A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on

lake A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from ...

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

s, and artificial

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, 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 ways. A first distinction is ...

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 boat Tour or Tours may refer to: Travel * Tourism, travel for pleasure * Tour of duty, a period of time spent in military service * Campus tour, a journey through a college or university's campus * Guided tour, a journey through a location, directed b ...

s. 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, dredgers, survey boats, fisheries management craft,

fireboat A fireboat or Fire-float Pyronaut, 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 ...

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 boat or ship that transports passengers, and occasionally vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A small passenger ferry with multiple stops, like those in Venice, Italy, is sometimes referred to as a water taxi or water bus ...

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 thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

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

bulk cargo Bulk cargo is Product (business), product cargo that is transported packaging, unpackaged in large quantities. Description Bulk cargo refers to material in either liquid or granular, particulate (as a mass of relatively small solids) form, ...

and containers.

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 barre ...

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

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. 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 may b ...

s or oars. In the Middle Ages, towpaths 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. The term ''steamboat'' is used to refer to small steam-powered vessels worki ...

s became common. The most famous riverboats were on the rivers of the

midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

ern and central southern

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, on the

Mississippi Mississippi ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Deep South regions of the United States. It borders Tennessee to the north, Alabama to the east, the Gulf of Mexico to the south, Louisiana to the s ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

and

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') 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 border ...

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

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, Columbia, and 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 Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria (state), 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 cen ...

. 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 "

" 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 the German engineer Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which Combustion, ignition of diesel fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to Mechanics, mechanical Compr ...

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 na ...

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. 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, ...

.''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 numb ...

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 k ...

. 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 Image:Wilriver.jpg, A riverboat on the Willamette River, Oregon File:BelleOfLouisville.jpg, '' Belle of Louisville'' File:American queen.jpg, '' American Queen'' File:RiverboatNatchez.jpg, '' Natchez'' File:The Delta King paddlewheel sternwheel steamboat anchored beneath the Old Sacramento section of downtown Sacramento, California's capital city LCCN2013630969.tif, The '' Delta King'' is in use as a floating restaurant/hotel in Old Town Sacramento, California File:Delta Queen trip 11-2007 022.jpg, The ''

Delta Queen ''Delta Queen'' is an American sternwheel steamboat. She is known for Cruising (maritime), cruising the major rivers that constitute the tributaries of the Mississippi River, particularly in the American South, although she began service in Ca ...

'' is a sister boat to the '' Delta King.'' 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 and sequential gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River path, in the hinterland of the People's Republic of China. With a subtropical monsoon climate, they are known for their scenery. The T ...

, 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 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

at Kitselas Canyon, 1911