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Asnagboat is a river boat, resembling abarge withsuperstructure for crew accommodations, and deck-mountedcranes andhoists for removingsnags and other obstructions from rivers and other shallowwaterways.
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During theAmerican Civil War, when much of the naval fighting was done on rivers and their tributaries, numerous snagboats were in operation.USS Benton, for example, was a commercial snagboat quickly converted by theUnion Army to a rivergunboat when the American Civil War broke out.
Bear was a wooden-hulled,stern-wheel steamship that served as a snagboat for theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers.
Seizer was a wooden-hulled,stern-wheel steamship that served as the first snagboat for theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers on theSacramento River.
W. T. Preston is a specializedsternwheeler that operated as a snagboat, removing log jams and natural debris that prevented rivernavigation on severalPuget Sound-area rivers. She is now the centerpiece of the Snagboat Heritage Center inAnacortes, Washington. She was designated aNational Historic Landmark in 1989.[1]
Yuba was a stern-wheeled, shallow draft steamship ordered by theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers) to serve as a snagboat on theSacramento River after theSeizer (240 GRT, 1881), had retired in 1921[2]
In the early 19th century, settlers found that much of theRed River's length inLouisiana was unnavigable because of a collection of fallen trees that formed aGreat Raft over 160 miles (260 km) long. In 1839, CaptainHenry Miller Shreve began clearing the log jam, but it was not completely cleared until the 1870s, whendynamite became available. The river was thereafter navigable, but north ofNatchitoches it was restricted to small craft. Removal of the raft further connected the Red and Atchafalaya rivers, accelerating the development of the Atchafalaya River channel.[3]
In Canada, many of the rivers ofBritish Columbia were maintained and kept open for navigation by federal Department of Public Works snagboats. On theFraser River, in southern British Columbia, a series ofsternwheeler snagboats namedSamson were operated by the Canadian Federal Government from the early 1880s until the retirement of final vessel in the series, theSamson V in 1980. The Samson V is now preserved as a museum on the waterfront of New Westminster, B.C. and was the last steam -powered stern-wheeler to operate in Canada. In northern British Columbia, Department of Public Works snagboats operated out ofPrince Rupert and cleared the waters of theNass, Ecstall, andSkeena rivers.[citation needed]
The snag-clearance service was mainly important on the Fraser River because of the large amount of marine traffic. Passenger and freight-carrying sternwheelers operated out ofNew Westminster from 1859 until the early 1920s. These lightly built vessels were vulnerable to the woody debris and drift logs that would wash down the river with every springfreshet. After the 1920s, most of the traffic on the Fraser was tug and barge service along with deep sea shipping in the lower reaches of the river, and a greater portion of the snagboat's assignments was in maintenance of government docks and aids to navigation. In northern British Columbia, as on the Fraser River, a major part of the snagboat service provided by the Canadian federal government was in support of thegillnet salmon-fishing industry and the canneries that were built in and around the estuaries of the major rivers. Huge amounts of timber debris would wash down-river every year creating hazards for fishermen and destroying nets.[citation needed]
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