Tugboats/steamboats in Mekong rice trade (colonial period)

Mike High mike.high at earthlink.net

Tue Sep 15 14:10:04 PDT 2015

Dear list,

I’ve been pondering some of the canal routes used for the rice trade between Saigon and the Mekong, and find myself stumped by a very basic question…what propelled the boats through the canals on their way to and from the rice wharves at Chợ Lớn?

The French made a big deal about their improved canals and steamboat service into the Mekong, but this doesn’t seem to have had much impact on the shipment of rice. The old photographs of Chợ Lớn don’t give any evidence of self-propelled craft. A couple of tthem show men leaning on poles, which might have been a way to get started, but also (gulp!) might have been the exclusive means of propulsion throughout the trip.

There are some hints in the 1908 and 1911 reports issued by the director of Public Works (Les Voies d’Eau de la Cochinchine, available online). This text says that there were occasional convoys of barges being towed by tugboats (remorqueurs) from Hong Kong, usually 7 loaded boats or 17 empty boats. But towing seems to be the exception rather than the norm. I am guessing that these tugboats were steam powered, though the report does not explicitly say so. Somewhat surprisingly, given the French interest in maximizing commerce, the report does not go into much detail as to why tugboats were not in greater use. (There is a note to the effect that the design of the rice junks made them hard to pull, but the cost comparisons still gave a pronounced advantage to towing.)

This seems a bit peculiar to me, given that steam powered rice mills were prominent in Chợ Lớn by the turn of the century. But perhaps not too peculiar—to make a local comparison, mules continued to pull coal boats on the C&O Canal (Potomac River) even into the 20th century. Still, sticking with two pairs of mules is a bit different than sticking with crews of 8-19 men when steampower was readily available.

So, in a nutshell, my question is whether the rice boats that unloaded in Chọ Lợn were mostly propelled simply by men pushing poles, up until the proliferation of gas and diesel engines in the 1960s.

:: Mike High

Author | Researcher

Great Falls, Virginia, USA

PS. Les Voies d’Eau also mentions the need for towpaths at certain difficult spots along the canals. This detail brought a smile to my face, having ridden and written much about the 184-mile C&O towpath over the years. But the Chief Engineer never explains what manner of beast trod these paths—I would think oxen or water buffalo?

Hiep Duc Hiep.Duc at environment.nsw.gov.au

Tue Sep 15 18:20:32 PDT 2015

Hi Mike,

“So, in a nutshell, my question is whether the rice boats that unloaded in Chọ Lợn were mostly propelled simply by men pushing poles, up until the proliferation of gas and diesel engines in the 1960s”

I think these rice barges in Cholon in the early 20th century were propelled by human-power like you said. Considering the size of these barges in Cholon canal, I doubt that they were steam-powered as you need coal or wood storage on-board to run the steam engine.

But I might be wrong.

Hiep

Climate Scientist

Office of Environment & Heritage NSW

From: Vsg [mailto:vsg-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Mike High

Sent: Wednesday, 16 September 2015 7:10 AM

To: Vietnam Studies Group

Subject: [Vsg] Tugboats/steamboats in Mekong rice trade (colonial period)

Shawn McHale mchale at gwu.edu

Tue Sep 15 18:56:31 PDT 2015

Re: the nature of boats transporting rice on the Mekong delta before 1945:

In His book on his naval service on the rivers and canals of the Mekong,

1945-46, Yannick Guiberteau mentions how he served on a vessel that the

French military commandeered from the Gressier Company. The Gressier

company owned large rice concessions in the delta (e.g. in Sóc Trăng) and

this vessel, a motorized barge [chaland], was used to transport rice before

it was modified by the French navy with the addition of armament.

Shawn McHale

Mike High mike.high at earthlink.net

Fri Sep 18 08:17:11 PDT 2015

I like the “paddy battleship”! Just for reference, here is a marvellous collection of scenes from the quays at Cho Lon, dating from the 1900s to a LIFE photograph, ca. 1960s.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/sets/72157624609722483/

Mostly, the boats are moored, but one of the images shows a crew ready to go:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/4896493238/in/album-72157624609722483/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/4896493238/in/album-72157624609722483/>

There’s also this interesting image of a board game, “Le Riz d’indochina":

https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/4895899515/in/album-72157624609722483/ <https://www.flickr.com/photos/13476480@N07/4895899515/in/album-72157624609722483/>

:: Mike High

Tobias Rettig tobias_rettig at yahoo.com.sg

Tue Sep 15 20:27:26 PDT 2015

Hi Mike,

By way of comparison, the 2002 book by Stephen Dobbs, The Singapore River: A Social History, 1819-2002, might provide some interesting clues.

The operations in Singapore were a bit different from the ones you describe, as barges /tongkangs brought goods from ships anchoring outside the Singapore River into the river area with its many warehouses / godowns that were facilitating regional and global entrepôt trade. If I recall, these barges were largely manpowered (in particular within the river) for a very long time. I think Dobbs also discusses when engines were added but I do not recall he details. What I recall though is that steam-fuelled cranes started operating in the New Harbour / Keppel Harbour in the 19th century.

Tobias Rettig

Singapore

Researcher

-------- Original Message --------

From:Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc at environment.nsw.gov.au>

Sent:Wed, 16 Sep 2015 09:20:32 +0800

To:Mike High <mike.high at earthlink.net>,Vietnam Studies Group <vsg at u.washington.edu>

Subject:Re: [Vsg] Tugboats/steamboats in Mekong rice trade (colonial period)

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 9:20 PM, Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc at environment.nsw.gov.au<mailto:Hiep.Duc at environment.nsw.gov.au>> wrote:

Hi Mike,

“So, in a nutshell, my question is whether the rice boats that unloaded in Chọ Lợn were mostly propelled simply by men pushing poles, up until the proliferation of gas and diesel engines in the 1960s”

I think these rice barges in Cholon in the early 20th century were propelled by human-power like you said. Considering the size of these barges in Cholon canal, I doubt that they were steam-powered as you need coal or wood storage on-board to run the steam engine.

But I might be wrong.

Hiep

Climate Scientist

Office of Environment & Heritage NSW

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 9:56 PM, Shawn McHale <mchale at gwu.edu<mailto:mchale at gwu.edu>> wrote:

Re: the nature of boats transporting rice on the Mekong delta before 1945: In His book on his naval service on the rivers and canals of the Mekong, 1945-46, Yannick Guiberteau mentions how he served on a vessel that the French military commandeered from the Gressier Company. The Gressier company owned large rice concessions in the delta (e.g. in Sóc Trăng) and this vessel, a motorized barge [chaland], was used to transport rice before it was modified by the French navy with the addition of armament.

Shawn McHale

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 9:56 PM, Shawn McHale <mchale at gwu.edu<mailto:mchale at gwu.edu>> wrote:

Re: the nature of boats transporting rice on the Mekong delta before 1945: In His book on his naval service on the rivers and canals of the Mekong, 1945-46, Yannick Guiberteau mentions how he served on a vessel that the French military commandeered from the Gressier Company. The Gressier company owned large rice concessions in the delta (e.g. in Sóc Trăng) and this vessel, a motorized barge [chaland], was used to transport rice before it was modified by the French navy with the addition of armament.

Shawn McHale

On Tue, Sep 15, 2015 at 9:20 PM, Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc at environment.nsw.gov.au<mailto:Hiep.Duc at environment.nsw.gov.au>> wrote:

Hi Mike,

“So, in a nutshell, my question is whether the rice boats that unloaded in Chọ Lợn were mostly propelled simply by men pushing poles, up until the proliferation of gas and diesel engines in the 1960s”

I think these rice barges in Cholon in the early 20th century were propelled by human-power like you said. Considering the size of these barges in Cholon canal, I doubt that they were steam-powered as you need coal or wood storage on-board to run the steam engine.

But I might be wrong.

Hiep

Climate Scientist

Office of Environment & Heritage NSW

From: Vsg [mailto:vsg-bounces at mailman11.u.washington.edu] On Behalf Of Tobias Rettig

Sent: Wednesday, 16 September 2015 1:27 PM

To: Hiep Duc <Hiep.Duc at environment.nsw.gov.au>; Mike High <mike.high at earthlink.net>; Vietnam Studies Group <vsg at u.washington.edu>

Subject: Re: [Vsg] Tugboats/steamboats in Mekong rice trade (colonial period)

Hi Mike,

By way of comparison, the 2002 book by Stephen Dobbs, The Singapore River: A Social History, 1819-2002, might provide some interesting clues.

The operations in Singapore were a bit different from the ones you describe, as barges /tongkangs brought goods from ships anchoring outside the Singapore River into the river area with its many warehouses / godowns that were facilitating regional and global entrepôt trade. If I recall, these barges were largely manpowered (in particular within the river) for a very long time. I think Dobbs also discusses when engines were added but I do not recall he details. What I recall though is that steam-fuelled cranes started operating in the New Harbour / Keppel Harbour in the 19th century.

Tobias Rettig

Singapore

Researcher

David Marr david.marr at anu.edu.au

Wed Sep 16 16:51:19 PDT 2015

I would guess that by the 1930s there were some diesel powered boats transporting rice, but also still a lot of pole-powered boats for the smaller canals. Then during the Pacific War fuel was extremely scarce and very little dredging took place… Did the French dredge again in the late 1940s?

David Marr

ANU