Can River Cruises Boats Cross Oceans?

[eyeeye]

Question

Can various River Boats cross oceans to reposition or are they ferried somehow?

 

 

Thanks

[Hoyaheel]

My husband showed me a great photo (that I can't find at the moment) with a container ship FULL of Viking boats making its way from somewhere in Asia to (presumably) somewhere in Europe. If I find it, I'll post.

 

I cannot imagine a river boat on an ocean for any length of time. They're designed for a completely different kind of waterway.

[tiegs]

River boats are too shallow of a draft to operate in large bodies of open water. They are either moved by a large barge or special ships designed to move other ships.

[Host Jazzbeau]

Uniworld has one cruise that starts in Venice and then makes a very short leg out of the Venice lagoon to the mouth of the River Po -- regulations require that all passengers and non-navigation crew be off the ship when it does that leg because of the danger of being in open water.

[Hydrokitty]

Question

Can various River Boats cross oceans to reposition or are they ferried somehow?

 

 

Thanks

 

That's a really interesting question!! Regardless of the answer, I don't think I'd want to be on one of them on the ocean. When we were in Russia on the Tolstoy we crossed Lake Ladoga and it was so rough the upper deck was closed and we were told to stay indoors.

[Canal archive]

When Scenic Emarald and later Scenic Sapphire where moved to France they where transported on the sea equivalent of a low loader see YouTube. When Scenic Gem was moved from her builders to the Seine she was towed by tug. Most river cruisers are either flat bottomed or very shallow v hulled so are extremely unstable under seaway conditions look for English narrowboats on YouTube doing the channel crossing. The boats also have to be marinised i.e. all glass boarded up and crockery etc packed away. Then don't mention the hoops that have to be jumped through to get the required maritime permissions. Just think this is Europe all i's dotted and t's crossed it would be a brave captain wishing to lose his licence who would try it.

Happy boating CA

[No Spin]

Can River Cruises Boats Cross Oceans?

 

Sure, Viking River Cruises did it once. Oh, no wait, that was the real Vikings! :D

[notamermaid]

I am of the understanding that the modern vessels built are not designed or deemed save in their construction for open waters. CroisiEurope has one ship that has a different hull allowing it a sort of river and Mediterranean cruise. You can look this up in their brochure. Some ships - like the Venice lagoon example - are allowed to cross short stretches along the coast, but these are not really open waters like the English channel or oceans. ARosa also has a cruise that takes them out into a kind of lagoon in the Netherlands, cannot remember the name at the moment.

 

It is relatively straight forward to carry a river cruise vessel on an ocean vessel. If you need to have something transported bigger than a relatively small ship the "Blue Marlin" is hired. Look up blue marlin ship on google.

 

I saw a photo of a Viking ship being transported to a river estuary along an ocean coast in France last year but cannot find it right now.

 

For the river history geek here is an interesting fact: the first steam vessel to sail from London across the channel to Rotterdam and then up the river Rhine as far as Koblenz was the Caledonia in 1817. So in affect an ocean-going river vessel (o.k. the English channel is not the Atlantic ocean but fierce enough for stomachs).

 

notamermaid

[G.M.T.]

Up until the mid 1960s, before containerisation put a stop to it, there was a flourishing trade by small ships to / from London and ports on the Rhine right up to Basle.

[Im_not_creative]

Up until the mid 1960s, before containerisation put a stop to it, there was a flourishing trade by small ships to / from London and ports on the Rhine right up to Basle.

 

Yes, but althoug they were small ships, they were built to a very different design than modern river cruising ships are built to, and were designed from teh outset to be "coasters" - able to sail on the seas but normally within sight of land.

 

thery wouldn't have had windows within a foot or two of the waterline, nand although shallow drfaft, would have had more of a keel than modern reverboats, wnad taht would have been hevaily ballsted when empty, and when loaded would have been carrying a much heavier load than a passenger ship.

[Canal archive]

From memory Scenic Gem has a slightly different construction to the other Scenic vessels as she was built to sail the Seine estuary. Mind you on VE Day remebrance and thinking of the 'Little Ships' that relieved Dunkirk most of them where in no way meant or built to cross the channel but they did, thanks be.

CA

[G.M.T.]

Yes, but althoug they were small ships, they were built to a very different design than modern river cruising ships are built to, and were designed from teh outset to be "coasters" - able to sail on the seas but normally within sight of land.

 

thery wouldn't have had windows within a foot or two of the waterline, nand although shallow drfaft, would have had more of a keel than modern reverboats, wnad taht would have been hevaily ballsted when empty, and when loaded would have been carrying a much heavier load than a passenger ship.

Coasters! Now that brings back memories, sending cargo from London to Bristol, Avonmouth, Cardif. Can't imagine that these days when everything has to be delivered yesterday.:(

[Hydrokitty]

I am of the understanding that the modern vessels built are not designed or deemed save in their construction for open waters. CroisiEurope has one ship that has a different hull allowing it a sort of river and Mediterranean cruise. You can look this up in their brochure. Some ships - like the Venice lagoon example - are allowed to cross short stretches along the coast, but these are not really open waters like the English channel or oceans. ARosa also has a cruise that takes them out into a kind of lagoon in the Netherlands, cannot remember the name at the moment.

 

It is relatively straight forward to carry a river cruise vessel on an ocean vessel. If you need to have something transported bigger than a relatively small ship the "Blue Marlin" is hired. Look up blue marlin ship on google.

 

I saw a photo of a Viking ship being transported to a river estuary along an ocean coast in France last year but cannot find it right now.

 

For the river history geek here is an interesting fact: the first steam vessel to sail from London across the channel to Rotterdam and then up the river Rhine as far as Koblenz was the Caledonia in 1817. So in affect an ocean-going river vessel (o.k. the English channel is not the Atlantic ocean but fierce enough for stomachs).

 

notamermaid

 

WOW!!! Now THAT'S a big boat!!! I believe this is the ship that brought the USS Cole home from the Persian Gulf. Thanks for sharing.

[Host Jazzbeau]

When we rented a boat on the Erie Canal, most of the available boats were flat bottomed and were restricted to the canal. We were able to find one company with V-bottom boats that were allowed to go from the canal into the Finger Lakes (Seneca and Cayuga), which gave us a much wider range of scene. OTOH, if the canal had a low-water condition our boat would have bottomed out while the flat-bottom designs could have sailed on. I think it's the same principle here.

[sharkster77]

the photo of the Blue Marlin carrying the Cole can be found on Wikipedia.

[Canal archive]

On YouTube search for 'Shipping Emerald' three river cruisers moved from Rotterdam very clever. I tried to find film of a Narrowboat crossing the channel but no luck I have seen it on TV very scary in a flat bottomed boat only 7 foot wide across what is supposed to be one of the busiest shipping lanes in the world.

I think I will stick to the rivers and canals. CA