A riverboat is a

watercraft Any vehicle used in or on water as well as underwater, including boats, ships, hovercraft and submarines, is a watercraft, also known as a water vessel or waterborne vessel. A watercraft usually has a propulsive capability (whether by sail ...

designed for inland navigation on

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much lar ...

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the ...

s, and artificial

waterway A waterway is any navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other languages. A first distinction is necessary ...

s. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury units constructed for entertainment enterprises, such as lake or harbour tour boats. As larger water craft, virtually all riverboats are especially designed and constructed, or alternatively, constructed with special-purpose features that optimize them as riverine or lake service craft, for instance,

dredger Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing d ...

s, survey boats, fisheries management craft,

fireboat A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipm ...

s and law enforcement patrol craft.

Design differences

Riverboats are usually less sturdy than ships built for the open seas, with limited navigational and rescue equipment, as they do not have to withstand the high winds or large waves characteristic to large lakes, seas or oceans. They can thus be built from light composite materials. They are limited in size by width and depth of the river as well as the height of bridges spanning the river. They can be designed with shallow drafts, as were the paddle wheel steamers on the Mississippi River that could operate in water under two metres deep. While a ferry is often used to cross a river, a riverboat is used to travel along the course of the river, while carrying passengers or cargo, or both, for revenue. (Vessels like ' riverboat casinos' are not considered here, as they are essentially stationary.) The significance of riverboats is dependent on the number of navigable rivers and channels as well as the condition of the

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

and rail network. Generally speaking, riverboats provide slow but cheap transport especially suited for bulk cargo and containers.

History

As early as 20,000 BC people started fishing in rivers and lakes using rafts and

dugouts Dugout may refer to: * Dugout (shelter), an underground shelter * Dugout (boat), a logboat * Dugout (smoking), a marijuana container Sports * In bat-and-ball sports, a dugout is one of two areas where players of the home or opposing teams sit whe ...

. Roman sources dated 50 BC mention extensive transportation of goods and people on the river

Rhine The Rhine ; french: Rhin ; nl, Rijn ; wa, Rén ; li, Rien; rm, label=Sursilvan, Rein, rm, label=Sutsilvan and Surmiran, Ragn, rm, label=Rumantsch Grischun, Vallader and Puter, Rain; it, Reno ; gsw, Rhi(n), including in Alsatian dialect, Al ...

. Upstream, boats were usually powered by

sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...

s or oars. In the Middle Ages, towpaths were built along most waterways to use

working animals A working animal is an animal, usually domesticated, that is kept by humans and trained to perform tasks instead of being slaughtered to harvest animal products. Some are used for their physical strength (e.g. oxen and draft horses) or fo ...

or people to pull riverboats. In the 19th century, steamboats became common. The most famous riverboats were on the rivers of the midwestern and central southern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, on the

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Mis ...

Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Of the List of states and territories of the United States, fifty U.S. states, it is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 34th-l ...

and

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

rivers in the early 19th century. Out west, riverboats were common transportation on the

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...

Columbia Columbia may refer to: * Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America Places North America Natural features * Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...

, and

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

rivers. These American riverboats were designed to draw very little water, and in fact it was commonly said that they could "navigate on a heavy dew"."Boating on the Ohio". ''Machinery'', Lester Gray French, ed. Industrial Press, vol. 6, July 1900, p. 334. Australia has a history of riverboats. Australia's biggest river, the Murray, has an inland port called Echuca. Many large riverboats were working on the Murray, but now a lower water level is stopping them. The Kalgan River in Western Australia has had two main riverboats, the ''Silver Star'', 1918 to 1935, would lower her funnel to get under the low bridge. Today, the ''Kalgan Queen'' riverboat takes tourists up the river to taste the local wines. She lowers her roof to get under the same bridge. It is these early steam-driven river craft that typically come to mind when " steamboat" is mentioned, as these were powered by burning wood, with iron boilers drafted by a pair of tall smokestacks belching smoke and cinders, and twin double-acting pistons driving a large paddlewheel at the stern, churning foam. This type of propulsion was an advantage as a rear paddlewheel operates in an area clear of snags, is easily repaired, and is not likely to suffer damage in a grounding. By burning wood, the boat could consume fuel provided by woodcutters along the shore of the river. These early boats carried a brow (a short bridge) on the bow, so they could head in to an unimproved shore for transfer of cargo and passengers. Modern riverboats are generally screw (propeller)-driven, with pairs of

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-ca ...

s of several thousand horsepower. The standard reference for the development of the steamboat is ''Steamboats on Western Rivers: An Economic and Technological History'' by

Louis C. Hunter Louis C. Hunter (1898 – 1984) was a professor of economic history at American University. His most famous work, ''Steamboats on the Western Rivers, an Economic and Technological History'', was published in 1949.Hunter, Louis C. (1949). ''Steambo ...

(1949).

Terrace, British Columbia Terrace is a city located near the Skeena River in British Columbia, Canada. The community is the regional retail and service hub for the northwestern portion of British Columbia. With a current population of over 12,000 within municipal boundarie ...

, Canada, celebrates "Riverboat Days" each summer. The Skeena River passes through Terrace and played a crucial role during the age of the steamboat. The first steam-powered vessel to enter the Skeena was the ''Union'' in 1864. In 1866 the ''Mumford'' attempted to ascend the river but was only able to reach the

Kitsumkalum River Kitsumkalum is an original tribe/ galts'ap (community) of the Tsimshian Nation. Kitsumkalum is one of the 14 tribes of the Tsimshian nation in British Columbia, Canada. Kitsumkalum and is also the name of one of their Indian Reserve just west of th ...

. It was not until 1891 that the Hudson's Bay Company sternwheeler the ''Caledonia'' successfully negotiated through the Kitselas Canyon and reached Hazelton. A number of other steamers were built around the turn of the century, in part due to the growing fish industry and the

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Z ...

.''Pioneer Legacy - Chronicles of the Lower Skeena River - Volume 1'', Norma V. Bennett, 1997, The '' WT Preston'', a

museum ship A museum ship, also called a memorial ship, is a ship that has been preserved and converted into a museum open to the public for educational or memorial purposes. Some are also used for training and recruitment purposes, mostly for the small num ...

that was once a specialised river dredge, also called a "snagboat".

Modern riverboats

Luxury tourist transport

Some large riverboats are comparable in accommodation, food service, and entertainment to a modern oceanic

cruise ship Cruise ships are large passenger ships used mainly for vacationing. Unlike ocean liners, which are used for transport, cruise ships typically embark on round-trip voyages to various ports-of-call, where passengers may go on Tourism, tours know ...

. Tourist boats provide a scenic and relaxing trip through the segment they operate in. On the Yangtze River, typically employees have double duties: both as serving staff and as evening-costumed dancers. Image:MVSplendidChina.jpg, A riverboat on the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flow ...

Image:Wilriver.jpg, A riverboat on the

Willamette River The Willamette River ( ) is a major tributary of the Columbia River, accounting for 12 to 15 percent of the Columbia's flow. The Willamette's main stem is long, lying entirely in northwestern Oregon in the United States. Flowing northward ...

, Oregon File:BelleOfLouisville.jpg, '' Belle of Louisville'' File:American queen.jpg, '' American Queen'' File:RiverboatNatchez.jpg, '' Natchez'' Smaller luxury craft (without entertainment) operate on European waterways - both rivers and canals, with some providing bicycle and van side trips to smaller villages.

High-speed passenger transport

High-speed boats such as those shown here had a special advantage in some operations in the free-running Yangtze. In several locations within the Three Gorges, one-way travel was enforced through fast narrows. While less maneuverable and deeper draft vessels were obliged to wait for clearance, these high-speed boats were free to zip past waiting traffic by running in the shallows.

Local and low-cost passenger transport

Smaller riverboats are used in urban and suburban areas for sightseeing and public transport. Sightseeing boats can be found in Amsterdam, Paris, and other touristic cities where historical monuments are located near water. The concept of local waterborn public transport is known as water taxi in English-speaking countries, vaporetto in Venice, water/river tramway in

former Soviet Union The post-Soviet states, also known as the former Soviet Union (FSU), the former Soviet Republics and in Russia as the near abroad (russian: links=no, ближнее зарубежье, blizhneye zarubezhye), are the 15 sovereign states that wer ...

and Poland (although sightseeing boats can be called water tramways too). Local waterborne public transport is similar to ferry. The transport craft shown below is used for short-distance carriage of passengers between villages and small cities along the Yangtze, while larger craft are used for low-cost carriage over longer distance, without the fancy food or shows seen on the tourist riverboats. In some cases, the traveller must provide their own food. Image:Van Gogh boat.JPG, Sightseeing boat in Amsterdam Image:Moskvich M236(2).jpg, River tramway Moskvitch in Moscow Image:NY_Water_Taxi_East_River.jpg, New York Water Taxi Image:Venice Vaporetto.jpg, Vaporetto in Venice Image:PracticalRiverTransport.jpg, Low-cost transport in China

Goods transport

Multimodal

As the major rivers in China are mostly east-west, most rail and road transport are typically north-south. As roads along the rivers are inadequate for heavy truck transport and in some cases extremely dangerous, drive-on/drive-off ramp barges are used to transport trucks. In many cases the trucks transported are new and are being delivered to customers or dealers. Perhaps unique to China, the new trucks observed traveling upstream were all blue, while the new trucks traveling downstream were all white.

Bulk cargo

Low-value goods are transported on rivers and canals worldwide, since slow-speed barge traffic offers the lowest possible cost per ton mile and the capital cost per ton carried is also quite low compared to other modes of transport. Image:CargoRiverboat.jpg, Cargo riverboat Image:River boat cargo.jpg, Riverboat used for bulk cargo transport Image:Sternwheeler Inlander.jpg, SS ''Inlander'' on the Skeena River at Kitselas Canyon, 1911