Charlotte Dundas
Charlotte Dundas cut-away drawing by Robert Bowie
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| History | |
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 Scotland
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| Name: | Charlotte Dundas |
| Namesake: | Lady Charlotte Dundas (daughter of Lord Dundas) |
| Owner: | Lord Dundas |
| Builder: | John Allan |
| Maiden voyage: | 4 January 1803 |
| Fate: | Broken up, 1861 |
| Notes: |
Designed by William Symington (1764–1831) Model of Charlotte Dundas kept in Victoria Museum, Melbourne, Australia |
| General characteristics | |
| Type: | Paddle steamer |
| Length: | 56 ft (17 m) |
| Beam: | 18 ft (5.5 m) |
| Depth of hold: | 8 ft (2.4 m) |
| Propulsion: |
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| Speed: | 2 mph (3.2 km/h) |
Designed by William Symington (1764–1831)
Charlotte Dundas is regarded as the world's second successful steamboat, the first towing steamboat and the boat that demonstrated the practicality of steam power for ships.
Development of experimental steam engined paddle boats by William Symington 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 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 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 to Symington's design with a vertical cylinder engine and crosshead transmitting power to a crank driving the paddlewheels. Trials on the River Carron in June 1801 were successful. This first boat may have been named Charlotte Dundas and the trials apparently included towing sloops from the river Forth up the Carron and thence along the Forth and Clyde Canal. 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.
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.
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 56 ft (17.1 m) long, 18 ft (5.5 m) wide and 8 ft (2.4 m) 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.
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Wikipedia