DCHP-1 Online
rapids boat Northwest 
a specially equipped river boat of shallow draft used on the Mackenzie River for marking safe channels by buoys and markers, a constant task because of the shifting sandbanks.
See also: sturgeon-head (boat)
- 1948 Here [are] the rapids boats--sturgeon-head boats they were called, "something between a scow and a York boat" with blunt, rounded bows. . . .
- 1958 The branch, with Headquarters at Fort Smith, N.W.T., does this through two methods; by means of its own rapids boats and through the cooperation of the captains of all river vessels.
- 1948 Here [are] the rapids boats--sturgeon-head boats they were called, "something between a scow and a York boat" with blunt, rounded bows. . . .