Elated by his success, Symington returned to Scotland to make arrangements for carrying out the orders of his Grace with the hope of realizing the advantages his ingenuity and perseverance so well merited; but he was disappointed in his hopes, the Duke of Bridgewater died before the details of the agreement had been definitely arranged, and the Committee who had charge of the affairs of the canal after his death, came to the conclusion that it would not be advisable to use steamboats on it for fear of injury to its banks. We may presume that the Forth and Clyde Canal Company arrived at somewhat similar conclusions, for the _Charlotte Dundas_ does not appear to have been again used. Here it may be desirable to add that the _Charlotte Dundas_ had an engine with the steam acting on each side of the piston (Watt’s patented invention) working a connecting rod and crank (Pickard’s patented invention)[64] together with the union of the crank to the axis of Miller’s improved paddle-wheel, thus combining for the first time the essential characteristics of the existing marine engines: nevertheless, she was laid up in a creek of the canal near to Bramford Drawbridge, where she remained for many years exposed to public view, as a curiosity—doubtless, also, as a warning to speculators![65] Symington’s limited means were now nearly exhausted, and the little that remained was expended in defending himself from attacks made on him by the relations of Mr. Taylor for having patented, as they alleged, the inventions of that gentleman. But the contentions of rival parties, _inter se_, rarely deserve commemoration except for the elucidation of the truth. It is, however, to be regretted that each of those persons who respectively contributed to the maturity of this invention, did not reap more material advantages from it in return for the time and labour they bestowed in perfecting a machine which has done so much for the benefit of mankind. In 1797, an experiment in canal steam navigation, copied no doubt from Symington’s original boat, was made in the neighbourhood of Liverpool, which is alluded to as follows in the _Monthly Magazine_ for July of that year:—“Lately, at Newton Common in Lancashire, a vessel, heavy laden with copper slag, passed along the Sankey Canal without the aid of haulers or rowers, the oars performing eighteen strokes a minute by the application of _steam only_! After a course of 10 miles the vessel returned the same evening by the same means to St. Helens whence she had set out.”