Everything about Riverboat totally explained
A
riverboat is
ship designed for
inland navigation. These vessels are usually less sturdy the ships built for the open seas, with limited navigational and rescue equipment, as they don't have to survive the high winds or large waves that are seen on large lakes, seas or oceans. They are limited in size by width and depth of the river as well as the height of bridges spanning the river.
While a
ferryboat is often used to cross a river, a riverboat is used to travel along the course of the river, while carrying passengers and cargo, or both, for revenue. (Vessels like '
Riverboat casinos' are not considered here as they're essentially stationary).
The significance of riverboats is dependent on the number of navigable rivers and
channels as well as the condition of the
road 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. Roman sources dated 50 BC mention extensive transportation of goods and people on the river
Rhine. Upstream, boats were usually powered by
sails 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,
steamboats became common.
The most famous early riverboats were on the rivers of the
midwestern and central southern
United States, on the
Mississippi,
Ohio and
Missouri rivers in the early 19th century. Out west, riverboats were common transportation on the Colorado and Columbia Rivers. 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 isn't likely to suffer damage in a grounding, while by burning wood, the boat could consume fuel provided by woodcutters along the shore of the river. These early boats would carry 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 engines of several thousand horsepower.
Modern Riverboats
Many of the riverboats shown below were operating on the
Yangtze (Chang Jaing) river.
High speed passenger transport
High speed boats such as those shown here had a special advantage in some operations in the free running Yangze. 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
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.
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 waterborn public transport is similar to ferry.
Image:Van Gogh boat.JPG|Sightseeing boat in Amsterdam
Image:Moskvich M236(2).jpg|River tramway Moskvitch in Moscow
Image:Water Taxi.jpg|New York Water Taxi
Image:Venice Vaporetto.jpg|Vaporetto in Venice
Image:PracticalRiverTransport.jpg|Low cost transport in China
Goods transport
Multimodal and bulk cargo transport>
|
|
Multimodal
Roads through this region are inadequate for heavy truck transport and roads along the river are extremely dangerous. As the major rivers are mostly east-west, most railroad transport is typically north-south.
Here, a drive/on drive/off ramp barge is 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
Further Information
Get more info on 'Riverboat'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://riverboat.totallyexplained.com">Riverboat Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
