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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 sai ...
designed for
inland navigation Inland navigation, inland barge transport or inland waterway transport (IWT) is a transport system allowing ships and barges to use inland waterways (such as canals, rivers and lakes). These waterways have inland ports, marinas, quays, and wharfs. ...
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 large ...
s,
river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of ...
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 da ...
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 equipme ...
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 A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...
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 casino A riverboat casino is a type of casino on a riverboat found in several states in the United States with frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, or along the Gulf Coast. Several states authorized this type of casino in order to e ...
s' 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 o ...
and
rail Rail or rails may refer to: Rail transport *Rail transport and related matters *Rail (rail transport) or railway lines, the running surface of a railway Arts and media Film * ''Rails'' (film), a 1929 Italian film by Mario Camerini * ''Rail'' ( ...
network. Generally speaking, riverboats provide slow but cheap transport especially suited for
bulk cargo Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate form, as a mass of relatively small solids, such as petroleum/ crude oi ...
and
containers A container is any receptacle or enclosure for holding a product used in storage, packaging, and transportation, including shipping. Things kept inside of a container are protected on several sides by being inside of its structure. The ter ...
.


History

As early as 20,000 BC people started fishing in rivers and lakes using
raft A raft is any flat structure for support or transportation over water. It is usually of basic design, characterized by the absence of a hull. Rafts are usually kept afloat by using any combination of buoyant materials such as wood, sealed barrels ...
s and dugouts. Roman sources dated 50 BC mention extensive transportation of goods and people on the river
Rhine ), Surselva, Graubünden, Switzerland , source1_coordinates= , source1_elevation = , source2 = Rein Posteriur/Hinterrhein , source2_location = Paradies Glacier, Graubünden, Switzerland , source2_coordinates= , source ...
. 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,
towpath A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...
s were built along most waterways to use working animals or people to pull riverboats. In the 19th century,
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
s became common. The most famous riverboats were on the rivers of the
midwest The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
ern 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 Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
, 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. Miss ...
,
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 state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
rivers in the early 19th century. Out west, riverboats were common transportation on the
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the 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 western edge of the ...
,
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 i ...
, 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 Murray may refer to: Businesses * Murray (bicycle company), an American manufacturer of low-cost bicycles * Murrays, an Australian bus company * Murray International Trust, a Scottish investment trust * D. & W. Murray Limited, an Australian who ...
, has an inland port called
Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative centre and larges ...
. Many large riverboats were working on the Murray, but now a lower water level is stopping them. The
Kalgan River The Kalgan River is a river in the Great Southern region of Western Australia. Geography The river is long and, along with the King River, drains into Oyster Harbour. The lower 9 km of the river take the form of a drowned river vall ...
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 A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
" 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-cal ...
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 (1949). Terrace, British Columbia, Canada, celebrates "Riverboat Days" each summer. The
Skeena River The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose n ...
passes through Terrace and played a crucial role during the age of the
steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
. 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 Kitselas Canyon, also Kitsalas Canyon is a stretch of the Skeena River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, between the community of Usk and the Tsimshian community of Kitselas. It was a major obstacle to steamboat travel on the Skeena R ...
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 ...
.''Pioneer Legacy - Chronicles of the Lower Skeena River - Volume 1'', Norma V. Bennett, 1997, The ''
WT Preston ''W. T. Preston'' is a specialized sternwheeler that operated as a snagboat, removing log jams and natural debris that prevented river navigation on several Puget Sound-area rivers. She is now the centerpiece of the Snagboat Heritage Center in ...
'', 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 numb ...
that was once a specialised river
dredge 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 da ...
, 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 tours known as ...
. 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 flows ...
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 b ...
, Oregon File:BelleOfLouisville.jpg, ''
Belle of Louisville ''Belle of Louisville'' is a steamboat owned and operated by the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and moored at its downtown wharf next to the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere during its annual operational period. The steamboat claims itself the "most wi ...
'' 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 The Three Gorges () are three adjacent gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, in the hinterland of the People's Republic of China. With a subtropical monsoon climate, they are known for their scenery. The "Three Gorges Scenic A ...
, one-way travel was enforced through fast
narrows A narrows or narrow (used interchangeably but usually in the plural form), is a restricted land or water passage. Most commonly a narrows is a strait, though it can also be a water gap. A narrows may form where a stream passes through a tilted ...
. 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 A water taxi or a water bus is a watercraft used to provide public or private transport, usually, but not always, in an urban environment. Service may be scheduled with multiple stops, operating in a similar manner to a bus, or ...
in English-speaking countries,
vaporetto The vaporetto is a Venetian public waterbus. There are 19 scheduled lines that serve locales within Venice, and travel between Venice and nearby islands, such as Murano, Burano, and Lido. The name, ''vaporetto'', could be translated as "litt ...
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 Moskvitch (russian: Москвич) (also written as ''Moskvich'', ''Moskvič'', or ''Moskwitsch'') is a Soviet/Russian automobile brand produced by AZLK from 1946 to 1991 and by OAO Moskvitch from 1991 to 2001 and later returned to production i ...
in Moscow Image:NY_Water_Taxi_East_River.jpg, New York Water Taxi Image:Venice Vaporetto.jpg,
Vaporetto The vaporetto is a Venetian public waterbus. There are 19 scheduled lines that serve locales within Venice, and travel between Venice and nearby islands, such as Murano, Burano, and Lido. The name, ''vaporetto'', could be translated as "litt ...
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 The Skeena River is the second-longest river entirely within British Columbia, Canada (after the Fraser River). Since ancient times, the Skeena has been an important transportation artery, particularly for the Tsimshian and the Gitxsan—whose n ...
at
Kitselas Canyon Kitselas Canyon, also Kitsalas Canyon is a stretch of the Skeena River in northwestern British Columbia, Canada, between the community of Usk and the Tsimshian community of Kitselas. It was a major obstacle to steamboat travel on the Skeena R ...
, 1911


See also

*
Barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. ...
* Chain boat *'' Life on the Mississippi'' *
Ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water ta ...
boat *
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 equipme ...
*
Charles T. Hinde Charles T. Hinde (July 12, 1832 – March 10, 1915) was an American industrialist, tycoon, riverboat captain, businessman, and entrepreneur. He managed many businesses and invested in numerous business ventures over the course of his life. H ...
, a riverboat captain in the 1800s. *
Hydrofoil A hydrofoil is a lifting surface, or foil, that operates in water. They are similar in appearance and purpose to aerofoils used by aeroplanes. Boats that use hydrofoil technology are also simply termed hydrofoils. As a hydrofoil craft gains s ...
*
Keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open w ...
* List of steamboats on the Columbia River * McKenzie River dory * Murray-Darling steamboats *
Narrowboat A narrowboat is a particular type of canal boat, built to fit the narrow locks of the United Kingdom. The UK's canal system provided a nationwide transport network during the Industrial Revolution, but with the advent of the railways, commer ...
* ''P.A. Denny'' (ship) *
Paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses wer ...
* River cruise *
Sampan A sampan is a relatively flat-bottomed Chinese and Malay wooden boat. Some sampans include a small shelter on board and may be used as a permanent habitation on inland waters. The design closely resembles Western hard chine boats like ...
* Shitik *
Steamboat A steamboat is a boat that is marine propulsion, propelled primarily by marine steam engine, steam power, typically driving propellers or Paddle steamer, paddlewheels. Steamboats sometimes use the ship prefix, prefix designation SS, S.S. or S/S ...
* Steamboats of the Mississippi *
Steamboats of the Columbia River :''This article concerns steamboats operating between Tri-Cities, Washington and the Pacific Ocean. For boats on the river's upper reaches, see Steamboats of the Columbia River, Wenatchee Reach, Steamboats of the upper Columbia and Kootenay Rivers, ...
*
Steamboats of the upper Columbia and Kootenay Rivers From 1886 to 1920, steamboats ran on the upper reaches of the Columbia and Kootenay in the Rocky Mountain Trench, in western North America. The circumstances of the rivers in the area, and the construction of transcontinental railways across the ...
* Steamboats of the Willamette River *
Tourist sternwheelers of Oregon Since the early 1980s, several non-steam-powered sternwheel riverboats have been built and operated on major waterways in the U.S. state of Oregon, primarily the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, as river cruise ships used for tourism. Although ...
*
Towboat A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...
*
Tugboat A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...
* Frederick Way Jr. * Lewis and Clark's Keelboat


References


Further reading

* Crump, Thomas, ''Abraham Lincoln's World: How Riverboats, Railroads, and Republicans Transformed America.'' (New York: Continuum, 2009) 272 pp. . * Nolan, John Matthew. ''2,543 Days: A History of the Hotel at the Grand Rapids Dam on the Wabash River'' * Nautical terminology specific to towboating and inland waterways. * {{Authority control Boat types