- Back in Time - the birth and history of motorboating
BY RICHARD CROWDER
Dorothy Levitt helming the Napier motor yacht 1903. This is assumed to be Poole Harbour or possibly Cork Harbour. Image credit: Wikipedia
Adding a motor to a boat is said to have started in the late 1700s when Scottish inventor James Watt, often erroneously credited with the invention of the steam engine, placed one such engine in a boat in Birmingham, England. Many steam-powered boats followed, some using a screw-type propeller to create motion as Watt did but most utilizing paddlewheels.