 |
 |
 |
Canal Maintenance Boats
|
Canal tugs, ice
breakers, spoon dredgers. - by Tony Lewery.
|
|
|
When the canals were in full commercial
operation, carrying goods of all descriptions in all directions,
the vast majority of canal boats obviously had to be cargo
boats, carrying the stuff that paid the wages. But the canals
had to be maintained to do their job and that required a
supporting fleet of workboats, designed for specific tasks. Tugs
were stationed at most of the main tunnels to haul trains of
boats through whilst the horses were walked over the top.
 Dredgers
were required to maintain proper depth, from little 'spoon'
dredgers operated by a crew of men with a big scoop on a long
handle hung over the side to a variety of mechanical ones -
steam operated grab cranes to giant endless chain bucket
dredgers operating in the docks. Each needed its own mud boats
and hoppers, whilst the carpenters and painters needed boats for
their tools and their tea breaks.
|
Hand operated 'spoon' dredger at work
on the Trent and Mersey Canal.
Illustration courtesy of Edward Paget-Tomlinson. |
|
The
greatest threat of disruption to canal traffic was ice. A spell
of severe cold weather could soon bring the canal to a halt if
the ice was not kept broken, so most canal companies kept a
number of specially built ice breakers to be brought into use in
a freeze-up.
Massively built, heavily plated with a long
raking bow designed to ride up on the ice before smashing down
through it, these important emergency vehicles were kept working
for as long as possible to keep the traffic moving. More and
more horses were attached as the ice got thicker, and some old
photographs record as many as sixteen horses dragging a single
boat through the ice. Finally the boat would come out on top of
the ice and that was that. Traffic stopped, factories ran out of
supplies, tonnage tolls were not paid and the boatmen had no way
of earning a living. A severe canal freeze up was a very serious
matter indeed. |
 |
|
|
Above Right - The sharp
raking bow of a horse drawn Shropshire Union Canal Icebreaker |
 |
| The majority of the time however these
strongly built boats did very little, and consequently a lot of
them survive in surprisingly good condition.
A few complete ones are in museums but many
more have been motorised and converted and make canal cruisers
of great character.
Wooden icebreaker and iron
tub boat preserved and displayed
at the Ironbridge Gorge Museum, Coalbrookdale. |
|
|
|
