Your ShelfYour Projects

The First Steamboat

6%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 13, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 15.

Read the full edition

The First Steamboat

SAYS the narrator of this incident: “I chanced to be in Albany when Fulton arrived with his unheard-of craft, ‘Claremont,’ which everybody was so anxious to see. Being ready to leave, and hearing the strange-looking boat was about to return to New York, I went on board, and inquiring for Mr. Fulton was directed to the cabin, where I found a gentlemanly appearing man wholly alone.
“‘Mr. Fulton, I presume?’
“‘Yes, sir.’
“‘Do you return to New York with this boat?’
“‘We shall try to get back, sir.’
“‘Can I have passage down?’
“‘You can take your chance with us, of sir.’
“‘How much is the passage-money?’
“After a moment’s hesitation, he named the sum of six dollars, and I laid the coins in his hand.
“With his eyes fixed upon the money, he remained so long motionless that I concluded there was a miscount, and asked, ‘Is that right, sir?’
“The question roused him; he looked up, tears brimming his eyes and his voice faltering, as he said: ‘Excuse me, sir, but my memory was busy, and this is the first pecuniary reward I have ever received for all my exertions in adapting steam to navigation.’
“The voyage to New York was successful, and terminated without accident or delay.
“Four years later, when the ‘Claremont,’ greatly improved, and renamed the ‘North River,’ and two sister boats, the ‘Car of Neptune’ and the ‘Paragon,’ were regularly plying between New York and Albany, I again took passage.
“The cabin was below, and was well filled with passengers. As I passed to and fro, I observed a man watching me closely, and thought he might be Fulton. As I passed him, our eyes met, when he sprang to his feet, eagerly extending his hand, and exclaiming: ‘I knew it must be you. I have never forgotten your features.’
“As we discussed the lunch he ordered spread for us, Mr. Fulton ran rapidly and vividly over his experiences of the past few years. He spoke of the world’s coldness and sneers, and of the hopes, fears, disappointments, and difficulties which had followed him through his whole career of discovery up to his final crowning triumph of success.
“‘I have again and again recalled our first meeting at Albany and the vivid emotions caused by your paying me that first passage-money. That, sir, seemed then, and still seems, the turning-point in my destiny,—the dividing-line between light and darkness,—the first actual recognition of my usefulness from my fellow men. God bless you, sir! That act of yours gave the courage I needed.’”—“Heart Throbs.”