Charlotte Dundas (first practical steam tug)
Charlotte Dundas (primer remolcador de vapor práctico)
- Date
- 1802 · confidence high
- Place
- Forth and Clyde Canal, Falkirk, Scotland, United Kingdom
- Credited to
- William Symington
- Field
- Movement
What it is
A tug with a double-acting steam engine connected directly to a stern paddle wheel that towed two 70-ton barges for 30 km along the canal. It is regarded as the first truly practical steamboat.
Fulton travelled to see it in 1801; the canal banned its use for fear of wash damaging the banks and the vessel fell into disuse.
What it led to
- Fulton's Clermont (1807)
- steam tugs
- the ban on steam towing in the canal because of bank erosion