The Daugava Waterway and Rafting

For safe navigation of boats, barges and rafts the riverbed was cleaned every summer by boatmen sailing with simple mechanic devices on board for picking up stones from water. These were later sold as building material for coast line or other construction works in Riga.

Rafting on Daugava has been known already in medieval written sources; from 15th to mid-20th century, various sorts of timber were transported downstream to Riga in caravans of rafts every spring. The raftsmen used different specially constructed tools like crooks and axes for picking up pieces of spruce, pine and birch timber and turning them into beams set together in rafts.