Hi Paddeduckers!,
Coincidently with Dereks 'cry' for more communications on the Paddleducks site, there is
a interesting article in the Melbourne 'AGE' - today -- Saturday 10 May 2003 -- regarding the
200th anniversary of the launching of the 'Charlotte Dundas'. For those who dont know, this ship is
considered to be the first practical steam powered paddlewheeler and was demonstrated in 1803
by towing two heavily laden barges a distance of 28 Kilometers in blustery conditions, conditions that
had every other boat unable to operate. Although a triumph for William Symington, the barge companies
insisted that paddle wash would damage the canals banks and refused to allow the craft to operate,
and it was not until some 20 years later that paddle boats regularly plied the canals of England.
Symington design was a single paddle located in the rear center of the hull, driven by crank, a la sternwheelers.,
the boat was quite small at 17 meters and designed to replace the tow horses used at the time.
Why the interest in Australia ? - well many of Symingtons decendents migrated to Australia in the 1850's
and brought with them models of the 'Charlotte Dundas', made from timber of the
original boat, one great granddaughter also had original watercolour drawings by William Symington
depicting his experiments with paddleboats & and other inventions. The Museum of Victoria owns
one of the models and had displayed this and other information on the importance of Symingtons invention
for many years in the original museum. ( the Museum recently moved to a new building complex)
These are now on displayed in The Immigration Museum, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia until 4 September 2003.
I had a look at
www.immigration.museum.gov.vic.au site but no information was there. ( maybe later ??)
A search on Google for 'Charlotte Dundas' located a couple of nice sites in the UK.
Cheers,
Brett S Hallett
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