As a teenager in 1847, James Garfield worked as a Hoggee, driving mules to pull barges along the canal.
At the northern end of Gosty Tunnel, a layby marks the site when a tug was once kept to pull barges through the tunnel.
Tugboats still pull net-covered barges in batches of four.
Modern aspects of the painting include the steam-powered tugboats pulling barges and the railroad bridge.
Born in England in 1760, he lived as a barge horse that pulled barges up and down canals.
Therefore, he could well be the skipper of the Clementine, the tug that was never pulling barges and therefore might have another mission.
The original canals were flanked by towpaths, where mules walked while pulling barges through the canals.
While steamboats were used in some areas, as recently as the late 19th Century thousands of workers pulled barges.
He painted "Old Billy",[1] the longest-living horse on record, who pulled barges on the canals.
It has been used for ages by men pulling barges up the Volga river.
