The Life of John Ericsson, Volume 1

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C. Scribner, 1911 - Engineers - 660 pages
 

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Page 128 - ... in the service of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people, to cruise or commit hostilities against the subjects, citizens, or property of any foreign prince or state, or of any colony, district, or people with whom the United States are at peace...
Page 243 - But inequality of numbers may be compensated by invulnerability, and thus not only does economy, but naval success, dictate the wisdom and expediency of fighting with iron against wood, without regard to first cost.
Page 107 - ... been pleased to take of my labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary and cannot impart it; till I am known and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Publick should consider me as owing that to a Patron which Providence has enabled me to do for myself...
Page 255 - The language was uniformly that of scorn, or sneer, or ridicule. The loud laugh often rose at my expense ; the dry jest ; the wise calculation of losses and expenditures ; the dull but endless repetition of the Fulton Folly.
Page 253 - Rebellion that the batteries on the banks of their rivers will no longer present barriers to the entrance of the Union forces. The ironclad intruder will thus prove a severe monitor to those leaders. But there are other leaders who will also be startled and admonished by the booming of the guns from the impregnable iron turret. ' Downing Street ' will hardly view with indifference this last ' Yankee notion,
Page 329 - I have strength and capacity to do so, do make, publish and declare this, my Last Will and Testament, hereby revoking any and all other Wills by me at any time heretofore made.
Page 278 - Cumberland yesterday, but she got the worst of it. Her horn passed over our deck, and our sharp, upper-edged rail cut through the light-iron shoe upon her stem and well into her oak. She will not try that again.
Page 50 - There was nothing after me," relates Mr. Collins, who fortunately lived to tell this tale of heroism ; " when I reached the upmost round of the ladder, the vessel seemed to drop from under me.
Page 243 - I regard the possession of an iron-armored ship as a matter of the first necessity. Such a vessel at this time could traverse the entire coast of the United States, prevent all blockades, and encounter, with a fair prospect of success, their entire Navy.
Page 244 - Attachment to the Union alone impels me to offer my services at this frightful crisis — my life if need be — in the great cause which Providence has caused you to defend.

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