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Maximum load of a narrowboat


Greenpen

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What was the maximum carrying capacity of a narrowboat carrying a dense cargo rather than feathers?     I've always gone for 30 tons in a butty or monkey boat, 25 in a diesel powered boat and 20 tons in a steam driven one.    But I see different figures quoted in books so wondering what it really was.    

 

I appreciate it will vary depending on the draught of the vessel and exactly where it operated so I am primarily thinking of a narrowboat that could carry such a load across both wide canals like the Grand Junction and narrow like the Oxford during the time they were well maintained.   

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According to a copy I have of the gauging record of S. E. Barlows Motor "Franklin" the maximum was 35 Tons at 0.23 inches dry side.

A more sensible load - 30 Tons at 4.68 inches dry side. (1936 gauging)

 

Horse drawn boat "Clara" 35 tons at 2.07 inches dry side or 30 tons at 6.92 inches dry side. (1931 gauging)

 

Both these boats plied the Coventry and Oxford Canals.

 

 

Edited by Ray T
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Allegedly for "Grand Union" boats the highest recorded tonnage on a pair was 63 1/4 tons of wheat from Brentford to Wellingborough aboard Buckden & Brighton.

The split between motor and butty isn't recorded in the reference I am looking at.

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5 hours ago, Greenpen said:

What was the maximum carrying capacity of a narrowboat carrying a dense cargo rather than feathers?     I've always gone for 30 tons in a butty or monkey boat, 25 in a diesel powered boat and 20 tons in a steam driven one.    But I see different figures quoted in books so wondering what it really was.    

 

I appreciate it will vary depending on the draught of the vessel and exactly where it operated so I am primarily thinking of a narrowboat that could carry such a load across both wide canals like the Grand Junction and narrow like the Oxford during the time they were well maintained.   

For the GU I believe maximum load would be around 55 tonnes for a pair of GU boats being approx 25 tonnes on the motor and 30 on the butty.

Wasn't the maximum recorded 64 tonnes of wheat Brentford to Wellingborough.  Presumably the pair got through but the feat wasn't repeated.

Incidentally does the term 'monkey boat' refer only to horse drawn boats? I was told ' monkey' refers to Monks Boatyard Tipton which built the first narrow boats as we know them with the typical cabin arrangement which was hardly altered in 200 years.

David. 

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23 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Allegedly for "Grand Union" boats the highest recorded tonnage on a pair was 63 1/4 tons of wheat from Brentford to Wellingborough aboard Buckden & Brighton.

The split between motor and butty isn't recorded in the reference I am looking at.

 

Was the Captain's name recorded for that trip. Given his reputation for loading his boats very low, it could have been Jack Monk.

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Biggest load I ever had on a big Northwich motor was 26 tons (which was a mistake) and managed to get it from Hillmorton to Braunston and after selling a couple of tons got as far as Wigrams where luckily sold 3 tonnes. Think max across the Oxford summit was around 18 tons but that probably meant a couple of visits to the bank at the tight bends. This was the mid 1970s

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I've not got access here in France to guaging records for the big Northwich and Woolwich vessels which would give you the theoretical maximum for such craft, but they are deeper drafted than vessels quoted by Ray. Once you specify particular routes you will get different maximums regardless of craft type anyway, determined by the dredged depth. Obviously the deadweight of the big 'town' boats will be more than that of the small 'star' boats, so on a shallow canal the 'star' boats can load slightly more than the 'town' ones to have the same draft.

 

We regularly loaded 50 tons on big Northwich Towcester & big Woolwich butty Bude and the various other pairs we used for carriage of limejuice Brentford to Boxmoor. However this was on the lower Grand Union, which is river-fed with levels generally on weir, and where such loads had continued without break, so the channel was not too bad. We could have pushed it up a bit, but it would mean a slower trip and more maintenance.

 

Tam

Edited by Tam & Di
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13 hours ago, fanshaft said:

For the GU I believe maximum load would be around 55 tonnes for a pair of GU boats being approx 25 tonnes on the motor and 30 on the butty.

Wasn't the maximum recorded 64 tonnes of wheat Brentford to Wellingborough.  Presumably the pair got through but the feat wasn't repeated.

Incidentally does the term 'monkey boat' refer only to horse drawn boats? I was told ' monkey' refers to Monks Boatyard Tipton which built the first narrow boats as we know them with the typical cabin arrangement which was hardly altered in 200 years.

David. 

 

More here:

 

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