Bumboat


A bumboat is a small boat used to ferry supplies to ships moored away from the shore. The name comes from the combination of the Dutch word for a canoe—"boomschuit", and "boat".
In Tobias Smollett's 1748 novel The Adventures of Roderick Random, a "bumboat woman" conducts business with sailors imprisoned on board a pressing tender moored near the Tower Wharf on the Thames River, London, England.
In HMS Pinafore, W.S. Gilbert describes 'Little Buttercup' as a Bumboat Woman.
In Singapore the term "bumboat" is applied to small water taxis and boats that take tourists on short tours.