Robert After the withdrawal of Fitch from the activities of steam navigation, and the death of Rumsay, there does not seem to have been that mania for the application of steam to navigation. It languished for a time, but not long: for Robert R. Livingston of New York, who had been interested in Morey's experiments, was granted by the New York legislature the exclusive privilege of navigating the waters of the Hudson with a vessel pro pelled by steam. Livingston was a man of wealth, and had a taste for mechanics. He was associated with John Stevens and Nicholas J. Roosevelt in experiments with a steamboat that year, but the results were unsatisfactory, the best speed attained being three miles per hour, while the State requirements were four miles. Other trials were made the next year with another vessel, but with no better success. The grant by the State had now expired. Rob ert R. Livingston had been appointed Minister to France, and while there had met Robert Ful ton, who had been engaged in experiments with the application of steam to navigation, among other things, and in 1803 made a trial with a boat propelled by paddle wheels, which showed with improvement in the engine they might look for better results. The French paid no attention to these achievements, and Fulton ac companied Livingston back to America. Liv ingston had the legislative privileges restored to him and Fulton, for two years, by the legis lature. As those were not complied with, it was extended in 1807 for two years. John Stevens, then of New York, but later of Hobo ken, N. J., was also a man of large means, with a mechanical turn of mind. His trials with the screw propeller began in 1802 and lasted until some time in 1806. In 1804 he had in operation on the Hudson a small vessel with a tubular boiler propelled by twin four-bladed screws, which attained a speed of about nine miles per hour. This was the first practical application of the propeller to a vessel. But the men who at that time were working with steamboats had their minds set upon paddle-wheels, and the screw propeller was ignored. Robert Fulton before leaving Europe in 1806 had parts of a steam-engine built to his order by Boulton and Watt of Birmingham, England, that were shipped to New York. He had the hull of a vessel constructed at New York in 1806-07, and the engine from Boulton and Watt was fitted on board. This vessel was named Clermont. It was 140 X 13 X 7 feet deep, and the engine having a bell crank motion, had a cylinder of 24 inches diameter and four feet stroke. Her trial trip from New York to Albany was com menced on 17 Aug. 1807. The vessel was en larged during the following winter and rechris tened the North River. As there was no part of the original Clermont that was an invention of Robert Fulton, though he obtained patents at a subsequent date on improvements, his theoret ical knowledge of steam navigation and its adaptation to practical purposes was the cause of his success. He knew very nearly all that had been done in the way of experiments, and his ability lay in selecting those features that were of value and bringing them together so they were first seen in the Clermont. He must certainly have had mechanical ability of no mean order for that day to have accomplished so much at one stroke. The first complete American-built steamboat, both hull and ma chinery, was the Phoenix, constructed in 1808 by John Stevens; and as Fulton held the exclu sive privilege of New York waters for steam vessels, Stevens sent the vessel around to the Delaware River, leaving New York 8 June 1809, to form part of a line between New York and Philadelphia. About the same time the Raritan was built to run from New York to New Bruns wick, N. J., to form the New York end of the New York and Philadelphia line. This vessel was run in the interest of the New York monopoly.
Early Fulton and his asso ciates, or the North River Steamboat Company, met much opposition in the proposition of their enterprise, and it became so bold after a time in placing obstacles in the way, during the running of their vessels, that they were com pelled to resort to the legislature of the State for a law to protect them in their lawful rights.
There was one company which built two boats that were originally fitted with experimental engines, that were removed almost as soon as erected on board, and steam-engines and boilers substituted, in defiance of the monopoly of the Fulton company. After three years in the courts the vessels were delivered into the pos session of the Fulton company, who broke them up. This exclusive privilege was the cause of a petition being laid before the New York legis lature in 1814 by Aaron Ogden of New Jersey, who desired to run a steamboat on his ferry to Elizabethtown, N. J., but was prevented by Liv ingston and Fulton. The matter was at length compromised so that Ogden ran his boat. He had a partner in his ferry property named Thomas Gibbons of Savannah, Ga., who opened an opposition line to Ogden, and it was on this route and line Cornelius Vanderbilt began his steamboat career. This opposition, commenced in 1818, was the cause of the lawsuit that was carried to the United States, Supreme Court, where in 1824 a decree was entered against Ogden, thus breaking down the steamboat monopoly. The steam ferry-boat was first brought into use by Robert Fulton, on the Ful ton ferry running from New York to Brooklyn in May 1814.
Hudson River After the waters of the United States were thrown open to the free navigation of steamboats in 1824, the num ber of steam vessels increased• on the Hudson River, as that was the most expeditious mode of travel from New York to Albany, as well as the best patronized channel of travel from the seaboard to the Western States, that were just then being opened to the settler. The new vessels were great improvements over the ves sels of the North River Company, that now in many instances became tow-boats. For nearly 10 years later several lines were formed that were well backed financially for that period, until in 1832, when they were all consolidated. In 1835 the People's Line was opened with the Westchester and the Emerald. The most noted of the boats of this period were the Swallow and the Rochester, that were rivals on the New York and Albany route, and for several years were very often ein racing. This was the opening stage fierce rivalry between the lines on the fiver that was so well known for many years, when at times, so intense has been the competition, passengers have been transported the entire length of the navigable river free of cost of carriage. This lasted until 1852, when the steamboat law went into effect, which brought the operation of our steamboats ender the United States law. And it was well it did even at that late date. The completion of the Hudson River Railroad in the latter part of 1851 had a great effect in diminishing the num ber of steamboats on the river. Since then the business on the river has been in the hands of companies that have been strong financially, and who }lave catered to the public travel with the better class of vessels suited to the service. The present Hudson River Day Line was started in 1863 with the City of Albany, and was incorporated in 1879. The People's Line of night boats, or New Jersey Steamboat Com pany, had built in 1896 the Adirondack, that was a marked advance upon the form of the previous vessels of the line. Their first steel hull vessel, the C. W. Morse, appeared in 1904. The second Hendrick Hudson was launched in 1907, and leads the Day Line fleet, which in cludes also the Robert Fulton and the Wash ington Irving. There have been at different periods several fine boats on the river possessed of high speed that may be mentioned, such as the Daniel Drew; Mary Powell, the fastest vessel known until the torpedo-boat destroyer was devised, having a speed record of 27 miles per hour; Thomas Powell; the Alida, and the first Hendrick Hudson.