No further attempt was made in Great Britain until 1801, when Lord Dundas engaged Symington to make a series of experiments on the substitution of steam power for horse towage of barges on the Forth and Clyde canal: experiments which resulted in the _Charlotte Dundas_. In this celebrated vessel a double-acting Watt engine, with its 22-inch diameter cylinder mounted horizontally on the deck, actuated, through a simple connecting-rod and a crank with a 4-foot throw, a paddlewheel which was carried in a centre-line recess at the stern. In March, ’03, Symington in the _Charlotte Dundas_ towed two 70-ton vessels nineteen miles against a strong head wind in six hours. Success seemed assured to him. His reputation was already high, and now an invitation came from the Duke of Bridgewater for eight similar tow-boats to ply on his canal. But the inventor’s hopes were disappointed. The Duke died suddenly, and the governing body of the Forth and Clyde canal vetoed the further use of steam vessels for fear of the damage the waves might cause the banks. Other bodies took the same view, and thus came to an end an important passage in the history of steam navigation. It is remarkable, considering the efforts which had been made by inventors from the sixteenth century onwards to improve on oar-propulsion for military purposes, that Miller, Symington, and their friends do not seem to have envisaged any use for steamboats other than as tugs on canals. It is remarkable that in the presence of this initial success neither the government nor the public showed any realization of the possibilities which it unfolded; that no attempt was made by commercial enterprise--even if, in the realm of naval strategy, such an innovation was regarded as impolitic or impracticable[138]--to develop its advantages and to secure an undisputed lead in the new application of steam power. [Illustration: THE “CHARLOTTE DUNDAS” (From Fincham.)] It was in America that the most persistent and continuous development took place, quite independently of efforts elsewhere and almost contemporaneously with those above described. America, whose geographical conditions made water transport relatively far more important than it was in Great Britain, lent a ready ear to the schemes of inventors. In 1784 James Rumsey, and shortly afterwards John Fitch, had already laid plans before General Washington for the propulsion of boats by steam.