Transportation

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Rafts and Canoes

Rafts and canoes are the simplest means of travel on water. A raft is a simple floating structure, usually made by tying together floating material, such as logs or papyrus stalks, to provide buoyancy. Rafts have been used since the earliest recorded times. In some cases, animal skins were used to cover a wooden frame or airtight animal bladders were fastened to wooden planks. Similar designs can be found from early India and Ireland. Some ancient designs are still used in remote areas of Tibet and in parts of Africa and South America.

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Oar-Driven Boats

Rafts and canoes are ordinarily propelled with poles or paddles, but as boats became larger, a more powerful form of propulsion was necessary. By 3000 bc the Egyptians had replaced paddles with oars, which are essentially long paddles fastened to the side of a boat so they can pivot. Oars allow the user to push, or row, against the water, thereby increasing power and speed. The Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans developed oar-driven trading vessels and warships known as galleys. For propulsion a galley often used a sail in addition to banks of oars protruding from the side of the ship. The speed and maneuverability of galleys made them a dominant force in Mediterranean sea transportation in ancient times.

Another example of a rowed boat was the long boat of Scandinavia. These boats were approximately 20 m (70 ft) in length and initially relied on rowing for propulsion. With such boats, the Norsemen explored vast areas of northern Europe. With the addition of sails, they reached Iceland and Greenland by ad 800.

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Sailing Vessels

Sailing ships and sailboats use the power of the wind pushing against large sails for propulsion. By harnessing the power of the wind, early oceangoers were able to travel greater distances than they could have by sheer muscle power alone. Sailing ships were popular for transporting people, cargo, and soldiers until the introduction of steam-powered vessels in the 1800s. Today small sailboats and yachts are used primarily for recreation and sport.

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Early Egyptian drawings show tree branches being used as sails, but by 3000 bc the branches had been replaced by rectangular sails made of papyrus hung crosswise from a mast. Later, cloth fabric was used for sails. Many of the early sea travels of the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans took place in galleys equipped with sails.

As sailing ships became larger and more durable, longer trips of discovery were made. Ancient trade expeditions from the Arabian peninsula to India left in the spring to catch easterly seasonal winds and returned in the fall with westerly winds. These westerly winds also allowed Chinese explorers to travel to India and Africa. In the late 1400s and early 1500s, European explorers discovered westerly winds that allowed travel to the newly discovered territory in the Western Hemisphere and easterly winds that allowed the return voyage to Europe. Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492. In 1521 Ferdinand Magellan became the first to circumnavigate the world in a sailing ship.

The Dutch and British developed large vessels for the transport of tea and spices from China and the East Indies (now Indonesia). In 1818 the first regularly scheduled transatlantic ship service was inaugurated between New York and London. The clipper ship was developed in the early 1800s to provide transportation for goods that had to be transported quickly, such as perishable items. However, the clipper ship, with a long and narrow hull, sacrificed cargo space to gain speed. Sailing ships eventually declined in use as reliable oceangoing steamships went into service.

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Canal Vessels and Riverboats

A canal is an artificial waterway that can be used to transport people and goods. Boats that travel on canals and rivers usually have a shallow draft, or depth, so they can navigate shallow waters. One type of shallow boat frequently used on canals and rivers is the barge. Barges are essentially large floating containers. Barges have no means of propulsion, so they require another boat to push or pull them. Boats traveling along a canal or river can also be pulled from shore, either by humans or by animals such as oxen, water buffalo, and mules.

Canals have been used for centuries for transportation. The ancient Assyrians and Egyptians built them. In China, the 1,900-km- (1,200-mi-) long Grand Canal was constructed over a long period of time, largely in the 7th and 13th centuries. In North America, Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec Empire, relied almost exclusively on canals for transportation.

Canals built in Europe in the 18th century were used to transport coal from mines to steam-powered mills and to transport finished goods to market cities and ports. The Dutch, the French, and the British all constructed extensive canal systems by the mid-18th century. The canal-building era in the United States began in 1825 with the completion of the Erie Canal, connecting the Hudson River in New York with Lake Erie. Between 1825 and 1840 over 4,800 km (3,000 mi) of canals were constructed in the United States. However, by 1850, canals faced increased competition from railroads as an efficient means to transport goods.

Ship canals are much deeper than the canals ordinarily used by barges and river traffic. Ship canals provide oceangoing ships with direct access to inland ports and to other waterways. Ship canals have had a significant impact on world transportation. The best examples of such canals are the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. The Suez Canal in Egypt is 195 km (121 mi) long and connects the Mediterranean Sea with the Gulf of Suez, part of the Red Sea. It opened to traffic in 1869. The Panama Canal in Panama, in Central America, measures 81.63 km (50.72 mi) in length and connects the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The Panama Canal was completed in 1914. In both cases, the canal shortened the trip between bodies of water by more than half the time previously needed. One of the most important inland waterway systems in North America is the Saint Lawrence River with its connection to the Great Lakes through the Saint Lawrence Seaway. Using its canals, locks, and navigable river channels, ships can travel from the Atlantic Ocean to Chicago, Illinois, and other industrial cities of the Great Lakes region, a distance of almost 3,900 km (2,400 mi).

Rivers also provide important transportation routes, and many early cities were located on rivers to take advantage of the natural waterways. The application of the steam engine to riverboats in the early 1800s revolutionized transportation on rivers. In 1807 American inventor Robert Fulton’s double-paddle-wheeled steamboat Clermont began service on the Hudson River in New York between Albany and New York City. The Clermont helped demonstrate the commercial practicality of steamboat operation in the United States. By the mid-1850s, steamboats driven by large paddle wheels were the major means of carrying passengers on the Mississippi River. The end of the U.S. riverboat era occurred just after the Civil War (1861-1865), when rail transportation proved to be more appealing. Barges are still used on many rivers, including the Mississippi, for transporting freight.

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Steamships

Oceangoing steamships, constructed with strong iron hulls, greatly reduced the time needed to travel across oceans. The Savannah in 1819 was the first ship equipped with a steam engine to cross the Atlantic Ocean. By 1838 several steam-powered paddle wheelers were crossing the Atlantic, and in 1840 the first regularly scheduled steamship service began. Steamships of the day featured several innovations that made them more competitive and reliable. Screw-type propellers (rather than paddle wheels), high-pressure boilers, and better steam turbines helped increase ship speeds. As a result, steamships became the dominant form of ocean travel in the late 1800s. Such ships were largely replaced by gas-turbine and diesel-powered vessels in the early 1900s.

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