“In making his experiments, Mr. Fulton not only remained a whole hour under water, with three of his companions, but had the boat parallel to the horizon at any given distance.  He proved that the compass points as correctly under water as on the surface, and that while under water the boat made way at the rate of half a league an hour, by means contrived for that purpose.

“It is not twenty years since all Europe was astonished at the first ascension of men in balloons:  perhaps in a few years they will not be less surprised to see a flotilla of diving-boats, which, on a given signal, shall, to avoid the pursuit of an enemy, plunge under water, and rise again several leagues from the place where they descended!

“But if we have not succeeded in steering the balloon, and even were it impossible to attain that object, the case is different with the diving-boat, which can be conducted under water in the same manner as upon the surface.  It has the advantage of sailing like the common boat, and also of diving when it is pursued.  With these qualities, it is fit for carrying secret orders, to succor a blockaded fort, and to examine the force and position of an enemy in their harbors.”

In connection with this boat, Fulton invented a torpedo, or infernal machine, for the purpose of destroying vessels of war by approaching them under water and breaking up their hulls by the explosion.  He offered his invention several times to the French Government, and once to the Ambassador of Holland at Paris, without being able to induce them to consider it.  Somewhat later, he visited London, at the request of the British Ministry, and explained his invention to them.  Although he succeeded in blowing up a vessel of two hundred tons with one hundred and seventy pounds of powder, and in extorting from Mr. Pitt the acknowledgment that, if introduced into practice, the torpedo would annihilate all navies, his invention was rejected, through the influence of Lord Melville, who feared that its adoption might injure England more than it would benefit her.  At the first, when it was thought that England would purchase Fulton’s invention, it was intimated to him that he would be required to pledge himself not to dispose of it to any other power.  He replied promptly: 

“Whatever may be your award, I never will consent to let these inventions lie dormant should my country at any time have need of them.  Were you to grant me an annuity of twenty thousand pounds, I would sacrifice all to the safety and independence of my country.”

In 1806, Mr. Fulton returned to New York, and in the same year he married Miss Harriet Livingston, a niece of Chancellor Livingston, by whom he had four children.  He offered his torpedo to the General Government, but the trial to which it was subjected by the Navy Department was unsuccessful for him, and the Government declined to purchase the invention.