''Charlotte Dundas'' is regarded as the world's second successful

steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...

, the first towing steamboat and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships.Fry, p. 27.

Early experiments

Development of experimental steam engined paddle boats by

William Symington William Symington (1764–1831) was a Scottish engineer and inventor, and the builder of the first practical steamboat, the Charlotte Dundas. Early life Symington was born in Leadhills, South Lanarkshire, Scotland, to a family he described as ...

had halted when the sponsor, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, abandoned the project. Symington had continued building steam pumping engines and mill engines. In 1793 he had developed a drive using a pivoted

crosshead In mechanical engineering, a crosshead is a mechanical joint used as part of the slider-crank linkages of long reciprocating engines (either internal combustion or steam) and reciprocating compressors to eliminate sideways force on the pis ...

beam above the vertical cylinder to transmit power to a crank. Miller's project and Captain John Schank's unsuccessful attempt at a canal steam tug had come to the attention of Thomas, Lord Dundas, Governor of the

Forth and Clyde Canal The Forth and Clyde Canal is a canal opened in 1790, crossing central Scotland; it provided a route for the seagoing vessels of the day between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde at the narrowest part of the Scottish Lowlands. This allo ...

Company, and at a meeting of the canal company's directors on 5 June 1800 approved his proposals on the basis of ''"a model of a boat by Captain Schank to be worked by a steam engine by Mr Symington"''. The boat was built by Alexander Hart at

Grangemouth Grangemouth ( sco, Grangemooth; gd, Inbhir Ghrainnse, ) is a town in the Falkirk council area, Scotland. Historically part of the county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, east of Falki ...

to Symington's design with a vertical cylinder engine and crosshead transmitting power to a crank driving the paddlewheels.

Trials In law, a trial is a coming together of parties to a dispute, to present information (in the form of evidence) in a tribunal, a formal setting with the authority to adjudicate claims or disputes. One form of tribunal is a court. The tribunal ...

on the River Carron in June 1801 were successful. This first boat may have been named ''Charlotte Dundas'' and the trials apparently included towing

sloop A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular s ...

s from the

river Forth The River Forth is a major river in central Scotland, long, which drains into the North Sea on the east coast of the country. Its drainage basin covers much of Stirlingshire in Scotland's Central Belt. The Gaelic name for the upper reach of ...

up the Carron and thence along the

. There was concern about wave damage to the canal banks, and possibly the boat was found to be underpowered on the canal, so the canal company refused further trials.

''Charlotte Dundas''

In 1801 Symington patented a horizontal steam engine directly linked to a crank, and got the support of Lord Dundas for a second steamboat which would become famous as ''Charlotte Dundas'', named in honour of his Lordship's daughter.

Construction

Symington designed a new hull around his powerful horizontal engine, with the crank driving a large paddle wheel in a central upstand in the hull, aimed at avoiding damage to the canal banks. The new boat was long, wide and depth, with a wooden hull. After a model of the boat was made and shown to Lord Dundas, the boat was built by John Allan, and the engine by the

Carron Company The Carron Company was an ironworks established in 1759 on the banks of the River Carron near Falkirk, in Stirlingshire, Scotland. After initial problems, the company was at the forefront of the Industrial Revolution in the United Kingdom. Th ...

First sailing

The first sailing was on the canal in

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

on 4 January 1803, with Lord Dundas and a few of his relatives and friends on board. After some improvements, in March 1803 ''Charlotte Dundas'' towed two 70-ton barges along the

to Glasgow, and despite "a strong breeze right ahead" which stopped all other canal boats it took only nine and a quarter hours, giving an average speed of about . This demonstrated the practicality of steam power for towing boats.

End of the project

Plans to introduce boats on the Forth and Clyde canal were thwarted, largely by fears of erosion of the banks, and a project to build tug boats for the

Bridgewater Canal The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester. It was opened in 1761 from Worsl ...

had ended with the Duke of Bridgewater's death a few days before the March trial. ''Charlotte Dundas'' was left in a backwater of the canal at

Bainsford Bainsford is a small village within the Falkirk council area of Scotland. The village is situated in the Forth Valley, north of the town of Falkirk. It is positioned between the River Carron and the Forth and Clyde Canal to the north and south ...

until it was broken up in 1861. Symington was not paid all he had invested in construction of ''Charlotte Dundas'' and was left disappointed, but the development of steamboats was continued by others including

Robert Fulton Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboat ...

in the United States and Henry Bell in Scotland.

References

•B.E.G. Clark, Symington and the Steamboat (Amazon) •B.E.G. Clark, Steamboat Evolution; A Short History (Amazon)

External links

{{Commons category, Charlotte Dundas (ship, 1801)
William Symington
Paddle steamers Ships of Scotland 1803 ships Clan Dundas