84 THE SEA. 



steam-boat for the Forth and Clyde Canal Company, in which he was a large shareholder. 

 " Having/' says Lindsay,* " availed himself of the many improvements made by Watt 

 and others, Symington patented his new engine on the 14th of March of that year, and 

 fitting it on board the Charlotte Dundas, named after his lordship's daughter, produced, 

 in the opinion of most writers who have carefully and impartially inquired into this 

 interesting subject, 'the first practical steam-boat' 3 In March, 1802, the Charlotte Dundas 

 made her trial trip on the canal. It was in one sense a fortunate day for the experiment, 

 for a gale of wind blew, and no other vessel attempted to move to windward. The little 

 steamer, towing two barges of seventy tons burden, accomplished the trip to Port Dundas, 

 Glasgow, a distance of 19 miles, in six hours, or at the rate of 3? miles per hour. Lord 

 Dundas, who was on board, thought favourably of the experiment, and in a letter of intro- 

 duction to the Duke of Bridgewater, recommended Symington's new engine to his notice. 

 His grace almost immediately gave him an order to construct eight vessels similar to the 



THE " CHAKLOTTE DUNDAS." 



Charlotte Dundas, and the struggling engineer naturally thought that his fortune was made. 

 Alas ! before the arrangements could be consummated the duke died, and the committee who 

 had charge of the canal after his decease, came to the conclusion that the wash from 

 steam-boats would injure its banks. Woodcroft considers that "this vessel might, from 

 the simplicity of its machinery, have been at work to this day with such ordinary repairs 

 as are now occasionally required for all steam-boats," and claims that to Symington 

 belonged "the undoubted merit of having combined for the first time those improvements 

 which constitute the present system of steam navigation." The success of the engine 

 consisted in this : that, " after placing in a boat a double-acting reciprocating engine, he 

 attacked his crank to the axis of the paddle-wheel," a combination on which there has been 

 no improvement to the present day, as rotatory motion is secured without the interposition 

 of a lever or beam. So much for the engine, but how about the poor engineer ? This boat 

 was laid up in a creek of the canal, where she remained for many years exposed as a 

 curiosity, and perhaps also as a warning to ambitious speculators. Symington's means 

 were nearly exhausted, and after having had to fight Taylor at law in regard to some of 



* "History of Merchant Shipping," &c. 



