Cooper's Ark - A Failed Effort of the War of 1812
Cooper's Ark: A Failed Effort of the War of 1812
By Richard F. Palmer
Wars always inspire people to come up with innovative ways that might possibly bring a quick end to the conflict. One such person during the War of 1812 was a dapper young man of pleasant manners by the name of William Cooper. He was the brother of none other than James Fenimore Cooper, who had been a midshipman in the U.S. Navy contingent sent to Oswego to build the brig Oneida in 1808. This was long before James had gained literary fame as a novelist and historian.
William's plan was to build a floating battery that could annihilate the British naval force then existing on Lake Ontario. He offered to build such a vessel at his own expense, providing the U.S. government furnished arms and ammunition. (1)
To understand where Cooper was coming from, we dig a bit into his past. He was the son of William and Elizabeth Fenimore Cooper, the father having been the founder of Cooperstown. He was born there on January 4, 1786. He was precocious but undisciplined. His father was convinced he was the brightest of his five sons. With great expectations he sent the boy, at the tender age of 14, to Princeton University.
The intent was that he become a lawyer. But William was still only a boy and was more interested in having a good time than studying. After the semester ended in June, 1802, he did not return to Princeton and never received a college degree. He spent the next five years as an apprentice law clerk in New York and Cooperstown. Meanwhile, his father, a distinguished judge, was continually dealing with his son's financial problems. He never lived up to his father's expectations. (2)
In 1808 he married Eliza Clason, daughter of Isaac Clason, a prominent New York City merchant and a friend of his father's. They had two sons and a daughter. Eliza's father had opposed the marriage, feeling William was irresponsible and incapable of supporting a family. He was right as the two were always bickering and finally separated. William was also a proponent of hot air balloon flight. William appears to have spent the winter of 1812-1813 in Oswego drawing up plans for his floating battery. Although he lived on the frontier much of his life, he was cognizant of the advances made in warfare and the value of floating batteries. (3)
Hamilton Colton of Milan, Ohio, who resided in Oswego as a boy during this early period, said after his plans were approved the U.S. Navy agreed to pay Cooper $16,000 for it when delivered to Sackets Harbor. It was not the Navy's policy to pay in advance of completion of such civilian enterprises. No record exists of such an agreement. But Cooper hired carpenters and set resolutely to work building what he called a floating battery. He resisted the ridicule he received from local residents who dubbed his vessel "Cooper's Ark." It was constructed on a gravelly semi-circular spit of land on the east side of the Oswego river that jutted out into the lake. This was called Garrison Point due to its close proximity to Fort Ontario.
Cooper was remembered locally as "an eccentric genius" who "acquired fame in advance of his battle - but fame of an unenviable character." It's apparent he considered this project his patriotic duty. In this floating wooden structure he was only financially able to invest $2,500, or half of his original estimate. He seems to have based this on his own plan. (4)
Sheldon C. Townsend recalled: "William Cooper entertained the belief that he was destined to immortalize his name as the builder of a vessel in Oswego harbor, which, armed, would prove largely instrumental in ending the conflict." The "ark" was to be armed with four brass mortar cannons of small caliber. Evidence of the military interest in this vessel is contained in a letter from Morgan Lewis, the military commander at Sackets Harbor, to John Armstrong, Secretary of War, said it was designed "on a principle which was well thought of by most of our naval gentlemen." (5)
Studying Cooper's proposal leads to speculation how he expected to maneuver such an unwieldy an armed vessel 45 nautical miles from Oswego to Sackets Harbor minus a sail or rudder. Although the ark was to be equipped with sweeps, it wasn't exactly a Roman galley with slaves rowing to the cadence of a beating drum. Neither was it of the traditional bow and stern design of a fighting ship. Although they do not appear in the design, some recalled that the "ark" indeed had a sail and a rudder, and was being sailed unarmed except for two guns, to Sackets Harbor.
In his proposal to John Armstrong, Secretary of War, dated Feb. 17, 1813, William Cooper explained what he planned to build. He said the vessel would be supported by "two flat bottomed vessels 60 feet long by 15 feet wide, and 20 feet apart." He said the exterior and interior of the bulwark would be five feet thick, composed of oak. He calculated on the supposition that 49 cubic feet of dry oak weigh a ton, and that oak is 11/12 the weight of water; that five feet would be sufficient depth for the boats, to enable them to support the weight of the water." He said "the parts of the boats within the bulwarks are to be raised enough to give the whole sufficient buoyancy. Allowing the bulwark to be 7 feet high, viz: one foot under water, and six above, boats of the given dimensions will sustain, in addition, about 60 tons sufficient for every thing.
Continuing, he said:
"Here then, we have a floating battery which cannot be sunk by an enemy, because the buoyant power is out of reach of shot. The crew are secure because no shot can penetrate the bulwark: the battery may be moved with ease in any direction, without the enemy being able to prevent it, because the power is out of reach of them. The battery may discharge shells of any size so near the enemy as to hit between wind and water, or, if they should not do that, they must still burst within their vessel, scattering fire and death. The battery may be made to turn rapid, so as to present, in quick succession, all the mortars to the same object, by rowing forward on one side and backing water (as termed) on the other. The battery may lay on an enemy's quarter, out of reach of many guns, if such a thing were important, without the enemy being able to change position quick enough to alter its elevated position.
"Between the boats, and under the bulwark which is in these parts, near the surface of the water, the water has a free passage, so that the oars can be used with as much effect as if they were on the outside. An 18 pound shot was found by experiment at Woowich, to penetrate 33 inches into dry oak. I have supposed that five feet would stop a 32 pound ball. But this can easily be ascertained.
"Several oblong loop holes may be left to discharge musquetry (cq) through if necessary; their height not to be two and a half feet above the water, so that even the lower guns of a man of war cannot strike them direct. Some circular holes descending from the inside, may also be left for the purpose of hanging hand-grenades on hooks at their mouths, and lighting their fuses, if boats should attempt to approach. A rudder may also be fixed on the inside. On each (of four) mortar may be sliding ropes of any length, to enable one to take aim with precision.
"It is not certain that a battery of this kind could destroy a ship of the line; either sinking her in a few discharges, by the large holes she could make between wind and water, or setting her on fire by the explosion of the bombs? I confess I should be willing to try the experiment.
"The bulwark would contain less than 5,000 cubic feet of timber. The value I do not know; but if I allowed 50 cents a foot, it is only $2,500. The boats being flat bottomed cannot cost, I presume, $5,000. My former estimate, in all probability, was sufficiently liberal.
"If these suppositions are true - if, for less than $12,000 a battery can be constructed capable of destroying ships of the line, and moving on the same element, what city need to fear an attack? What nation an invasion? The history of the Art of War proves that almost every improvement has been so tardily or reluctantly adopted that the name of the inventor is lost. Few are disposed to introduce innovations, and those few seldom in power.
"There is no necessity for confining the bombs to the common size. Why not discharge bombs two feet in diameter? The granite rock which struck one of Duckworth's squadron, weighed 800 pounds - As I before mentioned, it was acknowledged that, if it had struck between wind and water, the vessel must have sunk. Four large bombs would break in a surface as large as that rock - besides the mischief which the explosion could produce."
Cooper wrote a note to Armstrong on March 18, 1813 wrote that he was in Oswego "with as many workmen as I can advantageously employ." On April 10, 1813 he wrote that his battery was "far advanced" and should be ready to sail by the first of May, should the mortars arrive. It appears only two guns arrived in time for the launching, such as it was. The crew was to consist of volunteers.
About mid-July the floating fortress was ready as it ever would be to sail for Sackets Harbor. Captain Zenas Gould, an experienced navigator, was put in charge, and off they sailed. Aboard besides Gould were Cooper, 15 men to man the sweeps, and two or three prisoners. But when a sudden squall came up, as frequently occurs on Lake Ontario, it became completely unmanageable and went to pieces off New Haven, some eight or ten miles down the lake.
Cooper wrote:
"Impatient to get to the Harbour, I set sail before the decks were caulked or, indeed, entirely laid. Of course I was not prepared to encounter a heavy gale, which arose as I had every prospect of weathering Stony Point. Having but a dozen soldiers on board, all of whom were sea sick, it was impossible to pump out the water as fast as it washed over the bulwarks, and run into the hold. She filled in about an hour and settled on the bottom, where, in the course of an hour and a half, she went to pieces." (6)
The Buffalo Gazette of Aug. 24, 1813 reported 15 men were navigating it, two whom were drowned, and "the remainder considerably injured. He was calculated to carry 16 heavy guns, two only were mounted, and were both lost; we have heard since they are found, and gotten out of the water." Cooper lost a finger and received some light injuries.
What Cooper's effort clearly illustrated was a lack of wisdom in navigating his newly constructed battery over the often tempestuous open waters of Lake Ontario. Even during the summer months, dangerous squalls can develop quite suddenly.
But the government seems to have been impressed enough with Cooper's plans to give him the go-ahead, even though the conceptual flawed design does not make it appear such a vessel would be very seaworthy - especially in rough weather. One may ask why Cooper's vessel was built at Oswego instead of Sackets Harbor. Historian Gary Gibson offers this:
"Shipbuilding facilities at Sackets Harbor were far superior as he must have known and then there would have been no need to sail the "ark" anywhere. I suspect the reason is the reception he would have received. Both Chauncey and Eckford would have found so many ways to criticize Cooper's design that even the army would not have been impressed. The navy, I'm confident, would have taken one look at the design and said 'no way!' At Oswego, he avoided that problem. He was apparently the subject of ridicule at Oswego - which bothered him. But he would have been subjected to much more of that at Sackets Harbor.
The theory is that Henry Eckford and the workmen the government employed at Sackets Harbor were too involved in other U.S. Navy shipbuilding projects. William Cooper's floating battery was a civilian project which the Navy had agreed to purchase only after it was completed and delivered to Sackets Harbor. (7)
The wreck couldn't have occurred in a worse location - Mexico Bay. There lie the bones of many lost ships blown off course. Of catamaran design, the battery's structure connecting the twin hulls had to be sufficiently strong to allow them to move together in the seas rather than flex independently. They were two separate "flat bottomed vessels" or "boats" tied together by fastenings of some type to the bulwarks. But the bulwarks, as designed, do not appear to have been strong enough to withstand heavy waves and pounding. Even in light seas, the wave action would put much stress on the structure. (8)
Hamilton Colton wrote: " Soon after his return to Oswego from that disastrous voyage, two or three vessels were at once sighted in the distance and caused alarm lest they might belong to the British fleet. Cooper, wishing to satisfy himself on the subject, raised a boat-crew and started out, but when abreast of Garrison Point, a cannon shot from the fort skipped across his bows, which he rightly interpreted as a warning to back water, and obeyed reluctantly.
"It might have been a day or two after that occurrence that a small boy witnessed the first meeting between Cooper and the commander of the garrison, whom he accosted in language forceable than polite on the subject of such exercise of his military power in restraining the movements of a private, inoffensive citizen. Col. Mitchell, becoming exasperated by the abuse, drew his sword and made some demonstrations, from which Cooper did not flinch, but called it a cowardly act to draw a weapon upon a man who was not only unarmed but a cripple.
"And this is the point I have aimed at, his right arm was then carried in a sling in consequence of injuries sustained among the crashing timbers of his modern ark, which fell to pieces in a gale of wind five or six miles off shore in Mexico Bay." Cooper said, "I have no doubt but it would have answered its intention if it had arrived safely in Sackets Harbor, or if I had even completed it before I left Oswego." (9)
Some 64 years had elapsed between actual events and the time Colton was recounting them. He had a remarkable memory. However, it seems more likely he was referring to was Major Robert Carr, who was assigned the command in Oswego on June 16, 1813. The first battle of Oswego occurred just three days later. Col. George E. Mitchell, who Colton referred to, another regular Army officer, and 300 soldiers, did not arrive at Fort Ontario until April, 1814. (10)
Cooper's presence in Oswego ended in a bit of poetic justice. Ever since he was a youth, Cooper had been very adept at rhyming. One day, Dr. Benjamin Coe, met Cooper on narrow Water Street where the two brothers, Moses and Eli Stevens, had a boot and shoe shop. Coe challenged Cooper to compose some lines on them for posterity. He set himself to work and in a few moments produced the following:
Upon Moses and Eli
All the people may rely,
For shoes and for hats
That will stand the worst weather
What with boots and with felt
They will lose the pelt
And to two-legged calves
Sell the quadruped's leather (11)
Failure of the ark did not deter Cooper's spirit of patriotism. In his letter to Jefferson he wrote:
"At a time when our enemy has announced his intention to prosecute the war with the utmost vigor against our towns, villages, and citizens, it becomes the duty of every American to aid his Government in repelling them. I shall not be deterred by one disaster from respectfully submitting a plan which I shall, I trust, demonstrate would completely banish them from our waters."
No response to Cooper from Jefferson has been found. William Cooper eventually lost confidence in himself. He returned home to Cooperstown. His failing fortunes and poor health soon turned him into a broken man. He wrote: "I am not, and probably, never shall be in any business by which money can be made or lost, and therefore must rest my security upon my patrimony." He died on Oct. 19, 1819 at the age of 34. Cooperstown Historian Alan Taylor observed: "Instead of becoming a great man, William Cooper Jr. ended up as a nothing. He was ruined by the insidious combination of too much money too easily had with expectations far beyond his abilities to achieve." (12)
Another civilian attempt to aid the cause involved a timber shipment. Robert Robbins had entered into a contract with Henry Eckford, the famous shipbuilder, who was at Sackets Harbor at the time. In the spring of 1813 he agreed to furnish a large quantity of cut lumber for building ships, to be cut at Oak Orchard Creek, and rafted across the lake. When delivered he was to be paid $200 per thousand feet. Robbins cut and loaded on his raft 2,954 feet of lumber.
Unfortunately, Robbins did not escape notice, and the British fleet hove in sight not long after the raft had got underway. After capturing it, they stripped it of the means of navigation, and it drifted ashore and went to pieces. Eckford said he could render no assistance. He further stated as his opinion, that the price agreed to was hardly sufficient to warrant the risk of going to sea and being captured by the enemy. Robins years later sought payment, but was denied because according to the contract, payment was to be made upon delivery. (13)
Also ill-fated was the effort of 24-year-old Eli G. Parsons Jr. to transport a load of cannonballs from Oswego to Sackets Harbor on Sept. 17, 1812.He owned a small open boat which he used on the Oswego River. What prompted this is lost to history, but on one occasion, when no better means apparently could be found, he offered to transport the ammunition across the lake. But as with Cooper, the lake wasn't about to cooperate and a sudden storm came up. The boat, with its heavy cargo, sunk to the bottom and Parsons drowned. His body washed ashore near the mouth of Little Salmon Creek. (14).
In his same letter to Jefferson, Cooper, who didn't let his "Ark" fiasco deter him, proposed a steam-driven ironclad floating fortress with "bulwarks, from two feet below the water line, of oak two feet thick, and enclose it completely with three inches of wrought iron." He enclosed a drawing of the vessel that resembles a Civil War period Confederate ironclad but with a centerline paddlewheel. It was much like Fulton's later steam frigate. Of course the hydrodynamic efficiency of that scheme would be little better than his Ark's sweeps - as Fulton himself later discovered.
Conclusion
Cooper's letter of November 24, 1813, to Thomas Jefferson offers important firsthand evidence in his own words which provide insight into his intelligence, knowledge, state of mind, lessons learned, and facts pertaining to the loss of his floating battery built at Oswego earlier that year. His proposal for a differently designed floating battery or batteries, made in that letter and the enclosed plan or drawing, demonstrates not only what Cooper had learned, but also that he still was thinking ahead in regard to application of that form of technology to naval warfare.
While William Cooper may have been a visionary, he was far from "crazy" as some old time reminiscences suggests. Such an opinion seems to have based on a lack of knowledge about innovations in naval warfare elsewhere.The progress of this nation has come as the result of innovative people initially ridiculed for their forward thinking and then later lauded for their successes.
Ignoring ridicule, William put much time, effort and money into his attempts to apply new technology to warfare. With a few design changes his floating battery might have been a significant addition to the American fleet on Lake Ontario during the War of 1812. He certainly deserves more prominence than a brief mention in the local history books.
Acknowledgments
I wish to thank historians Robert Brennan and Gary Gibson of Sackets Harbor, Kathi and Dennis McCarthy, maritime historians, of Cape Vincent, N.Y.; Wally Workmaster of Pittsburgh, Pa., former Director of Fort Ontario Historic Site; and Paul Lear, Site Manager at the time this paper was written.
Footnotes
(1) Oswego Palladium, Feb. 2, 1877; letter from Cooper to Thomas Jefferson, Nov. 24, 1813, Thomas Jefferson Papers, Library of Congress, Series 1. By Cooper's own account after the fact he said "I did not think that I could, prudently, appropriate more than $2,500 for the object, and, therefore, constructed it but slightly."
(2) Taylor, Alan, "William Cooper's Town," Vintage Books 1996, P. 21,333-4.
(3) Ibid, P. 338; genealogical information provided by James Fenimore Cooper Society; Beard, James Franklin, The Letters and Journals of James Fenimore Cooper, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1960, Vol. 1, P. 27. Beard states: "Cooper was especially close to his brother William (1785-1819), a brilliant person lacking in judgment. Expelled from Princeton in 1802 on suspicion of having set a fire which gutted Nassau Hall, he studied law and practiced for a time in New York. He married Eliza Clason, daughter of the New York merchant Isaac Clason, in 1808. Their son William later lived as a member of the novelist's family.( Cooper family Bible; [James Fenimore Cooper -- grandson], Legends and Traditions of a Northern County, New York, 1821, pp.161-162, 230; Princeton University Faculty Minutes.
(4) Letter of William Cooper to John Armstrong, Secretary of War, dated Oswego, March 18, 1813. National Archives Record Group M221, Roll 51 Item C-87 (7); Johnson, Crisfield, History of Oswego County, L.H. Everts & Co., Philadelphia, Pa.1877, P. 63; Extract of a letter from Hamilton Colton, dated Milan, Ohio, Aug. 10, 1876 and published in the Oswego Weekly Palladium Aug. 16, 1876; letter, Cooper to Jefferson, op.cit.
(5) Otsego Herald, Cooperstown. N.Y., Aug. 21, 1913; Johnson, ibid; letter of Sheldon C. Townsend published in Oswego Palladium, Feb. 5, 1877; Letter of Morgan Lewis to John Armstrong, Secretary of War, Aug. 3, 1813, National Archives Record Group M221, Roll 51, Item C-87(7).
(6) Letter from Cooper to Jefferson, op. cit; Letter, William Cooper to John Armstrong, Secretary of War, Feb. 7, 1813. National Archives Record Group M221, Roll 1 Item C-105 (7); Roll 54 Item L-140 (7) noted the vessel "was unfortunately lost in a violent gale of wind, with the loss of some of her men. The proprietor escaped with the loss of a finger."
(7) Letter, Cooper to Armstrong, March 18, 1813, op. cit.
(8) Townsend letter, op. cit.; Otsego Herald, op. cit.; The author has made an extensive study of shipwrecks that have occurred in Mexico Bay. Stony Point, where the "ark" was wrecked, can be very treacherous in a storm.
(9) Letter from Hamilton Colton. op. cit.; Letter from Cooper to Jefferson, op.cit. Colton died at his home in Milan, Ohio at the age of 74 on December 2, 1878 - Oswego Morning Herald, December 5, 1878.
(10) The Life of the Late Col. Robert Carr. In Historical Magazine, Vol. 1, Second Series, Morrisania, N.Y., 1867, pp. 56-57. His papers, including a diary kept during the War of 1812, were given to the Pennsylvania Historical Society, Philadelphia, Pa., shortly before his death in 1865.
(11) Slosek, Anthony M., Oswego: Hamlet Days 1796-1828. Privately published. P. 81.
(12) Taylor, op. cit. P. 338; Library of Congress file TJP-LC Series 1; death notice in Freeman's Journal and Otsego Herald, Cooperstown newspapers, October 15, 1819.
(13) Robbins, Robert. 20th Congress, 1st Session. In Senate of the United States, March 10, 1828. Petition praying to be paid for a quantity of timber that was intercepted and destroyed by the enemy in 1813, on its passage to Sacket's Harbor.
(14) Johnson, Crisfield, op.cit., pp 114; Parsons, Henry, Descendants of Cornet Joseph Parsons, New Haven, Conn., 1920, pp 135-136.
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