Dalswinton Steamboat
The banker Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, just north of Dumfries, had experimented with double hulled pleasure boats propelled by cranked paddle-wheels placed between the hulls, and he got Symington to build the patent steam engine with its drive into a pleasure boat built in 1785 which was successfully tried out on Dalswinton Loch near Miller's house on 14 October 1788. The trial was said to have been a success. Later accounts would say that the boat went at 5 mph and that Robert Burns was on board, being a near neighbour living at Ellisland farm. However, if Burns was present, he failed to mention it in a letter he wrote on that day or in any of his verse. Certainly, the local minister and his son were on board and the latter reported the trial to Robert Cleland of Glasgow, who wrote that the trial failed and the boat had to be helped by hand cranks. The experiment did ultimately demonstrate, however, that a steam engine would work on a boat.
Alexander Nasmyth depicted her on her trial run. A version of the illustration held by the Science Museum in London, Ref No. 0307379 shows her flying a red saltire, presumably a lithographer's mistake. James Nasmyth in his autobiography published in 1883 stated erroneously that she was built of tinned iron plate.
Read more about this topic: William Symington
Famous quotes containing the word steamboat:
“We approached the Indian Island through the narrow strait called “Cook.” He said, “I ‘xpect we take in some water there, river so high,—never see it so high at this season. Very rough water there, but short; swamp steamboat once. Don’t paddle till I tell you, then you paddle right along.” It was a very short rapid. When we were in the midst of it he shouted “paddle,” and we shot through without taking in a drop.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)