Portage De L'Île

Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a ''portage.'' The term comes from French, where means "to carry", as in "portable". In Canada, the term "carrying-place" was sometimes used.

Early French explorers in New France and French Louisiana encountered many rapids and cascades. The Native Americans carried their canoes over land to avoid river obstacles.

Over time, important portages were sometimes provided with canals with locks, and even portage railways. Primitive portaging generally involves carrying the vessel and its contents across the portage in multiple trips. Small canoes can be portaged by carrying them inverted over one's shoulders and the center strut may be designed in the style of a yoke to facilitate this. Historically, voyageurs often employed tump lines on their heads to carry loads on their backs.

Portages can be many kilometers in length, such as the Methye Portage and the Grand Portage (both in North America) often covering hilly or difficult terrain. Some portages involve very little elevation change, such as the very short Mavis Grind in Shetland, which crosses an isthmus.

Technique

This section deals mostly with the heavy freight canoes used by the Canadian Voyageurs.

Portage trails usually began as animal tracks and were improved by tramping or blazing. In a few places iron-plated wooden rails were laid to take a handcart. Heavily used routes sometimes evolved into roads when sledges, rollers or oxen were used, as at Methye Portage. Sometimes railways (Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad) or canals were built.

When going downstream through rapids an experienced voyageur called the ''guide'' would inspect the rapids and choose between the heavy work of a portage and the life-threatening risk of running the rapids. If the second course were chosen, the boat would be controlled by the ''avant'' standing in front with a long paddle and the ''gouvernail'' standing in the back with a steering paddle. The ''avant'' had a better view and was in charge but the ''gouvernail'' had more control over the boat. The other canoemen provided power under the instructions of the ''avant.''

Going upstream was more difficult, as there were many places where the current was too swift to paddle. Where the river bottom was shallow and firm, voyageurs would stand in the canoe and push it upstream with poles. If the shoreline was reasonably clear the canoe could be 'tracked' or 'lined', that is, the canoemen would pull the canoe on a rope while one man stayed on board to keep it away from the shore. (The most extreme case of tracking was in the Three Gorges in China where all boats had to be pulled upstream against the current of the Yangtze River.) In worse conditions, the 'demi-chargé' technique was used. Half the cargo was unloaded, the canoe forced upstream, unloaded and then returned downstream to pick up the remaining half of the cargo. In still worse currents, the entire cargo was unloaded ('décharge') and carried overland while the canoe was forced upstream. In the worst case a full portage was necessary. The canoe was carried overland by two or four men (the heavier York boats had to be dragged overland on rollers) The cargo was divided into standard packs or ''pièces'' with each man responsible for about six. One portage or canoe pack would be carried by a tumpline and one on the back (strangulated hernia was a common cause of death). To allow regular rests the voyageur would drop his pack at a ''pose'' about every and go back for the next load. The time for a portage was estimated at one hour per half mile.

History

Europe

Greco-Roman world

The ''Diolkos'' was a paved trackway in Ancient Greece which enabled boats to be moved overland across the Isthmus of Corinth between the Gulf of Corinth and the Saronic Gulf. It was constructed to transport high ranking Despots to conduct business in the justice system. The roadway was a rudimentary form of railway, and operated from around 600 BC until the middle of the 1st century AD.





The scale on which the Diolkos combined the two principles of the railway and the overland transport of ships was unique in antiquity.

There is scant literary evidence for two more ship trackways referred to as diolkoi in antiquity, both located in Roman Egypt: The physician Oribasius () records two passages from his first-century colleague Xenocrates, in which the latter casually refers to a diolkos close to the harbor of Alexandria, which may have been located at the southern tip of the island of Pharos. Another diolkos is mentioned by Ptolemy (90–168 CE) in his book on geography (IV, 5, 10) as connecting a false mouth of a partly silted up Nile branch with the Mediterranean Sea.

Writing in the first half of the eighth century, Cosmas of Jerusalem describes the portage of boats across the narrowest part of the Thracian Chersonese (Gallipoli Peninsula) between the Aegean Sea and the Sea of Marmara. The peninsula there is six miles wide. Cosmas describes the dragging of small boats as common in his day for local trade between Thrace and Gothograecia. The motivation for this practice was to avoid the long detour around the peninsula and through the Dardanelles, but also to avoid the customs house at Abydos. It would have been too costly to regularly move large ships across the peninsula, but Cosmas says that Constantine IV did it, presumably during the blockade of Constantinople (670/1–676/7) when the Sea of Marmara and the Dardanelles were controlled by the Umayyads. Constantine is said to have "driven" the ships rather than dragged them, probably indicating the use of wheels. Archaeological evidence for a portage across the Thracian Chersonese is lacking, but it is possible that traces of it have been confused with traces of the Long Wall, which was restored by Justinian I in the 6th century. The region also saw extensive damage during the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915.

Pre-Viking and Viking era northern Germany

The Skagerak always has been treacherous for shipping and early navigators tried to avoid it. There are various river systems in (modern) northern Germany and southern Denmark where the watershed is narrow and low, such as between the Treene (discharging into the North Sea) and the Schlei (discharging into the Baltic) that would have allowed portage. There is no certain physical or written evidence, except that it is known that goods were transported along these routes between different merchant settlements.

Venetian Republic

The land link between Adige River and Garda Lake in Northern Italy, hardly used by the smallest watercraft, was at least once used by the Venetian Republic for the transport of a military fleet in 1439. The land link is now somewhat harder because of the disappearance of Loppio Lake.

Russia

In the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries, Viking merchant-adventurers exploited a network of waterways in Eastern Europe, with portages connecting the four most important rivers of the region: Volga, Western Dvina, Dnieper, and Don. The portages of what is now Russia were vital for the Varangian

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases