Like many inventions, a number of people can be credited with the development of the steamboat. As early as 1690 the French inventor Denis Papin used a steam engine similar to that of Thomas Newcomen to drive a paddle wheel boat. When he sailed a successful model of his vessel down the Fulda River in 1707, Papin was attacked by boatmen who, fearing for their livelihood, destroyed his craft. Thirty years later Englishman Jonathan Hulls (1699-1758) patented a design for a steam-driven boat, but his proposed engine was so large that the boat would have sunk under its weight. In 1783 the Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans designed and built a 150-foot (45 m) ship that used a more efficient steam engine designed by James Watt. It was successfully piloted on a river near Lyons, France, for over a year but the Marquis could not generate enough financial interest in the project...