My first post in this series was about Robert R. Livingston. His statue is one of the two from New York in the National Statuary Hall Collection. Today I decided to write about Robert Fulton, because Robert Fulton and Robert R. Livingston have a connection. The Robert Fulton statue is one of two chosen by Pennsylvania.
Fulton and Livingston worked together on developing the first commercially viable steamship. They met in France, while Robert Livingston was negotiating the Louisiana Purchase. Robert Fulton had been in France developing various vessels. One was, the “Nautilus,” which was the first working submarine. It was able to descend to a depth of 25 feet, carrying a crew of three. One hour was the time limit on being submerged.
The two worked on a steamship in France, but its trial voyage on the Seine was unsuccessful. The ship sank. Both soon returned to America, and in 1806, Robert Fulton married Harriet Livingston, Robert Livingston’s niece.
Fulton and Livingston teamed up to build the first commercial steamboat, the “North River Steamboat” which would later be known as the “Clermont,” after the Hudson River home of Robert Livingston.
Passengers could travel from New York City to Albany, making the 150-mile trip in 32 hours. A new era in transportation had begun, although most who watched from the shoreline of the Hudson River might not have believed it at the time. This new mode of travel seemed a bit scary.
Spewing flames and smoke, Fulton’s North River Steam Boat of Clermont, was often referred to as “Fulton’s Folly.” At times it was a shocking sight. People feared the slender vessel stretching 142 feet long would explode. But as first impressions of new inventions are often wrong, so were the spectators of this first steamboat.
The duo came up with a plan to build more steamboats and use them to navigate the western waters into the newly acquired land from the Louisiana Purchase. They partnered with Nicholas Roosevelt, a steamboat expert and inventor. The steamboat the “New Orleans,” left Pittsburgh on October 20, 1811 and reached New Orleans on January 10, 1812. It was an exploratory voyage and it traveled the Ohio River on into the Mississippi River with many stops along the way to replenish supplies and at times to make repairs. Nicholas Roosevelt, captained the boat. His pregnant wife and young daughter accompanied him. His son, was actually born aboard the steamboat!
After the success of the trip, Livingston, Fulton and Roosevelt built more steamships. The use of steamboats on these inland rivers contributed significantly to economic change in our new nation.
In 1815, Robert Fulton, sadly died at age 49. When walking home with a friend on the icy Hudson River, his friend fell through the ice, and in attempting to rescue his friend he got wet and caught pneumonia. His weakened state may have contributed to his contracting consumption. Robert Fulton is buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery at Wall Street in New York City in the company of other famous Americans, among them Alexander Hamilton.
Diana Erbio is a freelance writer and author of “Coming to America: A Girl Struggles to Find her Way in a New World”. Read more in her series Statues: The People They Salute visit The Table of Contents and the Facebook Page. (I’ll be adding to the Substack Table of Contents as I transfer the Blog Posts. Please subscribe to this Substack 😊🇺🇸🤓)
Thank you for all your interesting American history lessons!