paddle-wheel boat

paddle-wheel boat, like the pedalo off holiday beaches today, a vessel using a man-powered paddle wheel for propulsion.

In China, where they appeared in the 8th century, and perhaps even as early as the 5th, they were used as tugs and as passenger river ships. They were also employed as warships, and enclosed ones—to protect the crews pedalling the wheels—were particularly effective, especially on lakes and rivers. One warship, built in the Sung dynasty (960–1279), had as many as 22 paddle wheels, 11 on each side, and was fitted with a stern wheel as well. Paddle-wheel warships were even employed against their modern counterpart, the paddle steamer, during the Opium Wars (1839–42 and 1856–60) against Britain. Five of them fought a superior force of Royal Navy warships, leading many to suppose, quite incorrectly, that the Chinese had copied the paddle wheel from western ships. This mode of transport survived on Chinese rivers well into the 20th century.

In Europe the idea of constructing a paddle-wheel boat appears in several old manuscripts which date back to the 15th century, and such a mode of transport probably dates back much further. However, the first recorded use of them was in 1543 when, manned by a crew of 40 working on capstans or treadmills, some were employed as tugs in Barcelona and Malaga harbours, and treadmill paddle boats were still in regular use on the River Loire at the start of the 19th century.

Bibliography

Needham, J. , Science and Civilisation in China, iv/2 (1977).