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New York, but by a more southerly route, was the Morris Canal running from
Easton on the Delaware to Newark. Conceived in 1824, it was opened in 1832
and then extended to Jersey City in 1836. It was remarkable for having 23
inclined planes, water-powered by turbines, over which boats were carried dry
in cradles running on rails. The Morris Canal joined the Lehigh Canal at
Easton and in order to pass boats from one canal to the other the Morris was
widened following financial reorganization in 1845. With railroad competition
it gradually declined and it was closed in 1924.
The Lehigh Canal had started as a river improvement. Arks were loaded
with coal and taken down the river to Philadelphia, where the coal was
discharged and the boats broken up. There were no return trips. The rapids
were passed by what was termed a ‘bear trap’ lock. This was in effect an
inclined plane or water chute down which the boats were launched in a ‘flash’
of water. The slope was eased off at the bottom to prevent the boats hitting the
water too violently and breaking up. The Lehigh Canal was opened in 1823. It
was reconstructed in a conventional manner in 1829 and after a very
successful period gradually closed down owing to damage from floods, until it
finally ceased operation in 1942.
The growing industrial importance of Philadelphia and its relationship with
Pittsburgh and the Ohio required improved transport and so in 1825 a canal
was authorized between the two cities. The problem was the 600m (2000ft)
range of the Allegheny Mountains between them, and it was decided that the
route would be partially rail worked. The first section, planned as a horse
wagonway and later converted to a locomotive-hauled railroad, ran westwards
from Philadelphia to Columbia. From there a canal was built along the
Susquehanna valley to Hollidaysburg, and what became known as the
Allegheny Portage Railroad began there. This consisted of a series of five
inclined planes over which the canal boats were carried to the summit of the
ridge at yoom (2300ft) and then the line descended by five more planes to

Johnstown on the western side of the range. The cradles on the planes were
counterbalanced with steam assistance. From Johnstown a 60-lock canal ran to
Pittsburgh. The 630km (394 mile) link was completed between the two cities
in eight years and the first boat passed through in 1834. Unhappily the route
did not survive long, for it was bought by the Pennsylvania Railroad who
closed the western canal in 1863 and most of the remainder by the end of the
century. Most of the other canals between the Ohio and the eastern seaboard
had also succumbed to the thrust of the railways.
All the foregoing were canals associated with industry but further south
there was an attempt to use canals for the benefit of agriculture. South
Carolina was sparsely populated but it had a major river system formed by the
Santee, Saluda and Wateree rivers. The first canalization, proposed about
1785, led to general improvements between Columbia and Charleston and by
1820 no less than ten small lateral canals had been constructed which carried a
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513
great deal of cotton until by the 1850s the railways were taking over. There are
still remains of some of these canals and one, the Landsford Canal by the
Wateree river, is being restored as a State Park.
The great developments leading into the modern waterway scene were on
the Mississippi and the Ohio. The Ohio is formed by the confluence of the
Allegheny and the Monongahela rivers at what is now Pittsburgh, and from
the beginning of the nineteenth century the industrialists of the town had been
trying to get improvements to the river, which was notorious for the
treacherous rocks and shoals in its bed. These problems were exacerbated in
summer because of periods of drought. With an improved river, traffic would
be able to pass down the rivers to New Orleans and thence world-wide.
Various proposals were offered for improvements during the century but
nothing was done until a powerful figure, General Moorhead, who had
rescued the Monongahela Navigation Company, building locks and dams with

his own capital, visualized similar improvements to the Ohio but with the
injection of public money. This the Federal government would not supply for a
long time. Eventually in 1870 work started on the Davis Island Lock and this
was the forerunner of the complete transformation of the Ohio. The lock,
183m by 33.5m (600ft by 110ft) incorporated an entirely new feature which
was to be adopted in various parts of the world on very wide locks. This was a
horizontally travelling gate moving into a recess in the lock wall, with its
weight carried on wheels running on rails laid transversely to the axis of the
lock. It thus replaced the mitre gates which for the large capacity locks were
becoming very heavy and cumbersome. The creation of the lock, which would
eventually take pushtows, and the dam alongside provided the control which
enabled a harbour to be formed at Pittsburgh, materially assisting the growth
of the city.
The Ohio connected with the Mississippi and thus with the Missouri and in
all this river system there were roughly 20,000km (12,000 miles) of navigable
waterways although, being river navigation, a vast amount of training works
had to be undertaken to make them safe. Once steamboats were introduced in
about 1812, traffic on all these rivers steadily increased until the onslaught of
the railways caused a decline after the 1880s. This decline lasted until 1918,
but thereafter traffic again increased following the realization of the economic
advantages of water transport. This has been emphasized by the spectacular
growth of pushtowing and the capacities involved on the Mississippi and its
associated rivers.
One of the tributaries of the Mississippi is the Tennessee which flows north
to join the Ohio just east of Cairo, Illinois. Flowing south through Alabama is
the Tombigbee river which enters the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile. The
Tombigbee is navigable and it had as one of its tributaries the Coosa river,
which had also been made navigable by the end of the nineteenth century. The
Tennessee had by the end of the Second World War been improved to a
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514
(2.7m) deep navigation for 1040km (648 miles) from Knoxville, Tennessee, to
the Ohio. It was then considered advisable to link the Tennessee and the
Tombigbee rivers by a 375km (234 miles) canal. This was authorized in 1946,
but work did not begin until 1971. It was finally completed with locks 183m
by 33.5m (600ft by 110ft), the present standard size for major waterways, to
accommodate pushtows, and was opened on 18 January 1985, the first
commercial tow having passed through a day earlier.
THE PANAMA CANAL
The idea for a canal or other means to transfer vessels across Central America
had long been canvassed and various schemes on different sites proposed, but
it was not until de Lesseps had called a congress in 1879 that a decision was
taken to build a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. A French-sponsored
company, with capital raised mainly in France, undertook the work, but by
1888 it was bankrupt. The United States, for political and military reasons,
decided to take over the scheme and in 1894 a new company was formed,
though there was still argument over the site. Eventually a new State of
Panama was created, which granted a concession to the United States of a
Canal Zone. Work restarted in 1908 and, amid appalling difficulties including
medical ones, it was completed with two flights of locks at Miraflores and
Gatun and a single lock at Pedro Miguel through which ocean vessels were
hauled by power units on the banks. It was formally opened on 15 August
1914 and remains one of the major ship canals in the world.
CANAL AND RIVER CRAFT
Virtually every waterway system had its own designs of craft built largely for
the convenience of the nature of its traffic, the dimensions of the waterway and
the peculiarities of the system. Collectively, but usually inaccurately, the vessels
have been generally known as barges but locally as well as technically they had
distinctive names. Their capacity has ranged from the shallow draft 25 tonne
capacity boats on the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation to the 2000 tonne

Rhine barges. On British canals with narrow locks and limited dimensions in
tunnels and bridges the boats with a beam of approximately 2m (7ft) were
known as narrow boats to distinguish them from the wide boats used on the
broader waterways.
On the earlier waterways the boats would be hauled, often by gangs of men;
later by mules or horses. Where the canal passed through a tunnel in which
there was no towpath, recourse had to be had to legging. This was carried out
by professional leggers who worked in pairs lying on their backs on a plank
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515
which extended across the beam of the boat. They would then ‘walk’ along the
sides of the tunnel, thus propelling the boat. The alternative was to shaft or pole
the boat through the tunnel by pushing with a pole against the tunnel wall.
Even on confined waters and rivers it was possible with skilful handling to
use sailing barges, or, to quote their more specific names, keels, wherries,
sloops or trekschuiten. They continued to be used, and indeed still are, even after
the development of a steam propulsion which goes back to the end of the
eighteenth century, for example Fulton’s experiments at Worsley, near
Manchester, in 1797. Diesel-type engines were introduced at the end of the
nineteenth century and by the First World War they were in regular use.
Apart from unit propulsion with the engine mounted integral with the vessel
itself installations were adopted where mechanical haulage was provided by
traction units running either on rails or on roads along the bank of the waterway,
although these never found favour in Britain. Towards the end of the nineteenth
century the newly available electricity was adopted in a similar way to an electric
tramway system, with the traction unit taking its power from an overhead line as
was installed on the Brussels to Charleroi Canal in the 1890s. The tractor was
attached to the barge by a cable and would haul the barge until it met another
approaching from the opposite direction. Cables would be exchanged between
the tractors which would then reverse direction while the barges continued as

before. Elsewhere a similar shuttle service was performed by diesel tractors. Non-
powered boats could thus be hauled without difficulty.
Yet another system was to lay a cable or chain along the bed of the canal
and a tug, by means of winches mounted on its deck, would haul itself along
and at the same time tow a string of barges behind. This system was
particularly useful through tunnels but it was also used elsewhere, as on the
River Neckar in Germany.
With the large present-day barge the almost universal mode of propulsion is
by a powerful diesel engine on the vessel itself or by a diesel-powered tug
which will either tow or push a group of barges. The formations of barges
which are pushed are known as pushtows and the constituent barges are so
tightly assembled that the pushtow becomes in essence a large unified vessel.
The advantage is that the expensive power unit is not left idle when the barge
is unloading or discharging. The barges themselves are, of course, non-
powered and types have been developed which can be carried on board ship
across the ocean and then linked together to proceed to their destinations along
inland waterways.
THE CONTEMPORARY SCENE
The use of waterways in all countries has in general shown a steady
progression through four phases: first, the employment of natural water
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516
resources—rivers, lakes, estuaries etc—with little or no adaptation; second,
improvement to remove dangers from their courses, possibly to bypass rapids
and rocky areas and to even the flow of the current by dams and weirs; third,
the construction of artificial canals to link river valleys and to provide local
transport; fourth, the enlargement of existing rivers and canals to
accommodate mass national and international transport of goods.
The first three phases arose from the need, in the absence of other
satisfactory modes of transport, to provide a reasonably integrated system by

which goods could be moved within commercially acceptable time limits. The
fourth phase, while including that object, also involves the growing realization
of the economic saving in energy costs offered by water transport. This saving
is partly demonstrated by the relative energy requirements (with pipeline costs
as a baseline) per tonne/kilometre for various modes of transport: pipeline 1,
water transport 2, rail 3, road, 10, air 100. An example of the side benefits in
canal construction and operation is illustrated in the advance incorporation of
hydroelectric power generation plants on the line of the new Rhine-Main-
Danube canal (see p. 494), where the sale of power is partly financing canal
construction and will reduce operating costs.
The fourth, current, phase is therefore not a mere expansion of an existing
and otherwise outmoded means of transport but a stage in the evolution of a
co-ordinated system which can operate efficiently within modern economic
constraints. In addition, moving bulk freights to waterways relieves congestion
in urban areas, and many countries are realizing that improvement of an
existing water route is cheaper than building a new motorway—and that it is
less costly to maintain. Moreover, those navigations in current use serve a
multi-purpose function of water supply, drainage and environmental benefits,
as well as transport.
Intensive land use in Britain has militated against developments which have
been seen elsewhere in improvements to waterways. Even here, however,
where the decline in commercial traffic almost led to the complete
abandonment of the system, the environmental benefits have been recognized.
At the critical moment there began an upsurge in interest in leisure activity and
the recognition of the need for greater facilities. The realization that canals
could offer a multi-purpose and desirable source of leisure enjoyment was
stimulated by L. T.C.Rolt’s account of his experiences on the waterways in his
book Narrow Boat, first published in 1944. In turn this enthusiasm led to the
formation of the Inland Waterways Association and the burgeoning voluntary
involvement in the restoration of redundant and abandoned waterways.

The restoration movement has now spread to many other countries, and
especially in the United States. Even in those countries where there is a major
commercial activity and new waterway construction those canals which no
longer carry intensive freight traffic, for example the Canal du Midi and the
Nivernais Canal in France, are supporting an important growth in the leisure
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517
industry. Other minor and branch canals such as the Canal du Berry, also in
France, are undergoing restoration and maintenance. There is now virtually
world-wide recognition of the tourist potential and ecological value of
waterways which for so long have been regarded solely as of importance in the
industrial and commercial economy of a country.
GLOSSARY

Balance beam the heavy beam projecting landwards from a lock gate which, in
providing the leverage for opening the gate, balances the weight of the gate. Found
especially on British lock gates
Cylindrical sector rotating gate a modern type of lock gate which rotates horizontally
through 90° from the vertical position where it closes the lock to a horizontal
position in the bed of the canal to allow boats to pass over it
Flash a body of water suddently released to provide greater depth to allow navigation
over shoals and shallows in a river
Flash lock an arrangement on rivers whereby the water could be held or penned back
by a removable barrier across the flow. When a boat travelling downstream wished
to pass the barrier was removed and a flash of water rapidly flowed through the
opening earning the boat over shallows below the barrier. For vessels travelling
upstream a wait was necessary until the flow had diminished and then the boats
would be manually hauled or winched to the upper level. Also known as staunches
Inclined plane a device by which boats can be carried from one level to another either
on cradles or in tanks travelling up and down a slope

Lift a device on the same principles as an inclined plane but with the tanks rising and
falling vertically
Lock a means by which boats can move from one level of a navigation to a different
level
Paddle door a gate either pivoted or capable of rising and falling for opening and
closing the orifice through which water enters or leaves a lock
Péniche the standard 300 tonne French canal barge. A law passed in 1879, under the
direction of Charles de Freycinet, included minimum dimensions for the French
waterways: depth 2m (7ft), locks 38.5m by 5.2m (127ft by 7ft), bridge clearance
3.7m (12ft). Barges which conformed to these constraints were said to be of
Freycinet type
Pound lock a chamber, generally in brick or masonry, with gates at each end in which
the water is impounded and through which boats pass from one level to another.
The change is effected by the opening of paddles, paddle doors or sluices to allow
water to enter or leave the chamber when the gates are closed. The gates are
opened when the water level in the lock is the same as that either below or above
the lock. The gates can be single, as on some narrow canals, or double so that the
gates meet at an angle to withstand the water pressure. In this case they are called
mitre gates. Also used are guillotine gates, which are raised and lowered vertically;
radial gates, which turn on a horizontal axis to lie under the water below the
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518
draught of the vessel; or sliding horizontal gates which retract into recesses
constructed in the side of the lock
Shaft lock a modern type of very deep lock with a fixed structure across the lock at the
lower end. This structure houses a guillotine gate which rises from the canal into
the structure and thus exposes a tunnel through which the boats pass to the lower
level of the canal. Normal gates are provided at the upper level but gates would be
impracticable at the lower level owing to the height of water impounded in the
chamber

Staunch, see Flash lock
Summit level where a canal passes across a ridge from one valley to another the
highest part of the canal is called the summit level. Into this generally run the
feeders which supply the principal water for the locks on both sides of the ridge
Tide lock a lock provided where a canal enters the sea or a tidal estuary to allow
vessels to pass at different states of the tide
Transporter bridge a type of bridge, generally in flat country, a number of which were
built at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century,
sufficiently high to allow tall-masted vessels to pass under the structure. A frame ran
on rails at the upper level of the bridge and from this was suspended a cradle on
which road traffic crossing the canal could be carried. The cradle passed to and fro
between piers on the banks and thus shipping was not impeded by the passage of
road traffic. Examples can be seen in England at Middlesbrough across the Tees and
at Rendsburg in Germany across the Kiel or Nord-Ostsee Canal
FURTHER READING
The literature on world canals and waterways as a complete survey of the subject is
regrettably limited . For a modern overview of the past and present scene the only
comprehensive work is Charles Hadfield, World canals. Inland navigation past and present
(David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1986). A much shorter account is given in
Charles Hadfield, The canal age (David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1988). An earlier
work dealing primarily with the engineering features is L.F.Vernon-Harcourt, Rivers
and canals. Two volumes, 1896. Again on special engineering structures is David
Te w , Canal inclines and lifts (Alan Sutton, Gloucester, 1987).
For individual countries both the quantity and the quality is very variable . The British
Isles is admirably covered in Charles Hadfield’s series The canals of the British Isles
(David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1967–72). Canada is fully dealt with in Dr
Robert Legget The canals of Canada (David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1976).
Professor Joseph Needham’s monumental work Science and civilisation in China Vol.
IV.3 (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1971) contains a detailed account of
the improvement of rivers and construction of canals in China. Roger Calvert Inland

waterways of Europe describes European waterways with a greater emphasis on
cruising rather than on detailed history.

519
10

PORTS AND SHIPPING

A.W.H.PEARSALL
OAR AND SAIL
Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Man’s first attempts to travel by water, most likely on rivers and lakes, were
presumably by sitting on floating logs; in time it was discovered that a log could
be hollowed out, by cutting or burning, and that a raft could be constructed by
tying branches together to make a floating platform. With the ability to work
materials came the evolution of a recognizable boat, with a supporting keel and
sides made up of wooden sections. Other available materials included wicker,
reeds and animal hides, from which coracles—circular, oblong or square —could
be constructed. All these craft could be propelled: by paddling with the hands or
with a short, flattened piece of wood; by rowing, with two longer wooden oars,
wider at one end; or by sculling, working a single oar over the rear end of the
vessel; and all could be to some extent steered by the action of paddle or oar
against the water. Such simple boats have continued in use to the present day in
unindustrialized societies: the coracle was common in inshore waters around the
British Isles within living memory.
The archaeological record demonstrates that by the first millenium BC larger
vessels were made up of the elements familiar in wooden boats today. The
foundation was a sturdy timber keel, running the length of the hull, into which
bow and stern post were scarfed—joined by bevelling the two members and keying
one into the other—with strakes, or side planks, running from bow to stern and

secured, successively, with thongs, trenails (hardwood dowels or pins), and iron
nails. As hulls grew too long to allow the use of single timbers for the strakes, ‘U’-
shaped frames were added as transverse shapers and strengthened, and linking
their tops with beams as further reinforcement gave thwarts, on which rowers
could sit, or as support for decking. The two standard forms of outer planking also
evolved at this early stage: carvel, where the strakes are shaped to fit edge to edge,
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520
and clinker, where each overlaps the one below it. A variation on the framed
type of construction was found in ancient Egypt, where a shallow, lightly built
hull was reinforced by overhead arched trusses, a method used for river craft
into modern times.
Vessels were small, less than 30m (98ft) long, and virtually double-ended;
many were solely oar-driven, although sea-going ships might have a square
sail set on a single mast; steering was by means of a large oar over one of the
stern quarters. In the classical era the two main maritime divisions were
already established, between merchant and fighting ships. The trader had a
greater beam: length ratio, and was probably decked to protect the cargo.
War galleys were longer and narrower, for speed, and given manoeuvrability
by numerous oars, usually handled by slaves. The largest Greek warship, the
trireme, is thought to have had its oars arranged in three tiers, but this layout
remains a matter of dispute. Classical war galleys were equipped with a
pointed ram at the bow, used to hole enemy ships, and carried foot soldiers
and archers. This type of combat ship was used in the Mediterranean into
the sixteenth century— Christian and Turkish galleys fought at the battle of
Lepanto in 1571—and its general configuration was echoed by the Viking
longship of the Dark Ages.
In fact ship design changed only in detail in the centuries up to the
mediaeval era. Individual advances are difficult to trace, but local variations
in hull form to suit local conditions began to evolve, and increased trading in

bulk commodities demanded bigger ships which could carry larger cargoes
over greater distances. Mediaeval merchant vessels included the hulk, with a
rounded hull, bow and stern, and the cog (Figure 10.1), also rounded at bow
and stern, but with a flatter bottom more suited to the tidal and shallow
coastal waters of northern Europe. The sternpost rudder, directly controlled
by the horizontal tiller, was introduced in the mid-thirteenth century.
Warships were fitted with fore- and aftercastles, superstructures at bow and
stern from which fighting men operated, and these were also adopted in
merchant ships.
With increased size, oars were no longer a practicable means of
propulsion. The square sail, set on a transverse yard but without a boom to
stiffen its lower edge, was probably still the commonest sailing rig, although
it has been suggested that it was used in the manner of a fore-and-aft sail as
much as for simply running before the wind. To suit wind conditions, sail
area could be reduced by tying tucks in the canvas with reefing points, or
increased by lacing on additional strips of canvas, later called bonnets. The
triangular fore-and-aft lateen sail, familiar in the Mediterranean
continuously from antiquity to the present day, was adopted in Europe for
the carrack, the foremost trading vessel of the thirteenth and fourteenth
centuries. This was square rigged on foremast and mainmast, with the lateen
sail on the mizen (stern) mast, and with a cog hull.
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521
Fifteenth to eighteenth centuries
Quite suddenly, and by a chain of development which it has not yet been possible
to trace fully, the three-masted square-rigged ship succeeded the carrack in the
mid-fifteenth century (Figure 10.2). The additional masts and increased sail area
made them more manoeuvrable than their single-masted predecessors and better
able to sail to windward, square sterns provided improved accommodation, and
they became progressively larger. They offered the technical conditions for

oceanic voyages, and opened up the great age of discovery.
The original form of the three-masted ship never changed fundamentally,
although it was greatly modified over the course of time. It carried a fore- and
mainmast set with square sails only, the fore usually slightly shorter than the main,
and a much shorter mizen with one square sail (later more) and a fore-and-aft sail
set aft of the mizen and later known as a spanker. Forward there was a bowsprit,
inclined at about 30° and projecting beyond the stem, carrying headsails.
Originally the headsails were square, set on a yard under the bowsprit and on a
small mast rigged in a perilous-looking way at its end. Towards the end of the
seventeenth century these were replaced by triangular fore-and-aft sails set on stays
running from bowsprit to foremast, which did their work far more effectively;
Figure 10.1: Model of a mediaeval ‘cog’.