Accommodation is provided for 8 first-class passengers and 150 second-class passengers, with a cargo capacity of 2500 cubic feet, or 50 tons of 50 cubic feet.
The engine of 25 H.P. was one of the locomotives used on the Quarry Tramways. The pressure of the steam is 120 lbs. The vessel is built with a single paddle-wheel, 11½ feet diameter, at the stern with 20 floats, 5 feet long by 1 foot broad.
The hull of the boat is 3⁄16ths iron, perfectly flat-bottomed and rectangular in section, with rectangular bilge. The bow is curved, with a vertical stern, and the stern is sloped off for 24 feet to a vertical depth of 1 foot, for the purpose of enabling the backwater to escape when the wheel is reversed. There are two rudders, and the steering is managed from the fore part of the boat. Her speed is between 6·5 and 7 miles an hour in the canal, but the run of 58 miles occupies from 11 to 12 hours down stream, and 13½ to 15 hours up stream, owing to the delay in passing the locks, of which there are six.
These steamers last year carried 42,900 passengers and 2500 tons of goods, earning 3175l.
The cost of working the different steamers, inclusive of all charges but that of interest and depreciation, amounted to from 9·36d. to 36·48d. per mile run.
The total earnings of the canal for the past year was 7080l., against 9300l. in 1881-82.
The tolls levied on boats are from ⅛d. to 1⁄5d. per ton per mile.
The charges by the steamer amount to about ⅜d. per ton and per passenger per mile. The charge by native boats varies with the demand, and is high. The bulk of the traffic is carried in native boats, which are worked by men. The sections of the two main canals in the Sone system are very large. They have to provide for the irrigation of 1,295,000 acres. They are about 200 feet broad, with a depth of 9 feet in full supply, diminishing to about 7 at the minimum. The branches vary from 90 to 60 feet at surface, with a minimum depth of 6 feet.
The time occupied by a boat in passing through a lock comprises the entrance and exit of the boat, and the operations in locking. By the adoption of sluices in the side walls the locks on the Bourgogne Canal can be filled or emptied in two minutes; but the time employed in taking in and bringing out a boat varies considerably, depending on the speed of the boat, its draught, and its method of traction. Steamboats, carrying from 100 to 150 tons of merchandise, traverse a lock in from six to eight minutes, whilst yachts and torpedo-boats have passed in four to six minutes. The main water traffic between Paris and Lyons is carried on by new boats 125 feet long, and having a draught of 4½ feet, being limited by deficiency in the depth of the Yonne. These boats can carry 210 tons, but their load is usually between 130 and 180 tons; they perform the journey between Paris and Lyons in 11 to 12 days, traversing the Bourgogne Canal in six or seven days.
Boatbuilders often err in constructing boats of the largest size that the locks will admit, thus rendering the entrance and exit of the boats both slow and troublesome. A boat of 200 tons, travelling 22 miles per day, is more serviceable than a boat of 275 tons which can only go 12½ miles. The greater speed entails a somewhat greater cost in traction; but it admits of more voyages, the transport of more freight, and a more regular service. The lengthening of the locks on the Burgoyne Canal, by enabling the tonnage to be increased by one-third, without diminishing the speed of transit, or notably increasing the cost of traction, has proved a profitable work for the inland-navigation commerce of France.