The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

  Actually the primary theatres were on land with the US aims being the crushing of the Indians of the 'old NW' which unfortunately for those people they succeeded and the conquest of Canada which, fortunately for the Canadians they failed.  The primary issues of the naval actions that angered the US had already been resolved by British concessions, although news hadn't reached the US at the time of the dow.  That the main region involved in naval commerce, i.e. New England, bitterly opposed the conflict and refused to contribute forces for attacks on Canada was a key factor in the defence of the latter.

  I wonder if THG has misunderstood or been mislead by the talk of water hoses to attack opposing ships with.  Never heard of this before and doubt that would be practical.  However such hoses might have been intended for use on the ship itself because the RN had heard details of its construction and were planning to use red hot shot against it.  Such weaponry is hazardous on a wooden vessel and had previously been banned on RN ships as a result so it could even have been a precaution against the Demologos's own furnace in case that had spread fire to the ship.  Although that's somewhat less of a risk than hostile fire given it had no masks and rigging itself.

  I had always thought of it as a catamaran with two separate hulls and with the paddle wheel on the inside to protect it from fire from either side.  However the images show seem to suggest the water basin in which the paddles would work was also enclosed front and back, which would also protect against front or rear shots but might have impacted on its efficiency in moving the ship.

  If it had gone to war and the proposed hoses had protected it against RN red hot shot then it would have been a serious problem, although as stated in the video the very early nature of marine steam engines would have limited it in terms of speed and range and if there was a break-down it would have been vulnerable to currents and other weather issues.  Definitely an interesting craft and hadn't realise that Fulton died so soon after its launch.