Canals and waterwaysI didn't know the answer to, namely how did they wind horse-drawn boats. There was also the supplementary question "is it winding (as in
Thanks, -- David Morris I think the first point is that horseboats (and motor-boats after them) would normally have been trading from wharf A to wharf B, both of them with hard surfaces (and probably without the silt kicked into most winding holes by over-enthusiastic revving by motor-boats) so the modern problem of winding in a soft-edged silted-up hole in the middle of nowhere wouldn't have been encountered. Very often the wharf was on an arm so the boat would turn through 90 degrees to get in and the remaining 90 when coming out. Secondly, working boaters would have made good use of lines and long (20'+) shafts - Sonia Rolt's 'A Canal People' shows how these were used to get round Hawkesbury, which posed many of the same problems. Hawkesbury has strapping bollards at ground level and on the bridge which provided a fulcrum to turn the boat and it is likely that most wharves would have had something similar. It's also worth bearing in mind that the butty rudder can readily be used to turn the boat through a considerable angle, and to propel it - I have moved the horseboat 'Maria' about 300 yards using the rudder to get her to a point where it would be convenient to hitch up the horse. It's also worth bearing in mind that a horseboat has fittings such as the anser hooks which could be used to drag it backwards out of a winding hole in the correct direction, though I don't know if they ever were so used. Personally, my view is that many modern boaters would wind much more effectively if they switched off the engine and put their brain in gear instead! Sean
