Canals and waterwaysSorry to disagree with you both, but if they could, they would use the horse to do the work! I have been the steerer on a horse-drawn boat that was being winded, so I have actually done this.
The technique is like this: <snip> However, if you turn too soon or too late, the boat could wedge at a point where the canal is not wide enough. -- Martin Clark Fascinating! Who needs bowthrusters when you have a horse and momentum? And, of course, because working horseboaters would have been working the same route regularly, they would have known exactly what to do to avoid getting stuck. A couple of examples I have been told by people who saw (motor) working boats in the 1950s:- That (on the Bridgewater, IIRC) individual boaters always used to take the same line through a difficult bridge, though each had his own line, which was presumably what worked for his boat and himself; That boaters usually worked up the Stockton flight in silence; because they knew exactly what to do there was no need to discuss it. Sean
