# Animal-powered canal boats **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 29, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485 "2025-07-29T22:09:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/1 "2025-07-29T22:09:31Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 29, 2025, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/2 "2025-07-29T22:28:05Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/3 "2025-07-30T02:43:38Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/4 "2025-07-30T03:55:35Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > Does someone on the boat or perhaps the shore have to constantly pole the boat away from the side? 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. > **[Erie Canalway National Heritage Corridor :: Tips for Boating Through a Lock](https://eriecanalway.org/explore/boating/locking-through)** > > Thousands of people lock through successfully every year—you can too! Follow these tips. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/5 "2025-07-30T04:31:29Z")
See the opening chapter of _Hornblower and the Atropos_ for a fictional account of operating à canal boat along à towpath. > **[Hornblower and the Atropos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hornblower_and_the_Atropos)** > > Hornblower and the Atropos is a 1953 historical novel by C.S. Forester. > Horatio Hornblower is posted to HMS Atropos, the smallest vessel in the Royal Navy that merits command by a post-captain, as he salvages treasure from the Mediterranean Sea. > On a December day in 1805, Hornblower travels with his very pregnant wife and their son to London on a canal boat via the Thames and Severn Canal and the Thames. He is excited about getting his new orders and obtaining his first command as a post-capt... ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/6 "2025-07-30T04:34:52Z")
Or bring Dobbin onboard, on either a treadmill or a turntable [![](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSs5AECqRFq4Tm5oH1rRQgdKaPfXNQ9Dk8jtdTnahc9ig&s=10) ](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSs5AECqRFq4Tm5oH1rRQgdKaPfXNQ9Dk8jtdTnahc9ig&s=10) [![](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJX6L3j5dPWYTeajc9kF4sTuH69e03-JqQhNrbxfM5hA&s=10) ](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJX6L3j5dPWYTeajc9kF4sTuH69e03-JqQhNrbxfM5hA&s=10) ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/7 "2025-07-30T04:47:32Z")
I first learned about animals and canal boats on Captain Kangaroo. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/8 "2025-07-30T05:06:38Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > See the opening chapter of _Hornblower and the Atropos_ for a fictional account of operating à canal boat along à towpath. That’s where my mind went… ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2025, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/animal-powered-canal-boats/1021485/9 "2025-07-30T05:26:27Z")
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]](https://share.google/MEHuu9FuvG4k1gKff)