Page "William Symington" Paragraph 8

The banker Patrick Miller of Dalswinton, just north of Dumfries, had experimented with double hulled pleasure boats propelled by cranked paddle-wheels placed between the hulls, and he got Symington to build the patent steam engine with its drive into a pleasure boat built in 1785 which was successfully tried out on Dalswinton Loch near Miller's house on 14 October 1788.

The trial was said to have been a success.

Later accounts would say that the boat went at 5 mph and that Robert Burns was on board, being a near neighbour living at Ellisland farm.

However, if Burns was present, he failed to mention it in a letter he wrote on that day or in any of his verse.

Certainly, the local minister and his son were on board and the latter reported the trial to Robert Cleland of Glasgow, who wrote that the trial failed and the boat had to be helped by hand cranks.

The experiment did ultimately demonstrate, however, that a steam engine would work on a boat.