Mary Shelley evening, the discussions turned to the nature of the principle of life. "Perhaps a corpse would be re-animated", Mary noted, "galvanism had given token of such things". It was after midnight before they retired, and unable to sleep, she became possessed by her imagination as she beheld the "grim terrors" of her "waking dream", her ghost story: She began writing what she assumed would be a short story. With Percy Shelley's encouragement, she expanded this tale into her first novel, "Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus", published in 1818. She later described that summer in Switzerland as the moment "when I
USS Prometheus (1814) USS Prometheus (1814) The first USS "Prometheus" was a brig in the United States Navy from 1814 to 1818. "Prometheus" was built by William Seguin, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; purchased in 1814 by the Navy from Messrs. Savage and Dryan, the original owners, as the brig "Escape"; commissioned and renamed "Prometheus", she was fitted out at Philadelphia by Master Commandant Joseph J. Nicholson. In March–May 1815 she made a cruise to the West Indies to carry U.S. Senators Eligius Fromentin and James Brown to Havana. She sailed for Europe on 14 August 1816 to take Edward Coles, special messenger from the President