Thai water-taxis made from canoe-mounted truck-engines

James Gosling took a series of photos of Thailand's Longtail water-taxis, which are made by attaching a propeller-equipped diesel truck engine to the end of an oversized canoe. The photos are pretty impressive.

When you look at them when they get closer, you see a truck engine mounted on the stern with a long piece of pipe stretching out toward the bow that the boatman holds on to. There's another piece of pipe welded onto the transmission pointing out toward the stern.

When the boatman pushes on his piece of pipe, it rotates the engine left, right, up or down. When he pushes down, it rotates the tail upward and you get to see the business end of the beast: a naked propeller just hanging out there.

Link

(Thanks, Simon!)