7 Robert Fulton 7miles, or 11 km, per hour). Launched in October 1814, the
heavily gunned and armoured steamship underwent suc-
cessful sea trials but was never used in battle; when peace
came in December, it was transferred to the Brooklyn
Navy Yard, where it was destroyed by an accidental explo-
sion in 1829.
By 1810 three of Fulton’s boats served the Hudson and
Raritan rivers. His steamboats also replaced the horse
ferries that were used for heavily travelled river crossings
in New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. He retained the
typical broad double-ended hulls that needed no turning
for the return passage. Manhattan’s crosstown Fulton
Street, named in 1816, was the principal thoroughfare
connecting the two river terminals.
Fulton spent much of his wealth in litigations involving
the pirating of patents relating to steamboats and in trying
to suppress rival steamboat builders who found loopholes
in the state-granted monopoly. His wealth was further
depleted by his unsuccessful submarine projects, invest-
ments in paintings, and financial assistance to farmer kin
and young artists. After testifying at a legal hearing in
Trenton, early in 1815, he became chilled en route home to
New York, where he died. His family made claims on the
U.S. government for services rendered. A bill of $100,000
for the relief of the heirs finally passed the Congress in
1846 but was reduced to $76,300, with no interest.
A Hudson–Fulton Celebration in 1909 commemorated
the success of the North River Steamboat of Clermont and the
discovery in 1609 of the North River by the English navi-
gator who was the first to sail upstream to Albany. A
“Robert Fulton” commemorative stamp was issued in 1965,
the bicentenary of his birth, and the two-story farmhouse,
his birthplace, was acquired and restored by the
Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission.