Chain boat navigation
Chain-boat navigation or chain-ship navigation is a little-known chapter in the history of shipping on European rivers. From around the middle of the 19th century, vessels called chain boats were used to haul strings of barges upstream by using a fixed chain lying on the bed of a river. 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. A variety of companies operated chain boat services on rivers such as the Elbe, Rhine, Neckar, Main, Saale, Havel, Spree and Saône as well as other rivers in Belgium and the Netherlands. Chain boats were also used in the United States.
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.
Historical development
Early technical developments before the 19th century
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. When travelling downstream, boats were either simply propelled along by the current or sails would employ wind power. To move upriver, men or draught animals on towpaths were used to haul the boats on long ropes. In shallow waters boats could also be propelled upstream by long poles. Where towing from a towpath on the riverbank was not possible, a method known as warping was used. These sections of river could be negotiated by anchoring a rope ahead of the boat and then using the crew to haul it upstream.In an illuminated manuscript dating to 1438, the Italian engineer, Jacopo Mariano, illustrated the fundamental concept on which chain boat navigation was subsequently based. The boat is pulling itself upstream on a cable laid along the river. The rope is wrapped around a central shaft driven by two, side-mounted water wheels. 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.
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. Two boats are connected by a cable that is led round a pulley anchored firmly to the riverbed. The smaller boat, which is travelling downstream, is moving very fast, driven by the large water sails on either side and is thereby hauling the larger boat upstream against the current. The large barge in the picture has two, side-mounted water wheels that coil up the cable and increase its speed further. It is not, however, recorded whether the system was used in practice.
In 1723 Paul Jacob Marperger, who later became the Electoral Saxon Kommerzienrat described a proposal by mathematics professor, Nicolaus Molwitz from Magdeburg, to use mechanical assistance in order to cope with the fast currents below Magdeburg's bridges. At that time, 50 men were needed to negotiate this section of the river. The idea was to build a 'machine' with two horizontal shafts, the towing cable being turned around the front shaft in such a way that it was continuously being unwound from it again and onto the rear shaft. According to Marperger, with the additional use of levers it should have been possible for five or six men to successfully effect the passage of the boat. At the same time, however, he stressed that the machine was "produced" but "never taken into use". From his description, elements of this basic principle seem to be similar to those subsequently used later in building chain boats. This section of river was later to become the starting point for the first chain boats in Germany.
The first practical attempts to use a cable boat were in 1732 at the instigation of Marshal Maurice of Saxony, then in French service. These took place on the River Rhine in the vicinity of Strasbourg. Three pairs of cylinders of various diameters were arranged on a horizontal shaft and driven by two horses. Depending on the required force, the rope was hauled in by winding it round one of the pairs of cylinders whilst the other two pairs coasted. The variable ratio allowed for a better utilization of force. Compared with the towing from the land this system could move double the load for the same number of draught horses per craft.
Experiments in the first half of the 19th century
After 1820 several inventors in France worked separately, but simultaneously, on the technical implementation of boats that could be moved by cables or chains. These included engineers, Tourasse and Courteaut, who conducted experiments on the River Saône near Lyon. They attached a roughly towing cable made of hemp to the riverbank. This was wound around a rotating drum on board, which hauled the boat forward. Six horses were used to rotate the drum.With advancing industrialisation in the 19th century, the demand for transport capacity on the waterways increased markedly. But this industrialisation also revolutionized the methods of transport themselves. The invention of the steam engine meant that, for the first time, a motor was now available to power ships independently of wind and wave. The power of the first steam engines was, however, relatively low whilst, at the same time, they were very heavy. So attempts were made to utilize its power in the most effective way to move ships.
Somewhat later the two engineers, Tourasse and Courteaut, undertook trials on the Rhone between Givors and Lyon using steam power. A steam-driven escort ship transported the hemp rope upstream and anchored it to the shore. Then the escort returned and took the bitter end of the rope to the actual tugboat. The latter hauled itself upriver on the rope, passing it to the drum on the escort ship as it went. During this process a second escort ship hurried upstream in order to anchor a second rope and thus save waiting time.
Vinochon de Quémont carried out trials on the River Seine in which the rope was replaced with a chain. The results of the first trials may be read in the 1866 Yearbook of Inventions: Although all these 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.
The introduction of the entreprise de remorquage failed, however, due to faulty design. The chain steamer, La Dauphine, was not built exactly to the Tourasse's specification. The draught was too great and the engine too underpowered. In addition the shafts were too far aft on the deck. Moreover, the company's capital was insufficient.
In 1826, M.F. Bourdon tested a variant with two steam ships. One of the ships drove forward using a paddle wheel whilst simultaneously uncoiling a rope, long. After unwinding the rope fully, the ship anchored and hauled the second tugboat with its chain of attached barges up to itself, the rear tugboat assisting the process with its own power. The two boats then changed position and repeated the procedure. However, a lot of time was lost during the anchoring manoeuvre.
From the time of those early attempts in the first half of the 19th century, chain boat technology improved steadily and the first successful use of chain boats in France took place. After that, other French rivers and canals were also provided with chains. In Germany, chains were laid in the Elbe, Neckar, Main, Spree, Havel, Warthe and Danube. In Russia too, chain boat navigation became widespread. In all, about of chain were laid in Europe.
Changes in chain boat navigation in the second half of the 19th century
Chain boats revolutionized inland waterway transport, especially on rivers with strong currents. Compared with the hitherto standard towing method, a chain boat could haul many more and much larger barges. The possible load of a single barge rose five times in just a few years. In addition, the chain boat transport was much faster and cheaper. The number of trips a boat could make increased, for example, on the Elbe almost three times.Instead of two trips per year, the skipper could annually make six to eight journeys or instead of covering, his craft could sail up to annually. Delivery times were accordingly shorter and more reliable; at the same time reducing costs.
Through the use of the steam engine it was now possible, for the first time, to meet the rising demand for the transport capacity driven by increasing industrialization in the second half of the 19th and first half of the 20th century. Chain boat navigation gave sailors and their barges the opportunity to compete against increasing competition from the railways.
Before the introduction of chain boats, paddle steamers were already working as tugs and cargo boats on some stretches of river, but they did not hail a breakthrough in mass transport. Due to its dependence on the water level of the river and on market economic interests, the steamer could not guarantee a regular service. Not until regular services with fast connections, as well as the guaranteed, low transportation costs of the chain boats, could river barge transportation begin to be competitive.
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 time, the use of chain boats became restricted to a few particularly difficult sections of river.