When I first dipped my toes into inland navigation, I once embarked on a few zig-zagging trips aboard the local country boat ferries, known as “Bhutbhuti,” on the Brahmaputra in Guwahati. After my earlier failed attempts to engage with country boat operators and nearly getting tossed out by hostile crews, I took a different approach. I played the role of a clueless NRI( Indian residing abroad), out on a nostalgia trip in my hometown. With a big, stupid grin, obsessively clicking everything with my mobile, I asked the most naive questions, looking every bit like a harmless tourist.
A new government subsidized marine engine in a Country Boat Ferry,
but it still doesn't plug the leaks
What I saw on those trips wasn't eye-opening as I had seen it all before. The boats were all flooded up to the floorboards. Their propeller shafts, connected to old lorry engines serving as power plants, were so poorly sealed, that they practically poured water into the hull. When I innocently asked, “Why not pump the water out?” I got a surprising answer: “The water toughens up the wood!”
The reality, of course, is
quite the opposite. Constant exposure to water rots the wood, and that's
why these boats crumble like matchsticks in every riverboat accident.
These boats are made with reverse clinker hull constructions, where
planks are nailed atop one another with an overlap, and the gaps are
filled with rope and tar. Keeping the wood damp is part of their sealing
process — the wood swells, closing the gaps. However, these boats leak
at virtually every joint due to poor craftsmanship. But, it took me
another half-decade of working in this field to understand why they keep
their boats flooded. Most of the reasons are unknown even to the
operators themselves.
1. Their design
is inherently flawed, making the boats unstable. The water load inside
acts as ballast, somewhat improving stability. But it comes at a huge
cost — increasing the boat's weight, reducing speed, lowering the
waterline, and making them prone to capsizing as the water inside shifts
when the boat tilts.
2. There's a deeply ingrained
belief that a heavier boat is a more stable and safer boat, a belief
that has persisted for centuries. This thinking has even carried over to
metal ferry builders and many naval architects. The result? It's not
only the Country Boats, but inefficient steel monstrosities, consuming
insane amounts of fuel, that continue to dominate our waterways for
decades.
Water up to the floor boards, a characteristic
of all wooden country boat ferries.
