Chain boat navigation

The chain was raised from the riverbed to pass over the deck of the steamer, being hauled by a heavy winch powered by a steam engine.

The practice fell out of favour in the early 20th century when steamships with powerful engines and high pressure boilers – able to overcome the force of the river current – became commonplace.

The transportation of goods by river in the early days of the chain boat was restricted to wooden ships without their own on-board power.

[3] In an illuminated manuscript dating to 1438, the Italian engineer, Jacopo Mariano, illustrated the fundamental concept on which chain boat navigation was subsequently based.

Behind the river craft is a small boat-like object being pulled by the current, that is holding the cable taut and thus ensuring the necessary friction on the shaft.

[4][5] In 1595 Fausto Veranzio described a system of cable boat navigation that enabled greater speeds, which also did not need any additional means of propulsion.

The results of the first trials may be read in the 1866 Yearbook of Inventions: Although all these [previous] attempts did not use a continuous chain, rather the tow chain always had to be taken forward by a boat before the ship could be set in motion, the results appeared to be so pleasing that by 1825 under the leadership of Edouard de Rigny a company was formed based on these systems in order to negotiate the River Seine on the section from Rouen to Paris.

One of the ships drove forward using a paddle wheel whilst simultaneously uncoiling a rope, 600 metres (2,000 ft) long.

Due to its dependence on the water level of the river and on market economic interests, the steamer could not guarantee a regular service.

[14] With the development and growth in the use of new forms of power, such as the screw propeller and diesel engine in the first half of the 20th century, self-propelled vessels increasingly superseded the chain boat.

The development of river systems and competition from road and rail further reduced the profitability of the chain boat industry that was designed for continuous towing.

In 1839, the first technically and economically successful chain steamer, Hercule, was built and on a roughly 5-to-6-kilometre-long (3.1 to 3.7 mi) stretch of fast-flowing water on the River Seine within the city of Paris.

[10] Starting from Paris in 1854, chain boat services spread upstream to the town of Montereau at the confluence with the Yonne, as well as downstream to Conflans (at the mouth of the Oise).

Due to the lack of ventilation in the tunnel systems, electrically operated chain boats continued to be used even after the introduction of self-propelled motor vessels.

[7] The 15-kilometre-long (9.3 mi) lower Brahe (Polish: Brda) served as a link between the River Vistula and the well-developed network of waterways with Western Europe.

[24] The concession granted on 3 June 1869 was limited to a period of 25 years and essentially corresponded to the Prussian regulations in force on the Elbe.

However, the regulation of the flow of the river by locks in the 1930s, which enabled it to be upgraded into a major waterway, spelt the end of the hitherto still profitable Neckar chain boats and their replacement by large barges.

[29] A project that would link then Russian capital, St.Petersburg with Kotlin island in the Bay of Finald was developed in XIX century, but was abandoned.

As of 2022 the only chain boat still in service in Russian waters is diesel-electric tug Enisei (1964, project# 1111-03) that tows vessel caravans along Kazachinsky rapids on Yenisey river in Siberia.

Assuming that the lower part of the heavy, self-contained chain was unable to slide on the river bed, the ship could move forward.

By the time the attached barges entered the faster-flowing area, the steamer had already sailed past it and was able to generate its full traction again.

[7] The water churned up by paddle steamers also resulted in significantly greater wave action, which led to a risk of increased shore damage.

[36] Some chain boats had a shallow draft of just 40–50 centimetres (16–20 in) designed for use in very low water levels and thus adapted to the circumstances of many rivers of the time.

On the 200-kilometre-long (120 mi) section of the Main river, between Aschaffenburg and Kitzingen it is estimated that the cost of the first chain, including laying, was over one million marks.

When two chain boats travelling in opposite directions met, they had to carry out special passing manoeuvres, which resulted in a major loss of time.

On the 130-kilometre-long (81 mi) Neckar river with seven chain boats that meant six passing manoeuvres costing at least five hours for those travelling downstream.

In addition to the technical limitations of chain boats, their owners were constrained by licence rules, which, for example, laid down the order of the movement and transport fees.

On the Elbe a lot of current regulating work had been carried out, which evened out the gradient, reduced bends in the river and removed the shallows.

[36] Mark Twain, the American author, gave a humorous, historic account of encountering chain boats on the River Neckar in Germany.

She uses both rudders all the time, and they are powerful enough to enable her to turn to the right or the left and steer around curves, in spite of the strong resistance of the chain.