If the current becomes too strong at high water, so that there is danger of breaking the cables, the pontoon way be attached to a swinging cable which would then take up the greater part of the tension. This cable should be very long: 1º so that the pull on the anchor way be as nearly horizontal as possible and 2º so that the arc described by the ferry boat may be as flat as possible.
The small inland boats are not less important than those just considered. Their size has gone on increasing as the navigable highways are improved and the clinker-built hulls give way to the carvel built. They differ, in the matter of form, from the types mentioned above, by their relatively small beam as compared with their length, as much as by their very much inclined bow and stern. If, as a general rule, the ratio between length and breadth which lay generally between 3.5 and 4.6 now reaches often 5 for the inland boats. Evidently, they are all flat-bottomed and, of late years, they have been built with a more rounded bilge.
THE BOK.
The Bok is one of the largest vessels of this group. It is met with in Friesland, in the North-West of the province of Utrecht, below Ankeveen and ’s Graveland, and in the North-East of South Holland to the North of the Old Rhine. It is a long, narrow boat, 16 metres long, only 3.35 m. beam and 1.75 m. depth. It narrows sharply toward the bottom and has a very strong sternpost and stem. The sternpost is straight and leaning; the stern also slopes and is slightly curved. The bow of the boat is square which gives it a characteristic appearance.
THE SNIK.
Along with the “Bok” there is found in Friesland, the Snik, which is a “Bok” of less square build with a more sloping sternpost and stem.
In the province of Holland, the same difference from the “Bok” is noted in the “Harlemmermeerlompertje” which is smaller than the “Frisian Snik”.