When they use animals to pull boats along canals, how do they keep the boat from running into the side of the canal? The team pulling it is over on the side, not straight ahead, so there’s going to be constant side pull to the vessel as well as the foreward pull. Does someone on the boat or perhaps the shore have to constantly pole the boat away from the side?
A helmsman would be steering away from the bank. The horse handler and helmsman would be in constant contact to maintain a middle line. If the horse moves too fast, the rudder can’t compensate enough to prevent collision with the bank.
This is basically the same issue as with a sailing vessel; the wind forces acting on the mast want to push the boat in one direction; the water acting on the hull in another; the tiller (possibly) in a third. The actual course of the vessel is determined by the combined effect of the three forces.
Yes, it would be common to have someone wielding a pole on the barges. It’s still given as advice to people today navigating the locks.
See the opening chapter of Hornblower and the Atropos for a fictional account of operating à canal boat along à towpath.
Or bring Dobbin onboard, on either a treadmill or a turntable
I first learned about animals and canal boats on Captain Kangaroo.
That’s where my mind went…
That’s one of my favorite Hornblower episodes on land. It’s here:
The Distributed Proofreaders Canada eBook of Hornblower and the Atropos by Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (pseud. Cecil Scott (‘C.S.’) Forester) Hornblower and the Atropos [Hornblower Saga #5]