<P> The first steam - powered ship Pyroscaphe was a paddle steamer powered by a Newcomen steam engine ; it was built in France in 1783 by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy and his colleagues as an improvement of an earlier attempt , the 1776 Palmipède . At its first demonstration on 15 July 1783 , Pyroscaphe travelled upstream on the river Saône for some fifteen minutes before the engine failed . Presumably this was easily repaired as the boat is said to have made several such journeys . Following this , De Jouffroy attempted to get the government interested in his work , but for political reasons was instructed that he would have to build another version on the Seine in Paris . De Jouffroy did not have the funds for this , and , following the events of the French revolution , work on the project was discontinued after he left the country . </P>
<P> The first steam - powered ship Pyroscaphe was a paddle steamer powered by a Newcomen steam engine ; it was built in France in 1783 by Marquis Claude de Jouffroy and his colleagues as an improvement of an earlier attempt , the 1776 Palmipède . At its first demonstration on 15 July 1783 , Pyroscaphe travelled upstream on the river Saône for some fifteen minutes before the engine failed . Presumably this was easily repaired as the boat is said to have made several such journeys . Following this , De Jouffroy attempted to get the government interested in his work , but for political reasons was instructed that he would have to build another version on the Seine in Paris . De Jouffroy did not have the funds for this , and , following the events of the French revolution , work on the project was discontinued after he left the country . </P>
when was the steam powered paddle boat invented
when was the steam powered paddle boat invented
1783
1783