A steamer runs occasionally up the Sobat, as required, between the middle of May and end of December.
A steamer runs twice a day between Omdurman, Khartoum, and Khartoum North. A chain-steam-ferry also connects Khartoum and Khartoum North.
The Blue Nile is open for navigation by steamer only for about six months of the year (beginning of June to beginning of December), and a fortnightly service leaving Khartoum every alternate Wednesday then runs to Wad Medani and back. From there to Roseires a monthly service is maintained.
The stern-wheel post steamers have each 8 to 10 cabins, and are capable of towing two double-decked troop barges each. They can then take 300 or 400 troops each, or about 80 tons of freight.
A large proportion of the transport of supplies, stores, building materials, etc., is carried in sailing boats (nuggars and gayassas), of which the Government owns 125. They are generally of from 10 to 50 tons carrying capacity each.
Private passengers and freight are carried by the steamers; boats and occasionally steamers can be hired when available.
Non-Government steamers.Two steamers (stern-wheel) and seven steel barges have been put on the river at and south of Khartoum by a private company (The Sudan Development and Exploration Company), and carry passengers and freight.
Native boats.The native sailing boat, called nuggar, is found all along the Nile in considerable numbers. It varies in size, from a capacity of a few ardebs to that of about 200 ardebs (25 tons). These boats are very strongly built of thick hard timber, occasionally half-decked, and fitted with one mast and lateen sails, and very long oars, mostly crooked. They are not so high in the bows nor as graceful as the Lower Nile boats (gayassas). They are mostly employed in carrying grain or gum. The chief native boat-building yards are at Omdurman, Dueim, and Goz Abu Guma, and on the Blue Nile at Senga.
Small and cumbrous rafts, rowed by one or two men, are sometimes seen; these are mostly used for carrying timber.
The ambach canoe, composed of a thick bundle of that pith-like cane tied together, turned up at the bows, and propelled by a paddle, is seen up the White Nile, and in the higher reaches, dug-out canoes, holding from one to six men, are used, both for transport and for hunting purposes.