Printed by John Murphy,
Printer to the Maryland Historical Society,
Baltimore, March, 1871.

A LOST CHAPTER
IN THE
HISTORY OF THE STEAMBOAT.

In the spring of 1828, my law office was in theAthenæum building, so called, afterwardsdestroyed by fire. My business was scant,for I had but recently been admitted to the bar.I was ruminating, no doubt, upon my prospects,when the door was opened, and a handsome,elderly man, of distinguished presence, enteredand asked me, in rich unctuous tones, and witha strong Irish accent, if my name was Latrobe,and if I recollected him. His face was familiar,and so was his voice; but I could not place him.Seeing that I hesitated, he said, “and it wouldbe strange if you did, for you were but a bit ofa child when you last saw me in your father’shouse. I am John Devereux Delacy,” and he4rolled out his sounding name as though he wasproud of it. I recollected him then. Fourteenor fifteen years back it had been his fancy to petme as a child. It was this that had impressedhim on my memory. “Ah, you know me now,”he said: “you remember when I used to be somuch with Fulton and Roosevelt and ChancellorLivingston and Dr. Mitchell, at the Navy Yardhouse.” This was the name given to my father’sresidence in Washington, not far from the NavyYard. After recalling well remembered incidentsand indulging in general remarks for a while, Mr.Delacy took a survey of my scantily furnishedoffice, and said, “not overwhelmed with business,my young friend: so much the better for me: youwill have the more time to attend to somethingI want you to undertake. If you succeed, it willbe the making of both our fortunes. I want suitbrought against every steamboat owner in theUnited States; and you must begin with old BillyMcDonald, here in Baltimore. See this;” and,suiting the action to the word, my visitor drewfrom his breast pocket the original parchmentletters patent, now before me, signed by JamesMadison, President, James Monroe, Secretaryof State, and Richard Rush, Attorney General,granting to Nicholas J. Roosevelt the exclusiveright to his ‘new and useful improvement in propellingboats by steam.’ Dated December 1st,51814. The patent had still some months to run.The specification contained the following descriptionof the improvement:

“In a boat or vessel of any form, but of sufficientcapacity to contain the machinery, I place a steamengine of a power proportioned to the resistanceto be overcome in propelling a boat or vessel agiven distance in a given time. This steam engineis supplied by a boiler of the usual form, or madecylindric, one or more at pleasure, so as to beof sufficient capacity to feed the engine. I nextplace two wheels over the sides, on the axles ofwhich I put fliers, dispense with them, or otherwise,contrive them at pleasure, either to regulatemotion, or to give additional velocity; or, theymay be connected with the valve shaft and steamengine by wheels, so a

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