She was built under the patronage of Lord Dundas, and was intended to be used for towing on the Forth and Clyde Canal, but the proprietors of the canal would not adopt this new method of propulsion; they feared that the wash from the wheels would damage the canal banks. So the _Charlotte Dundas_, successful though she was to a certain extent, had to be beached and broken up. But Fulton and Bell both inspected her, and we may infer that what they saw, influenced their subsequent action. The engine of the _Charlotte Dundas_ was of the “double action” character, introduced by Watt, and it turned a crank in the paddle wheel shaft. The wheel was placed at the stern; and boats with their wheels thus placed are still made for use in particular places. Thus Messrs. Yarrow built one in 1892, to voyage in the shallow rivers and lagoons on the west coast of Africa; the idea being that a screw-propeller would have been likely to become fouled with weeds. The _Charlotte Dundas_, we say, has been regarded as the “first practically successful steamboat ever built.” No doubt it was so, and the credit must be largely given to William Symington. But his success, and that which crowned the labours of others, were rendered possible by the inventions and improvements of James Watt. Others had experimented before Symington. Thus, if royal records in Spain may be trusted, a certain Blasco de Garay exhibited a steam vessel, in 1543, at Barcelona. He placed a large cauldron of boiling water in the ship, and a wheel on each side. Certain opinions concerning it were favourable, and Blasco was rewarded; but the invention was kept secret, and appears to have died. Then, in 1655, the Marquis of Worcester is said to have invented something like navigation by steam. Later on, Jonathan Hulls took out a patent for a paddle steam vessel in 1736; and among others, in England, France, and America, the Marquis de Jouffroy made a steamer which was tried at Lyons, in 1783. Then, in 1787, Patrick Miller is said to have patented paddle wheels in Britain. Miller was a retired gentleman at Dalswinton, in Dumfriesshire, who took much interest in mechanical affairs. He experimented with paddle wheels, and he also endeavoured to improve naval building. At first the wheels appear to have been turned by men, and there came a day when a double boat of Miller’s, worked by a couple of wheels with two men to turn each wheel, sailed with a Custom House boat, and the need of more efficient motive power to revolve the wheels became very marked. Then the idea of steam navigation was born, or re-born.