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Photo # NH 65462:  USS Fulton.  Pen and ink drawing by Samuel Ward Stanton, depicting the ship as first completed

Online Library of Selected Images:
-- U.S. NAVY SHIPS --

USS Fulton (1837-1861).
Commonly called "Fulton II"

USS Fulton, a 698-ton (1011 tons displacement) side-wheel steamer built by the New York Navy Yard, was commissioned in December 1837. Often called "Fulton II", she served along the Atlantic Coast for nearly five years before being laid up in November 1842. Though she peformed a useful purpose as the Navy's first active steamer, Fulton was essentially a harbor defense ship and was unsuitable for the cruising missions then emphasized by Navy policy. Accordingly, the New York Navy Yard rebuilt her in 1851 as a much more conventional warship. Recommissioning in January 1852, she began service in the Caribbean area, with her operations at times extending northwards as far as the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In 1858 and 1859 Fulton went to South American waters to participate in the Paraguay expedition. Later, she conducted anti-slave trading patrols off Cuba until damaged by grounding. The ship was laid up at the Pensacola Navy Yard, Florida, in October 1859 and was still there in February 1861, when Florida authorities seized Federal facilities in the state. Though intended for service in the Confederate Navy, Fulton was instead destroyed to prevent capture when U.S. forces reoccupied Pensacola in May 1862.

This page features all the views we have concerning USS Fulton (1837-1861).


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."

Click on the small photograph to prompt a larger view of the same image.

Photo #: NH 65462

USS Fulton
(1837-1861)

Pen and ink drawing by Samuel War Stanton, depicting the ship as first completed, circa 1837.

Collections of the Navy Department, 1967.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 62KB; 740 x 395 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 65484

USS Fulton
(1837-1861)

Pen and ink drawing, with associated text, by Samuel War Stanton. The artwork depicts the ship as first completed, circa 1837, with three masts and four smokestacks.

Collections of the Navy Department, 1967.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 165KB; 900 x 555 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 65483

USS Fulton
(1837-1861)

Montage of two pen and ink drawings, with associated text, by Samuel War Stanton. The artworks depict the ship as first completed, circa 1837, with three masts and four smokestacks.

Collections of the Navy Department, 1967.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 165KB; 800 x 825 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 63701

USS Fulton
(1837-1861)

Watercolor by Erik Heyl, 1955, painted for use in his book "Early American Steamers", Volume V. It depicts the ship as originally built, circa 1837.

Courtesy of Erik Heyl.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 70KB; 740 x 435 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 53971

USS Fulton
(1837-1861)

Drawing depicting the ship as originally completed, circa 1837.

Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution, from the Skerritt Collection, Bethlehem Steel Corporation Archives.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 108KB; 740 x 435 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 58838

USS Fulton
(1837-1861)

Engraving depicting the ship underway, following her 1851 reconstruction.
Copied from Charles B. Stuart's "Naval & Mail Steamers of the U.S.".

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 145KB; 740 x 615 pixels

 
Photo #: NH 53122

U.S. Navy Yard, Brooklyn, New York


Engraving by Worcester & Company, from a Boston newspaper dated 8 November 1851, depicting the interior esplanade fronting the Navy Yard, with USS North Carolina alongside the dock in the center of the image.
Also shown, at right, is the shiphouse in which USS Fulton was being rebuilt. USS Sabine was then also under construction in the shiphouse at left.
Note the shot piles in the foreground.

New York Naval Shipyard Collection, 1966.

U.S. Naval Historical Center Photograph.

Online Image: 281KB; 775 x 820 pixels

 


If you want higher resolution reproductions than the digital images presented here, see: "How to Obtain Photographic Reproductions."


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Page made 30 March 2005