The sail and rigging plan is likewise
a Danish copy and shows the two-masted lateen rig
employed. The hull is shown with bulwarks and
gunports on the spar deck but no other evidence that
the Battery was finished in this manner has
been found. The rig resembles that of some of
Josiah Fox’s designs for Jeffersonian gunboats double-enders
designed to sail in either direction but without the
jibs. The topmasts do not appear to be more than
signal poles and apparently were not fitted with sails;
however, some European lateeners did have triangular
topsails over a lateen and it is possible the Battery
may have carried such sails. Considering the
stability and displacement of the Battery,
the rig is very small and not sufficiently effective.
Shrouds were not required; the masts were supported
by runners that were shifted when the yards were reversed,
and in tacking. Apparently the jibstays also could
be slacked off so that the lateen yards would not have
to be dipped under them.
The inboard profile is on tracing
paper and the notes are in French. This drawing
is of a simplified hull form having flat-bottom hulls
with chines. It is possible that this is a tracing
of a preliminary drawing obtained by Marestier or
Montgery, but no documentation can be found.
Its importance is that it shows in some detail the
engine and boilers, as well as the wheelbox, and another
drawing of the paddle wheel, more or less duplicating
the wheel shown in the Danish plan. No details
of the deck arrangements are shown in any of the plans,
except for the dome skylight over the fireroom in
the boiler hull.
Both the lines plan and the inboard
drawing show construction midsections and hull connections.
These plans show that the engine was not inclined,
but rather was vertical, contrary to Fulton’s
patent drawing. The piston rod and the crosshead
obviously passed through its gun deck in a large hatch.
Also it is plain that there must have been large hatches
afore and abaft the wheelbox to make the stepped wheelbox
construction desirable. There also must have been
a hatch in the gun deck under the domed skylight.
It is improbable that the engine and skylight hatches
were used for ladderways, passing scuttles, or companionways.
The boilers are shown in the inboard
profile about as described and drawn by Marestier
but with two stacks on each boiler, one to each flue;
Marestier’s sketch in his report on American
steamships shows the flues of each boiler trunked
into a single stack. The battery had two boilers
and the stacks are at the boilers’ fire-door
end. The steam lines came off the crown of the
boilers and probably passed through the ends of the
wheelbox to the engine; a trunk for the steam lines
would undoubtedly have been necessary.
The engine is shown to have had counterbalanced
side levers, one on each side, and a single flywheel
on the outboard side. The cylinder is over the
condenser or “cistern,” connected by the
steam line and valve box on the side. The cylinder
crosshead is shown in the inboard profile to have
reached the underside of the beams of the upper deck.
The crosshead was connected by two connecting rods
to the side levers. These levers operated the
paddle wheel by connecting rods to cranks on the paddle-wheel
shaft. There is another pair of connecting rods
from the side levers to the crosshead of the air pump.
All connecting rods are on one arm of the side levers,
the other end having only a counterbalance weight
beyond the fulcrum bearing. The flywheel has a
shaft fitted with two gears, and is driven through
idler gears from gears on the paddle-wheel shaft;
it turns at about twice the speed of the paddle wheel.
No other pumps or fittings are shown in the engine
hull, although manual pumps were probably fitted to
fill and empty the boilers. Piping is not shown.
The four rudders, toggled in pairs,
are shown in both the lines and inboard drawings,
but the shape is different in the two plans. Operation
must have been by a tiller under the gun-deck beams.
The outer end of the tiller may have been pivoted
on the toggle bar and the inboard end fitted, as previously
described, with steering cable or chain tackles.
This seems to be the only practical interpretation
of the evidence.