packet boat

English

Alternative forms

• packet-boat, packetboat

Etymology

From packet, meaning the packets of mail that were carried. For the passenger boats, the name derives from the boats that carried mail (and sometimes passengers) on rivers or canals, from which these services evolved.

Noun

packet boat (plural packet boats)

1. (historical) An ocean-going ship chartered by the government to carry the mail and official communications.
   • 1817, J. HORN, H.'s Description of Dover, page 119:

     For every trunk, portmanteau, chest, box, bag, bundle, packet, or parcel, conveyed from any inn to the Custom-house, and from thence to or on board any boat, passage vessel, or packet boat, or landed from any boat, passage vessel or packet boat, and conveyed to the Custom-house, and from thence to any inn, or to the Custom-house only, or direct to any inn, or to any part of the town, not exceeding 28lbs in weight, whether carried by barrow, knot, or hand

   • 1822, Sir James Dowling, Archer Ryland, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Court of King's Bench:

     But the case of Rex v. Jones establishes the principle, that a packet boat employed by his Majesty to carry mails is rateable.

   • 2012, Thomas Wright, William Harvey: A Life in Circulation:

     The packet boat on which Harvey should have travelled hoisted sail in the evening, leaving behind a smouldering Kentishman on the shore, where he was forced to spend the night.

   • 2014, George Smart, H. Bertram Cox, C. L. E. Cox, Leaves from the Journals of Sir George Smart, page 11:

     We were rather annoyed upon our arrival by the master of the packet boat wishing us to engage our places at once; we told him we had not yet made up our minds when we should go, which was a fact as we were divided in opinion.

2. (historical) A boat that carried mail, cargo, and, in later years, some passengers along a regularly scheduled route up and down a river or canal.
   • 1849, The Irish Jurist - Volume 1, page 26:

     On the night in question the plaintiff's boat had arrived at the harbour of Moyvalley, shortly before the arrival of the packet boat; and after touching at the Moyvalley side, so as to give facility to one of the persons on board to hand out oats for the purpose of feeding the horses engaged in drawing the boat, the persons on board pushed the boat with poles across towards the opposite side of the canal, within a few yards of another boat, which was moored close to the opposite bank, in which position the plaintiff's boat was, when the packet boat entered the harbour or station.

   • 2007, Historic Resource Study: Chesapeake & Ohio Canal:

     Whenever any boats or floats moving in opposite directions, approach a place in the Canal which is less than thirty feet wide on its surface, or which will not safely permit their passing, it shall be the duty of the master of the boat or float ascending the Canal, to stop at such distance from such narrow place as may be convenient for the descending boat or float to pass through such narrow place, and there wait until such passage is effected: Provided, however that a descending boat or float, that is not a licensed packet boat which is about thus to meet an ascending licensed packet boat, shall stop and give place for the said licensed packet boat, first to pass through the said narrow place;- and, provided, also, that descending rafts shall, in all such cases, stop and give place for boats and every other description of ascending floats first to pass through the same.

   • 2013, Ronald E. Shaw, Erie Water West: A History of the Erie Canal, 1792-1854:

     For her, none of the advantages of canalling could make up for the horrors she found in spending a night on board a packet boat: 'I would never advise ladies to travel by canal, unless the boats are quite new and clean; or at least, far better kept than any that I saw or heard of on this canal.

3. (historical) A boat specifically designed to provide transportation to passengers on a regular schedule up and down a river or canal.
   • 2003, Janey Levy, The Erie Canal, page 22:

     On the canal is a packet boat with a few passengers visible on top.

   • 2005, Avis A. Townsend, Medina:

     In the 1980s, the Apple Grove Resaurant brought back history when it offered packet boat rides on the canal.

   • 2012, Todd Decker, Show Boat: Performing Race in an American Musical:

     Here, she's a force for reconciliation, although it's tempting to imagine Gardner meeting Keel on the packet boat and seducing him rather than sending him back to Grayson.

Descendants

• → French: paquebot
  • → English: paquebot