This sad photograph reveals the derelict state of the Charlotte Dundas as she lay in the Forth and Clyde canal at Summerford. The vessel is in a state of near total disintegration, her ribs protruding above the bleak waters of the canal.

After her much publicised and successful trial in March 1803, the Charlotte Dundas was laid aside. Some of the proprietors of the Canal Company were concerned that a disturbance of the water by the paddle wheel would damage the banks of the canal. By June 1806 the surveyor for the Forth and Clyde Navigation Company found her lying at Bainsford and he recommended conversion to a dredger for removing mud and sand from the canal entries. [1]

On 26th February 1808, the Committee of the Forth and Clyde Navigation finally resolved to have the steam boat converted into a “dragging machine” for cleaning out the basins and harbours of the canal. [2]

After being employed in this menial capacity, the illustrious vessel sat for many years in a slip of the canal near the Bainsford drawbridge.  She was later removed to a wide place in the canal called Top Hill Entry, to the west of the Falkirk township, and was abandoned there in the mud on the south side of the canal between Locks 9 and 10, where she lay until she was broken up. [3]  

In the summer, children from Falkirk would come to bathe at Top Hill, where the Charlotte Dundas lay to the west of one or two other discarded hulks of no particular historical interest.  A correspondent to the Falkirk Herald recalled the scene: “there was not a spot on the Forth and Clyde Canal better known to the school bairns of Falkirk than the auld boats at Top Hill.  There it was in summer that they came in bands to bathe” and the more daring “used to go through a number of aquatic feats to the great delight of younger or less resolute companions.  To dive into the water from the bows of the Charlotte Dundas was one of preparatory steps before taking a header from the masonry or swing bar of the ‘ravel’ lock into the lower reach of the canal.” [4]

In 1931 Robert Dollar, a native of Falkirk, wrote of his boyhood experiences with the ruined vessel: "as a boy, more than seventy-five years ago, I used to play upon the deck of this historic boat. She was abandoned in the mud in a wide place in the Forth and Clyde Canal called the Top Hill Entry, on the South side of the canal, between Locks Nine and Ten. She had outlived her usefulness and lay there neglected. Her deck was a few inches above the water and provided an ideal place for the boys to strip off and go in swimming." Two elements of her construction impressed his young mind: the opening in the stern and that she had two rudders. [5]

Eventually the hull of the Charlotte Dundas was broken up in 1862 and some people from the neighbourhood secured sections of her timbers.  A local farmer, Mr. Ralph Stark, held a considerable quantity of her “ribs” and he had proposed to offer these remains for sale.  Robert Wilson, shipbuilder of Port Downie, purchased the remains from the Canal Company. [6] From these remains, many articles of furniture were made, including a chair owned by W. H. Rankine, co-author of the 1862 “Biography of William Symington.” The Marquis of Zetland occupied that very chair in 1893 when he laid the foundation stone of the new Established Church which was adjacent to W.H. Rankine's residence at Laurieston.[7] From these timbers, John Rankine built his acclaimed model of the Charlotte Dundas, a copy of which was made for the Science Museum in London. Rankine also framed an engraving of the inventor in wood from the Charlotte Dundas.

Charlotte Dundas relics were displayed at the 1888 Glasgow International Exhibition. T.B. Seath & Co., shipbuilders of Rutherglen, had a display cabinet in the section relating to naval architecture and engineering which contained ship models and included "The remains of Symington's 'Charlotte Dundas', the first practical steamboat, which were handed to us by Ralph Starke, (sic) Esq., of Summerford, Camelon, on whose premises she lay until broken up." [8]

A forefoot of the Charlotte Dundas came into the possession of Provost Bogle of Falkirk. [9] Some of the wood was used in the pulpit of Camelon Church; the gavel used by the St. John Lodge of Freemasons at Falkirk had the same origin. [10]

There is reference to an “excellent little picture of the boat as she lay wasting in the creek” which was painted by James S. Stewart in about 1852.  Around 1860, Mr. John Aitken of Darroch produced a stereoscopic negative of the hull. (note photograph above) [11]

[1] SRO BR. FCN.1/14 page 398

[2] SRO BR. FCN 1/15 Page 78

[3] Dollar, Robert, One Hundred Thirty Years of Steam Navigation A History of the Merchant Ship

[4] The Falkirk Herald & Midland Counties Journal, Wednesday June 5 1901 page 5, columns A-C

[5] Dollar, Robert, One Hundred Thirty Years of Steam Navigation A History of the Merchant Ship

[6] Stirling Observer 13 August 1863 page 6

[7] Falkirk Herald 5 August 1893 page 6

[8] Falkirk Herald, March 8, 1911, page 5. 

[89 Official Catalogue of the International Exhibition Glasgow 1888, T. & A. Constable, Second Edition, Item 252, page 100

[10] Note also correspondence concerning Charlotte Dundas relics in the Glasgow Herald, December,1908, January 16, 1909 (page 6 column 8) and January 18, 1909.

[11] Gillespie, Robert, Round About Falkirk. Glasgow James Maclehose 1868

THE REMAINS OF THE FIRST STEAMBOAT BUILT FOR LORD DUNDAS  1801

The first vessel William Symington built for Lord Dundas, the forerunner to the renowned Steamboat of 1803, was referred to as the “Experiment” and also, perhaps, as the Lady Dundas.

A report headed "The last of the First Steam-boat" appeared in the 27 October 1838 issue of the Mechanics' Magazine. [1] The hull of a vessel had been unearthed during works at the eastern extremity of the Forth and Clyde canal. The work was to fill the course of a stream (the Grange Burn) which had run into the harbour of Grangemouth. The reporter presumed the hull to be the remains of Patrick Miller's 1789 steamboat.

However, Dr. Bowie took a different view and his response was published in the following issue of the Magazine. [2] He wrote that Miller's 1789 vessel had been dismantled at Grangemouth and removed to Bruce-Haven. This was later confirmed by Miller's son. [3] Bruce Haven was a small harbour on the north bank of the Firth of Forth and Miller was the proprietor. Bowie maintained that the remains at Grangemouth were from the hull of the first steamboat which William Symington had constructed for Lord Dundas and which had towed vessels on the canal in 1801.

Thereafter, the hull was undisturbed for another twenty years until it was rediscovered in 1858. Her remains were then exhumed from the mud during further excavations to extend the Junction Basin of the canal at the Grangemouth Docks.

This discovery was reported in the Falkirk Herald of 29th July 1858: 

DISCOVERY OF THE HULL OF A STEAM BOAT – The Excavation for extending the Junction Basin proceeds as well as could be expected considering the unfavourable state of the weather.  Looking at the operations we were surprised to observe the workmen employed removing the stuff from, what appeared to us, a vessel, and, on enquiry, we were told it was the remains of the Experiment, the old ballast boat, and formerly the first Steamboat built by the late Mr. Symington, engineer, Falkirk, in which an engine was placed as a propelling power for steam navigation, and successfully tried on the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1801, but afterwards interdicted by the Canal Company, on account of the surge injuring the banks.  We were told that, previous to the vessel being submerged in the former Grange burn, above twenty years ago, several bits of its timbers were sent to London and elsewhere, and, no doubt, converted into snuff-boxes or other nic-nacs.  The timbers are as fresh as ever, although darker in colour and it is likely as soon as the stuff is cleaned away, and the vessel broke up, that there will be many applicants again for bits of the timber to commemorate one of the stupendous and successful events that has ever taken place namely, the application of steam to the propelling of ships, by which the intercourse of nations has so largely been facilitated”. [4]

[1] Mechanics' Magazine 27 October 1838 Number 794, Volume XXX page 64

[2] Mechanics' Magazine 3 November 1838 Number 795, Volume XXX page 67

[3] Miller, Major General W.H., Letter to Bennet Woodcroft, 16 June 1862

[4] Falkirk Herald, July 29, 1858, page 3, column 6