1731–1815
THERE IS CONS IDERABLE uncertainty regarding the date of the world’s first voyage by a steam powered vessel,
as there is regarding the names of those who may have arranged the financing, building or sailing of this ship. From a multitude of candidates including Jonathan Hulls of Gloucestershire (1699–1758), the French Marquis de Jouffroy d’Abbans (1751–1832) and the American John Fitch (1743–98), it may be impossible to decide on the person entitled to this laureate crown. However, recent research, backed by strong local tradition, indicates a high probability that this significant craft was the Dalswinton Loch steamship of 1788, with the funding and hull construction being the responsibility of Patrick Miller and machinery supply by William Symington.
Patrick Miller was typical of the wealthy country gentlemen of the late eighteenth century. He was a director of the Bank of Scotland and was to rise to the position of Deputy Governor. He had a country seat at Dalswinton in south Dumfriesshire, moved in Edinburgh society at the time of the Enlightenment and his sound investments included a holding in the Carron Company, the great Scottish ironworking firm then producing ordnance for the international market.
Like other men in his position he had a great interest in agricultural improvements, in artillery and other ordnance, and in the development of new forms of ships. Unsubstantiated reports indicate he had invented or at least had a major hand in the development of the carronade, which was a short-barrelled, large- calibre cannon widely used at sea. Miller was born in 1731 and for almost all of his life was resident in Scotland. He was a friend of the portrait painter Alexander Nasmyth and of the poet Robert Burns.
In 1787 Miller was responsible for the building and testing on the River Forth of a man-powered triple-hulled ship named Edinburgh. This vessel was 22m (72ft) long and had an overall breadth of just under 7m (23ft). The three hulls were held together by transverse beams and propulsion was by a pair of 2m (6ft 7in) diameter paddle wheels (one between each hull) driven by manual power applied to capstans. In his report to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in December 1787, Miller indicated that the crew of five could drive the Edinburgh at 8km/h (5mph). This ship, rigged with three masts, was reputed to be a good sea-keeper with adequate stability. Miller is known to have presented her later to the King of Sweden, and we must assume that this was Gustaf III, one of the most fascinating Scandinavian monarchs and a patron of the arts and sciences.
The following year saw the steam trial on Dalswinton Loch near Miller’s home. Miller, an advocate of multi-hull construction supplied a catamaran and contracted with William Symington to furnish a two- cylinder simple steam engine. The ship was 8m (26ft 4in) long and had an extreme width of 2m (6ft 7in) and draft of about 0.65m (2 ft) and with about five persons aboard is reputed to have travelled in calm conditions at 8km/h (5mph). The engine was made of two open-topped cylinders not unlike a Newcomen type, but with a condenser, and can be inspected to this day at the Science Museum, London. In correspondence with Boulton and Watt, Miller suggested some form of co-operation to develop steam navigation. James Watt, who was touchy about his patents, especially that of the separate condenser, refused to become involved and sadly the Dalswinton steamer was relegated to history. However, Miller and Symington had one further and very important adventure, which will be described in the following
biography of William Symington.
One small mystery remains: several authorities maintain that both Alexander Nasmyth and Robert Burns were aboard the Dalswinton steamship on 14 October 1788. This cannot be confirmed, but it is more than likely that Burns (who was a tenant of Miller) was standing in the small crowd on the shore. SOURCES: Harvey, W S and Downs-Rose, G William Symington: Inventor and Engine Builder London, 1980 Spratt, H Philip The Birth of the Steamboat London, 1958
William Symington
1763–1831IT WAS UNUS UAL for men of the late eighteenth century to describe themselves as engineers; with his excellent
education and first-class practical experience, William Symington could make that claim. However, had it not been for his fortuitous meetings with Patrick Miller and Lord Dundas, he would not have been remembered as a pioneer of steam navigation. William Symington was born and brought up in the small Lanarkshire mining town of Leadhills, some 64km (40 miles) south of Glasgow. The once-sylvan county was becoming peppered with a few mines and many pits, all with their accompanying slag heaps. The industrial importance of the area was complemented by the discovery of black band ironstone, a mixture of coal and iron ore, which gave a competitive edge to iron-smelting in the Scottish central belt. All pits and mines in the area had severe drainage problems, and almost all were equipped with steam pumping engines and had mechanics and engineers permanently on site to maintain these vital but unreliable machines.
William Symington grew up knowing about machinery and mining as his father was mechanic and superintendent of the mining company at Leadhills. He was educated at the local school, which despite being in a fairly deprived area was a centre of excellence; he was destined for university and intended studying for the ministry. However, in his teens he decided to follow in his father’s footsteps and started working in the nearby Wanlockhead mine.
Wanlockhead had had drainage problems since 1779 and the manager had approached James Watt for one of his engines to be installed by Symington’s father. The arrangements with Boulton & Watt proved unsatisfactory, and the financial settlement took more time than had been anticipated. Young Symington realised there was an opening for a skilled engineer to produce his own steam engine, provided he could avoid running foul of the patent. Benefiting from the vast knowledge accumulated by his father, he started work and by 1787 was applying for a patent for a steam engine in his own name. He created such a good impression with the manager that he was encouraged to attend Edinburgh University, where he spent one session studying a wide variety of matters including anatomy. In later years this period, coupled with his working credentials, enabled him to rightly claim the title ‘Civil Engineer’.
Most of his life was spent working on the steam machinery required at pitheads, but his private inclinations were for steam-driven transport. Around 1784 he designed and built a steam-driven carriage, an elegant coach body suspended above a four wheeled chassis and with a small steam engine fitted at the pillion seat. It was displayed in Edinburgh giving Symington publicity of the best type. A press review said ‘Five pence worth of coals will serve it twenty four hours and the velocity will be ten miles in an hour’. In 1787 he met Patrick Miller and they discussed the trials of his triplehulled man-powered ship
Symington to design a small steam engine for the trial on Dalswinton Loch in October 1788.
Symington’s pione e ring Charlotte Dundas II. (Author)
Miller felt that while the Dalswinton trial had been successful, it had not taken the public by surprise. Something on a larger scale was needed and he decided to attempt towing barges by steamship on the Forth and Clyde Canal. An order for machinery was placed with the Carron Company and Symington was involved. The hull chosen was an old canal gabbart. At the time Symington’s hands were full with a troublesome pumping engine and his estimate of the cost of the machinery was inexact. Added to this the ship was slightly late, there was a cost overrun and worst of all the trial in 1789 was unsuccessful for a variety of reasons including a broken paddle float. All this was rectified quickly and at the second trial in February 1790 the ship steamed at 11km/h (7mph). Miller, probably unwisely, having brought guests to the first trial, felt so let down that he was absent from the second and gave instructions for the engine and hull to be sold – at best! This took time, but his wishes were carried out.
Lord Dundas, the Governor of the Forth and Clyde Canal, was interested in the 1789/90 trials, and after consulting with his co-director Captain Schanck, ordered a hull from Hart in Grangemouth (later the Grangemouth Dockyard) and machinery from various sources but under Symington’s instruction. It is believed the ship, known as the Charlotte Dundas, had two paddle wheels and a horizontal engine. The machinery cost without boiler was £175 1s 7d, while that of a contemporary pit winding engine was £192 15s 5d. The overall cost of the project exceeded £858, then a considerable sum. Difficulties abounded on both the operational and the legal front and in 1802 the new ship was abandoned at Grangemouth.
Symington had patented a new engine in 1801 and under a cloak of secrecy another ship was authorised by the canal company and built at Grangemouth. Known nowadays as the Charlotte Dundas II she was 18m (59ft) long and 5.5m (18ft) broad. There was a single paddle wheel positioned in a cut-away in the middle of the transom again powered by a single cylinder horizontal engine. On completion the ship was taken to Glasgow and in January 1803 towed two barges for 29km (18 miles) at approximately 3km/h (2mph). The occasion may have been historic, but the canal company decided it was time to withdraw from steamships. The story that the directors were concerned that the wash of the tug might damage the banks is less than credible: they withdrew because the cost for the two ships had escalated to £1,463. The
Charlotte Dundas II lay abandoned until 1808 when she was converted into a dredger.
more years in Scotland, and then fell upon hard times. He and his wife moved to London where he died in 1831 and was buried in St Botolph’s Church in Aldgate. While his name is remembered as that of a great pioneer in steam propulsion, it is sad to think that truly great success just eluded him. SOURCES: Harvey, W S, and Downs-Rose, G, William Symington: Inventor and Engine Builder London, 1980 Spratt, H Philip The Birth of the Steamboat London, 1958
Robert Fulton
1765–1815ROBERT FULTON WAS THE prototype of the successful and pragmatic American engineer; a man able to watch, to
listen and to adapt. In 1807 he built the world’s first commercially successful steamship.
Arrange me nt of a submarine craft propose d by Robe rt Fulton in the e arly nine te e nth ce ntury. (Author)
Born in Pennsylvania, Fulton moved to London in 1786. As his profession had been that of painter (miniatures held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania are ample evidence of this), the transatlantic journey was to enable him to study and further his career. Sadly while his skills may have eked out a living for him in Pennsylvania, they were not good enough for the more sophisticated London market, and soon he was living on the edge of poverty. However, painting was soon forgotten as he became engrossed in British industrialisation and in particular the development of the steam engine and the building of
canals. Here the artist’s powers of observation, a retentive memory and sheer determination enabled him in later years to become a developer of steamships and also submarines.
Taking advantage of a lull in the Napoleonic Wars, he left Britain after an eleven-year stay and made his way to Paris. There he met some of the French pioneers of steam navigation including the Marquis de Jouffroy d’Abbans whose remarkable steam-powered ship Pyroscaphe* had been tried on the River Saône in 1783. The full story of Fulton’s work is difficult to unravel, particularly as there are conflicting versions, something which is understandable when the rival and pioneer steam ship and engine builders were staking their claims on originality. However, it is believed that in 1803 he was involved, indeed he may even have built, a 23 m (75ft 5in) hull for the Seine with a single vertical-cylinder engine driving side paddles.
His feelings towards his former hosts the British were ambivalent, as within months of settling in France he had designed and offered a man-powered submarine, the Nautilus, to help break the British blockade. A working boat was built and tested in the Seine, but it was rejected by authorities, on the grounds that should France so arm itself, then the United Kingdom would follow. He also designed a fairly simple system of mines tethered to float just beneath the surface of the water, so as to detonate when ships passed over them. Again another rebuff, but according to one authority the idea was then offered to the British Prime Minister William Pitt and then to the US President Thomas Jefferson. Clearly national loyalty came second to the raising of revenue.
It is not clear where his financial backing was coming from, but by now Fulton was friendly with Robert Livingstone, the American Ambassador to France. Livingstone had previously purchased shipping concessions for the Hudson River in America and had been hunting around to find a builder of steam ships. Soon Fulton was back across the English Channel inspecting as many workshops building steam engines as possible, and it is known that he had meetings with James Watt at Boulton & Watt’s factory in Birmingham. There is anecdotal evidence that he visited William Symington and sailed on the Charlotte
Dundas II on the Forth and Clyde Canal, but while this is uncertain, it is quite clear that he had the
opportunity of seeing the plans of the ship’s machinery. Before leaving Britain he tried to interest the Admiralty in a spar torpedo fitted on the bow of a submarine – but again without success.
On returning to the United States, he had built a wooden hull of around 100 tons displacement and powered it with machinery imported from Boulton & Watt. This ship was the Clermont and starting in 1807 this ship would work the 241km (150-mile) stretch of the Hudson between Albany and New York, on a voyage lasting thirty-two hours. It was a significant step forward in inland navigation and made Fulton a wealthy man. He built several very fine ships including one named Chancellor Livingstone after his old friend and benefactor, and then in 1815, the year of his death, the USS Demologus, the first steam-
powered warship in the world. SOURCES: Flexner, James Thomas Steamboats Come True Boston, 1944 Spratt, H Philip The Birth of the Steamboat London, 1958 * A model of the Pyroscaphe can be seen in the Musée de la Marine, Paris. Incidentally, the earliest steamships operating as excursion vessels between St Petersburg and Kronstadt in Russia were known as Pyroscaphes, as at that time French was the second language, and the language of the Court, in Russia.