River transport

On the Grand Canal in China

The history of river transport has more than one thousand years. It is believed that the first large river vessels began to be built in Ancient Egypt in the fourth millennium BC. e. Ancient river ships were rowing or sailing . Later, they began to apply traction with the help of horses or people ( barge haulers ) walking along the shore. There were also ships propelled by horses on the ship itself (see Horse Guided Ship ).

In the 19th century, steamboats began to be used on inland waterways, and the first river ship (and generally the first ship in the world) was built in 1903 in Russia .

Since the speed of river cargo vessels is 10–20 km / h, inland waterways mainly transport goods that do not require quick delivery — building materials (eg sand ), coal , coke , grain , etc. Oil is also transported along rivers. and petroleum products. There are also ships carrying trucks with their cargo and river container vessels.

Either self-propelled vessels or barges pushed by a tugboat are used for freight transport (towing tugs are practically not used for guiding barges). Barges are mainly used for bulk cargo.

The largest cargo river vessels can have a length of more than one hundred meters and take on board about five thousand tons of cargo. For example, Russian vessels of the Volgo-Don type have a length of 138.7 m, a width of 16.5 m, a draft of 3.5 m and a carrying capacity of 5000 tons.

However, such large vessels can be used far from everywhere. In Western Europe, relatively small cargo ships called peniches are quite common (primarily in France , Belgium and the Netherlands ). They are built in accordance with the minimum dimensions of locks and canals, adopted in France, and, therefore, can be used on almost all waterways of this country. The maximum dimensions of the penis are 40 m long, 5.2 m wide, 2.5 m draft and the highest part of the vessel above the waterline is 3.5 m. The penis carries 300-400 tons of cargo on board. As a rule, the crew of a penis consists of two people - a husband and a wife, who are also the owners of the vessel. They constantly live on the ship and acquire housing on the beach only when they retire (their children study in boarding schools ).

Traditional river ships, even of modern buildings, are characterized by low speed by modern standards (rarely more than 25 km / h), so they can not compete on equal terms with road and rail. Therefore, large passenger ships today are almost always used for transporting tourists (river cruises ), as well as for transporting passengers to remote areas with which there is no road and rail connection.

Hydrofoils and hovercraft can reach speeds of up to 80 km / h, but they are notable for their high fuel consumption and, consequently, high transportation costs.

Traditional (without air cushion or hydrofoil) small vessels (the so-called " river trams ") are used in public transport for urban and suburban transportation.

Such ships include floating workshops, floating shops, dredging vessels, and ferries .

In Russia, there is currently the only professional industry publication - the international magazine River Transport (XXI Century). He is the assignee of the oldest transport magazine of the country, established back in October 1886 - “Russian shipping on rivers, lakes and seas”. We open the first issue and read: “Starting the publication of the magazine, which is the only one in the Russian Empire in its program and main objective - to promote the development of domestic merchant shipping on rivers, lakes and seas - we consider it necessary to express our full views on the forthcoming matter with complete sincerity."

The magazine "Russian Shipping on Rivers, Lakes and Seas" existed until 1918. He was replaced by the magazine "Water Transport", first - the printed organ of the Main Directorate, then - the People's Commissariat of Water Transport. On April 9, 1939, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the division of the department into two people's commissariats was issued. The legendary Zosima Alekseevich Shashkov was appointed People's Commissar of the USSR River Fleet (before that, he was deputy commissar of water transport and editor-in-chief of the journal Water Transport). After that, the magazine, still under the indicated name, was published until December 1940 - already as a printed organ of two people's commissariats. Finally, in January 1941, the modern name of the main printed publication of the river industry of the country appears.

2002 was a crisis in the life of the publication, then only 2 issues came out. At the initiative and with the support of the Deputy Minister of Transport of the Russian Federation, the head of the State Service of the River Fleet Nikolay Grigoryevich SMIRNOV, the magazine was reorganized. A new “team” comes to the editorial office and from January 2003 to this day an updated edition corresponding to information technologies of the 21st century - the journal “River Transport (21st Century)” - has been published. The modern magazine gradually "conquered" almost the entire territory of Russia, then - a number of CIS countries, and recently went to foreign countries - began to spread in the European Union. These successes (and the very existence of the magazine) became possible only thanks to the support of many dozens of the most authoritative business entities of the river transport industry.

• Category: Riverboats

• International Journal of Riverboats “River Transport (XXI Century)”
• River transport - an article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia .
• Russian river fleet
• river fleet.ru
• Russian river vessels
• Retroflot
• Russian River Passenger Fleet
• Books on the river fleet, there is also a photo collection
• Pennants of river shipping companies of the former USSR