Two centuries of shipbuilding by the Scotts at Greenock

The Development of the Steamship.
CLOSE association existed between the
Scotts and the family of James Watt,
the inventor of the steam engine : the
founder of the Scotts' shipbuilding firm
and the father of Watt were identified
with several schemes for the improve-
ment of Greenock ; and the signature
of John Scott, of the third generation, whose portrait is the
second reproduced on Plate II., is taken from a document
in connection with some intromissions of town's funds, to
which also is adhibited the signature of Watt's father.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the Scotts were
early close students of Watt's inventive work, and among
the first to enter upon the building of steamships; while
at the same time, as we have shown in the preceding
pages, building many of the fine sailing ships which
established British shipping supremacy in the early half
of the nineteenth century, and raised Greenock by 1829 to
a port having trade with every part of the world.
Miller and Taylor commenced their experiments at
Dalswinton in 1788, with a steam engine driving paddle-
wheels in boats 1 . Symington's steam tug, Cliarlotte Dundas,
1 Woodcroft's " Steam Navigation," page 20, etc.