This is Part 2 of the Foolkiller. To begin at the beginning, go to Part 1.

During the next several months, Nissen spent his time redesigning his boat,  maintaining the likeness of the first. It was completely decked except for the center portion to allow for the cockpit opening. The redesigned vessel was longer and narrower than the original. The other significant additions to the new design was an eight horse power steam engine.  (One has to assume the engine was added to prevent being trapped in the Whirlpool a second time.) As in the first vessel, air chambers were designed in the bow and stern of the boat as well as the port and starboard sides for buoyancy. The deck was made of oak and pine, and the wooden keel had an additional iron weight that would have help prevent the vessel from overturning.  The redesigned vessel weighed in at 2,100 pounds at a cost of $1,000 to construct.

To have light inside the vessel, Nissen installed “two deadlights, or windows, set about eight feet back from the stern, one on each side of the engine room.”  The glass windows were only 4” inches in diameter and made of “heavy plate.” The two windows reportedly provided enough light for Nissen to “look about the engine room.”  Nissen named the vessel The Foolkiller II.

Nissen’s second excursion through the rapids of the Niagara River took place on October 12, 1901.  He left the Canadian side of the River, at a point near the Falls, at about 2:00 p.m.  The vessel cruised around the still waters of the River for 2 hours, then floated into and through the rapids in approximately four minutes. He did attempt to take “soundings of the rapids, but the force of the water broke his cable and he was compelled to desist.”

In an interview after he reached shore following the feat in Foolkiller 2, Nissen said:

I am all right. I attempted several soundings but only obtained  one. What depth that shows I do not know yet, but I have it marked  on the line.  Once I fell ight [sic] over, and my feet went up in the air. During the trip the water came through the hatch, and I shipped quite a little, but it did no harm.  I shall not attempt to sound the  the whirlpool to day nor on Sunday. I will leave that for next week. Tell my friends that I will have steam up tomorrow and if they want to wide around the whirlpool to come down.

The Edison Manufacturing Company filmed the event. The company reported the event as “ . . . Captain P.N. Nissen, formerly known as Captain Bower, marking a trip through the Whirlpool Rapids in his famous twenty-four foot craft known as the “Fool Killer.” The 1:42 long movie is posted on YouTube.

Go to Part 3.