Demologos

During the Anglo-American War of 1812-1815, the British, actively using their considerable superiority at sea, established a blockade of the American coast, interrupting American maritime trade, communications and preventing American privatists from entering the sea. Significantly inferior to the British, the American fleet did not have a large number of warships capable of lifting the blockade, and could not acquire them in a reasonable time. For Americans, the only way to change the state of affairs at sea was through technological improvisation.

In 1814, Congress approved the proposal of engineer Robert Fulton to build a steam-powered floating battery for the New York Harbor Defense. Such a ship, due to its wind-independent mobility, would have significant advantages over conventional sailboats in shallow coastal waters. In addition, the absence of masts and sails allowed to significantly increase the security of the ship compared to conventional ones.

A ship called Demologos was laid down on June 20, 1814 at a private shipyard in New York. The construction progressed quite quickly, and on October 29 the ship was already launched. After the death of Fulton in January 1815, the ship was renamed "Fulton" in his honor ^[1] .

Being the first steam warship in the world, Demologos represented a radical departure from the principles of military shipbuilding of that time. It was a two-hull catamaran , with a displacement of about 1,450 tons, its length was 46.69 meters, its width was 18 meters and the draft was 4 meters. The propeller wheel driving it was located between the hulls, thus reliably protected from enemy fire.

The Demologos engine was a steam engine with a single swinging cylinder installed in its left housing: the furnaces and boilers were located in the right housing. The power of the steam engine did not exceed 120 horsepower; under favorable weather conditions, the ship developed a course of up to 5.5 knots.

Thanks to such an unusual layout, Fulton was able to successfully solve the problem of protecting the propulsion device in battle, and significantly improve the actual security of the ship. Freeboard "Demologos" were reinforced with a powerful wooden lining with a thickness of up to one and a half meters. Such wooden “armor” could successfully withstand the hits of the nuclei of even the heaviest naval guns of the early 19th century, and could not be penetrated by their relatively light bombs, which did not have enough energy to penetrate into it before the explosion. ^[2] .

The armament of the Demologos project was to consist of thirty 32-pound guns; twelve from each side, and six on the bow and stern. However, due to problems with the production of artillery caused by the blockade, the armament of the ship in practice was very different. On the bow and stern of Demologos, positions were also provided for huge 100-pound columbiads ^[3] ; however, due to problems encountered, these guns were never installed.

A number of sources indicate that Fulton was also going to install his other invention on Demologos - special-design valves in the underwater part of the hull through which heavy guns in the hold could fire, hitting the underwater side of enemy ships. Such a solution was technically possible (though only at very short distances), and if successful, it would have allowed Demologos to send any enemy ship to the bottom extremely quickly. However, there is no exact information whether underwater guns were actually installed on Demologos ^[4] .

Demologos was admitted to the US Navy in early 1816. By this time, the war with Britain ended in February 1815 with a peace treaty that restored the pre-war borders; unique ship late for military operations. Heavily affected economically by the blockade and British amphibious operations, the United States was forced to abandon the proposed construction of other ships of the same type.

Immediately after completion of construction, Demologos was assigned to the coastal defense of New York. To save coal, the ship was equipped with light sailing weapons. His only active service lasted only a day; in September 1816, the ship drove new US President James Monroe to New York harbor to demonstrate the capabilities of the US Navy. Foreign powers showed great interest in the ship, and even considered the possibility of buying it, however, due to the limited seaworthiness of Demologos, these plans were not implemented.

In 1821, the Demologos was dismantled, its guns and machine were transported to the shore for better safety, and the ship itself was put into storage. Since 1825, it was used in New York as a floating barracks. June 4, 1829, an explosion of a powder warehouse occurred on the ship, completely destroying the Demologos.

Demologos / Fulton was the first warship to use a steam engine. For its time, this military steamer was a true engineering miracle; it was successfully resolved many of the problems that subsequently faced the builders of military ships. At the same time, due to limitations of the technology available at that time, the design of Demologos contained a number of fundamental limitations; the ship had low seaworthiness and low autonomy due to the uneconomical consumption of coal by early steam engines.

Although Demologos did not manage to take part in the war for which it was built, its considerable potential as a coastal defense ship is beyond doubt. Independent of the wind, devoid of vulnerable sails or oars, the Demologos in coastal waters posed a significant danger to any sailing ship. His thick wooden “armor” allowed him to withstand the shots of any naval guns of that time without damage; at the same time, the powerful onboard battery and the huge Columbiada Demologos could quickly turn even the mighty 120-gun sailing battleships into flaming ruins.

Had Demologos come into operation before the end of the war, it could have a significant impact on its course. The British fleet would probably have been forced to lift the blockade of New York, since in the event of a sudden calm, the sailing ships of the blockade squadron would be completely helpless before the attack of Demologos.

1. ↑ It should be noted that Demologos / Fulton never received the name officially recognized by the fleet.
2. ↑ However, large-caliber bombing guns that appeared in the 1830s — firing heavy bombs that had enough energy to penetrate a wooden board before an explosion — made such a defense useless.
3. ↑ Very heavy smoothbore guns used in the USA for coastal defense
4. ↑ Fulton conducted several tests in practice with firing from underwater guns at a model of the underwater side of a wooden ship in 1812. He concluded that a 100-pound columbiad, firing through a valve of his design, would be able to break through the skin of a 74-gun battleship from a distance of 3-5 meters. However, when proposing to the US Navy a project of a ship carrying underwater guns, Fulton did not mean Demologos, but small, low-sided steam gunboats equipped only with underwater artillery.

• Bozheryanov N. N. Description of the American floating battery "Fulton the First", built in 1814 // Marine collection , 1855.

• Canney, Donald L. The Old Steam Navy, Volume One: Frigates, Sloops, and Gunboats 1815-1885. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1990. ISBN 0-87021-004-1
• Lambert, Andrew "The Introduction of Steam" in Gardiner (ed) Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship 1815-1905 , Conway, London 1992. ISBN 0-85177-608-6
• Fulton , US Navy Historical Center, retrieved June 25, 2007