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Historical person

Robert Fulton

1765–1815

Robert Fulton was an American engineer and inventor who helped make commercial steam navigation successful. After working as an artist and engineer in Europe, he experimented with canals, weapons and a submarine called Nautilus. In partnership with Robert Livingston, Fulton launched the North River Steamboat in 1807, providing regular service between New York and Albany.

He did not invent the steamboat, but his business and engineering system demonstrated its economic viability. Robert Fulton was born in Little Britain Township and died in New York City.

Julian Stockwin’s Invasion brings Robert Fulton into the Napoleonic invasion crisis as the inventor whose submarines, mines and torpedoes promise an unconventional way to destroy the flotilla gathering at Boulogne. Kydd is assigned to work with Fulton but distrusts weapons that strike unseen, creating a conflict between technological innovation and established naval ideas of honour. Fulton’s experiments therefore become part of the novel’s larger question of what Britain should risk when conventional defence appears insufficient.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Robert Fulton (1 series)

Thomas Kydd in Order

by Julian Stockwin 27 books 4.2(24,001)

The Thomas Kydd series follows a Guildford wig-maker pressed into the Royal Navy in 1793 and traces his rise from inexperienced landsman to admiral. Across twenty-seven novels, Kydd learns the work of the lower deck, crosses to the quarterdeck and commands increasingly important ships during the French Revolutionary…

All books in this series