between two hulls. Each hull was constructed 5 ft (1.5 m) thick for protection against gunfire. The steam engine, mounted below the waterline in one of the hulls, was capable of giving 5.5 knots (10.2 km/h) speed in favorable conditions. Although designed to carry 30 32-pounder guns, 24 port and starboard, 6 fore and aft, the Navy had trouble acquiring sufficient guns, and a varying number were mounted while in actual service. Demologos was also fitted for two 100-pounder Columbiads, one mounted fore and another aft, these weapons were never actually furnished to the vessel.