LETTER FROM ROBERT RANKINE TO HIS PARENTS 1 DECEMBER 1909

Writing at the request of his father,  Robert Rankine conveys information about the Symington relics in the Melbourne Museum in this letter. Under the letterhead "The Commonwealth Military stores, Rankine, Dobbie & Co. 152-154 (The Strand), Elizabeth Street, Melbourne" and dated Dec. 1st. 1909, he wrote: [1]

"I went up to the museum the first thing after reaching town and the curator told me that the model had been stored down in the cellars for the last 2 years but he would have it opened and the key found if I could come yesterday so Kenneth met me and we went up.

There are 4 exhibits made up as follows.

1. Plaster cast of Symington (Bust) made I fancy from the small photo in the Dundas frame which you have. Unlike the Stephenson bust it is draped & there is no coat. It is fairly good considering that it has probably been made from the photo.

2. On old document size about 14x12 (parchment) consisting of about 8 pages, the whole in Latin, purporting to be the original patent granted to W.S. for the marine engine of the C.D. The endorsement on the outside fold is very dirty but reads as nearly as possible CARTA DON:ONLIELMI SYMINGTON INVENTIONAE GNOE INTI SCRIPT 1801. There is a registration number at foot which reads IN 4418. This probably indicates Patent No. 4418. The whole thing is so dirty that I hardly hope that the wording I am sending is exact, but with the context I anticipate that there should be no great difficulty in tracing it.

Every page is signed at the foot by James Dundas  & also by A.D. Wilson and on the last page following reading matter it is signed as follows: Edinburgh 22 July 1802 Signed A.D. Wilson, Subs (this last word is almost unreadable) £80 Scots.

Exhibit 3 Is a piece of cardboard on which is pasted 2 litho prints in line drawing, the one a facsimile of the longitudinal section of the first boat (the 2 wheels) the same as shewn in your book. This would appear to have been copied from your book and was printed by W. Annan, High Street, Croydon (I presume Surrey) there is no date or any accompanying letterpress but written at the side is a statement that it is a drawing of the first steamboat and at the foot in good clear writing are 2 initials D.F.

The other print is of the Charlotte Dundas and is not the same quite as yours nor does it correspond quite with our model and while there is no printers imprint on it there is no doubt in my own mind from close observation that it also was produced by W. Annan.

Exhibit 4. Model of the Charlotte Dundas. The model is about 2 feet long & painted black. The essential differences between our model and this one are.-

The bows are not nearly so bluff; there is no mast or provision for one; in place of the small capstan for steering purposes they have a ships wheel lying flat on the deck so that unless the man was sitting or lying on the deck he could not turn it. There is a cabin hatch forward. 

The engine in our boat is in the same position as in the other model but their boiler (which is of wood) shews 2 furnace doors and also 2 other square openings in the same end above the doors. The engine is entirely below deck and while it has one cylinder it differs substantially from ours, the 2 big cranks, which stand above the deck in our boat, being absent. 

The paddle wheel is situated midway between the stern and the end of the engine space and does not cut through the stern as in our model. The stern is quite square and nothing like ours except that the 2 rudders are there.

The model is described on a piece of paper, evidently in the writing of D.F. previously mentioned  as Symington's own model and made by him.

It is especially interesting to note that the model is not the same as shewn in the drawing exhibited in the same glass case.

The William Symington of Bacchus Marsh is well known to the Curator of the Museum, he describes him as a tall dark man with black beard about 50-55 years of age. ..."

[1] A typed extract from this letter, no doubt provided by David Bell, is to be found in the files of the Glasgow Museum of Transport. The second sheet of the original letter has been lost.