Snagboat

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The snagboat Montgomery on the Apalachicola River, Florida, during the early 1900s.

A snagboat is a river boat, resembling a

snags and other obstructions from rivers and other shallow waterways
.

USA

Drawing of USS Benton

During the American Civil War, when much of the naval fighting was done on rivers and their tributaries, numerous snagboats were in operation. USS Benton, for example, was a commercial snagboat quickly converted by the Union Army to a river gunboat when the American Civil War broke out.

Snagboats of the USA

stern-wheel steamship that served as a snagboat for the United States Army Corps of Engineers
.

stern-wheel steamship that served as the first snagboat for the United States Army Corps of Engineers on the Sacramento River
.

W. T. Preston is a specialized sternwheeler that operated as a snagboat, removing log jams and natural debris that prevented river navigation on several Puget Sound-area rivers. She is now the centerpiece of the Snagboat Heritage Center in Anacortes, Washington. She was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.[1]

Yuba was a stern-wheeled, shallow draft steamship ordered by the United States Army Corps of Engineers) to serve as a snagboat on the Sacramento River after the Seizer (240 GRT, 1881), had retired in 1921[2]

Great Raft

Main article: Red River of the South
Red River, Texas

In the early 19th century, settlers found that much of the Red river's length in Louisiana was unnavigable because of a collection of fallen trees that formed a Great Raft over 160 miles (260 km) long. In 1839, Captain Henry Miller Shreve began clearing the log jam, but it was not completely cleared until the 1870s, when dynamite became available. The river was thereafter navigable, but north of Natchitoches it was restricted to small craft. Removal of the raft further connected the Red and Atchafalaya rivers, accelerating the development of the Atchafalaya River channel.[3]

Canada

In Canada, many of the rivers of

Skeena rivers.[citation needed
]

The snag-clearance service was mainly important on the Fraser River because of the large amount of marine traffic. Passenger and freight-carrying sternwheelers operated out of

gillnet salmon-fishing industry and the canneries that were built in and around the estuaries of the major rivers. Huge amounts of timber debris would wash down-river every year creating hazards for fishermen and destroying nets.[citation needed
]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ "W.T. PRESTON (Snagboat)". National Historic Landmarks Program. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
  2. ^ "Sacramento River: Snag-Boat: "Seizer"". History & Happenings. December 12, 2012.
  3. ISBN 978-1-62349-039-3
    .


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