from the yards, like the lower steering-sail-boom of a ship. By means of these spars, the torpedoes were to be thrust under the bottom of the vessel to be destroyed. He afterwards thought of employing our common river sloops for this purpose, and to prepare them for it by lining them with thick timber and covering their decks with pretty stout sheet-iron. He supposed that these might be navigated by their common sails. It was his idea, that if a man-of-war of the largest size were attacked by ten or twelve such vessels assailing her from all quarters, she could not defend herself so as to prevent the approach of all of them: if only one of them got sufficiently near, the destruction of the vessel attacked would be inevitable. The torpedo-vessels would not be affected by the explosion, because, according to his theory, the correctness of which was proved by what happened in the attack on the French vessels in the roads of Boulogne, and by other experiments, the force of powder exploded under water is always perpendicularly to the surface: the lateral pressure of the mass of waters of the sea or of a river, opposes an infinite resistance to a sudden impulse, and confines the course of an explosion in a line at right angles to the surface, as certainly as the sides of a cannon direct the force of a discharge in the course of its calibre.

If ten or twelve such vessels were in our harbors or on our coasts, a match for a man-of-war, we should be able to make a maritime defence at much less expense of men and money than it would cost to attack us; for ten or twelve of these torpedo-vessels, and their equipment, would require much less of men and money than a man-of-war.

But to return to Mr. Fulton's proceedings before the commissioners appointed by the Government. At the first interview, above-mentioned, he explained to them his stationary torpedoes, as he has described them in his "Torpedo War." These were to be carcasses of powder, like those before described. Having levers attached to the triggers of the locks, numbers of them were to be anchored in the channel through which vessels, to make an attack, must pass: the hostile vessel, in passing over a torpedo, would press the lever and cause an explosion.

Another machine which Mr. Fulton exhibited and explained to the commissioners, was one which he had invented subsequently to his publication of the "Torpedo War." He called it a cable-cutter. On this he placed great reliance, even in the state in which it then was; but which he afterwards greatly improved.

This machine consisted of a large iron hook,

upon the shaft or haft of which was placed a small piece of ordnance charged with powder, as in the common mode, and an instrument with a chisel or cutter at the outward end, of a crescent form: the piece was to be discharged by a water-proof lock, like those used for the torpedoes: to the iron part of this machinery was attached a sufficient quantity of wood or buoyant matter to support it: from the buoyant matter, the iron was to be supported, by chains or cords, at any required depth to the extreme end of the shaft of the hook was attached a long line, to the other end of which was fastened a floating body: thus prepared, the machine, for an attack upon a vessel at anchor in a tideway, was to be thrown into the current at any distance above the object: the hook with its appurtenances on one side of her, and the buoy at the other extremity of the line on the other side: the current would then carry them both down the stream, till the line was intercepted by the cable of the vessel: when in this position, the buoy at the one end of the line, which was to be of such size as to present a greater resistance to the water than was at the other end, would draw the line across the cable till the hook embraced it, and would bring the cable immediately before the muzzle of the piece of ordnance, and of course directly in opposition

to the chisel or cutter: at the moment the cable was in this position, it pressed against a lever which crossed the hook, and which communicated with the trigger of the lock: by this means, the piece was fired, and the cable separated by the

cutter.

In these attacks, so much of the machinery was permitted to be seen on the surface of the water, that they could only be made with a chance of success at night; but Mr. Fulton thought the buoyancy of the machine was so arranged as to keep the whole below the surface of the water, and thus render the attack at all times invisible.

In the months of September and October, the commissioners assembled several times at the Navyyard to witness Mr. Fulton's experiments. The sloop-of-war Argus, which was then commanded by the gallant Captain Lawrence, was to have been the subject of them: she had been prepared to defend herself against them, under the orders of Commodore Rodgers, after Mr. Fulton had explained to him his proposed mode of attack. She had a strong netting suspended from her spritsailyard, which was anchored at the bottom: she was surrounded by spars lashed together, which floated on the surface of the water, so as to place her completely in a pen: she had grappling-irons and

heavy pieces of the same metal suspended from her yards and rigging, ready to be plunged in any boat that came beneath them: she had swords or scythes fastened to the ends of long spars, moving like sweeps, which unquestionably would have mowed off as many heads as came within their reach. Whatever might have been the ingenuity of the proposed mode of attack, there was certainly no little in the dispositions for defence. It was instantly seen by every one that these were not to be encountered with success by any means which Mr. Fulton had then prepared. This he at once acknowledged, but expressed his confidence that he should find means of surmounting them. One of the gentlemen appointed by the Government to attend these experiments, in his report to the Secretary of the Navy, says:

"A vessel of war, surrounded by large booms and spars, with nets as deep as the water hanging from her bows, with her rigging loaded with weighty pieces of iron, and with grapnel and shot suspended from her yards to guard against torpedoes, and with chains to guard her cables, must be much less wieldy, and of course much less formidable for attack or defence, than she would be without such incumbrances."

The report adds:

"An invention which will oblige every hostile vessel that enters our ports to guard herself by such means, cannot but be of great importance in a system of defence."