Robert Fulton

The Working Harbor Committee blog posted today, Keep Off the Ice! The post begins begins: The Hudson PD issued a warning for people to stay off the frozen river in Hudson, N.Y. after security cameras at the Hudson Boat Launch captured footage of 4 individuals trotting onto the frozen surface of the Hudson River, to “help a stuck barge”. The post is timely because 200 years ago today the American engineer and inventor Robert Fulton died at the age of 49. The cause of death was tuberculous, but the event that triggered his death was directly related to falling though the ice in the Hudson River.

Robert Fulton is remembered for developing the first commercially successful steamboat. He also designed dredges, a submarine and torpedoes. His last design, the floating battery “Demologos,” the world’s first steam-driven warship built for the United States Navy for the War of 1812, was not completed until after his death.

Fulton died after walking home on the frozen Hudson River with his friend, Thomas Addis Emmet. Emmet fell through the ice and in rescuing Emmet, Fulton got soaked with icy water.  He caught pneumonia and then contracted tuberculous, in those days called consumption, and died on February 24, 1815. He is buried in the Trinity Church Cemetery on Wall Street in New York City. Emmet, an Irish revolutionary and lawyer who had emigrated to the United Sates, survived his dunking in the river and continued his legal career until dying in 1827, while arguing a case in court.

So, in the name of good sense and in the memory of Robert Fulton, keep off the ice, particularly on the Hudson River.