Demologos, first steam warship
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History | |
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United States | |
Name | Demologos or Fulton |
Ordered | 1814 |
Builder | company belonging to Robert Fulton |
Laid down | 20 June 1814 |
Launched | 29 October 1814 |
Commissioned | June 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[1] |
Armor | 5' reinforced timber planking |
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.