Demologos, also known as Fulton, was an early steam-powered floating battery rather than an oceangoing fleet unit. Steam also began to pull warships away from the age-of-sail rating system that had organized them chiefly by gun count. Demologos's catamaran-like hull enclosed an internal paddle wheel, protecting the machinery but producing an unconventional and unstable vessel. The design shows that adopting steam was not a single clean transition from sail to the familiar screw-propelled warship. It was an experimental process in which propulsion, hull form, stability, and tactical role had to be reconciled.
Notable Point · 6:08-7:38
Demologos and the first steam-warship experiment
Robert Fulton's protected paddle-wheel battery shows how steam first entered warship design through an unusual harbour-defence experiment.