Image Credits
Snag Boat
Using his experience as a steamboat builder,
Henry Shreve designed
a boat that would scoop up snags out
of the water where they could
be cut up on board. He was appointed Superintendent of the Western
Rivers by the War Department in 1828 and immediately set about
building his 'snag boat'. Shreve completed the construction of
the first snag boat, the Heliopolis, in 1829. The boat had twin
hulls with a heavy iron wedge between them to use as a ram against
snags. The boat's lifting machinery was geared to the engine,
making it more powerful than anything yet employed against snags.
It removed snags by ramming them and dislodging or breaking the
trees so that pieces could be lifted between the two hulls where
they were cut up. The cut wood was burned for fuel or floated
to a landing. The stumps and other detritus were either sunk in
deep pools or placed on land.