Marine propulsion by steam engine was first achieved in 1783 when the Marquis Jouffroy d’Abbans (1751-1832) ascended a reach of the river Saône near Lyon, France, in the 180-tonne (397,000 lb) paddle steamer Pyroscaphe.

The first successful power-driven vessel was the tug Charlotte Dundas, a stern paddle-wheel steamer built for the Forth and Clyde Canal in 1801-2 by William Symington (1763-1831), using a double-acting condensing engine constructed by James Watt (1736-1819).