View of the aqueduct taken in 2004 by the author. This, the featured image, is taken from the same position where the narrowboat photos for the AI generated videos were shot – as discussed below.
When the canals have so many problems such as breaches and the likes, like the massive breach on the Bridgewater canal which occurred on New Years Day 2025 – and for which repair work has yet to begin, comes along this new ‘chaos’!
One of Jones the Boats’ boats is seen undergoing a calamity, having hit what appears to be an underwater obstruction of some sort on the historic 127 foot/39metre high Pontcysyllte aqueduct in North Wales. The structure is acknowledged as being the highest aqueduct in the world.
It looks quite alarming at first. That shouldn’t be too surprising since its an AI generated video! The video was released about a week ago.
The scene is filmed from the southern end of the aqueduct where a view point exists and its possible to view the entire length of the structure’s offside.
Its a scene that’s alarming indeed, but even if it was real there would be several questions that need answering. First of all, there can’t well be an obstruction because another boat (seen in the distance) has just passed the location. Yes the passing of a boat does sometime cause an obstruction laying flat on the canal bed to rise up. However given the way the aqueduct is built it seems unlikely compared to a bridge narrows where this sort of thing is more likely to occur.
In terms of the aqueduct its more like the obstruction will potentially be able to move sideways underneath the towpath. In the other given example, this being a bridge narrows, any obstruction on the bed of the canal has nowhere to go because the canal channel is narrow and brick lined thus it will rise directly upward in the wake of the previous boat.
It could be possible an obstruction would lodge itself against the towpath’s support structure – which might account for the sudden stop the boat has encountered. However the one problem is the waves to the right side of the boat treats the channel as if its a fixed seven foot width and no more, when in fact the channel extends underneath the towpath itself – the total width of the water channel is just under 12 foot (3.7metres). Clearly the AI has not made an allowance for that!
Secondly, the movements of the crew and the steerer on the narrowboat are not consistent with what is happening. The movements do not match what is happening with the boat. Further, the female in the middle (wearing a light coloured jacket) waves her hands around in a way that is quite ridiculous (she slaps herself too) and its not even consistent with what is happening – plus she gets off the boat and then back on it. In a real scenario the person would likely want to stay off the boat!
Thirdly, this being one of Jones the Boat’s narrowboats, and the steerer quite apparently the proprietor himself, well sadly that company closed in 2020 upon Peter Jones’ retirement! The other problem is Mr Jones wears glasses! This rendering of what is meant to be Mr Jones features a guy with no glasses! The photographs of the setting do not show Mr Jones’ face thus the AI had no idea it was a guy who wore glasses!
Not only that the person in question isn’t even in charge of the boat. He’s not steering for a start! Its clear the AI has some problem with the concept of a narrow boat and how they are steered/controlled from the stern.
Even though trip boats continue to regularly operate across the aqueduct, these are now different in appearance and livery and are operated by Anglo Welsh who have a narrowboat hire base at Trevor.
It seems the AI generated video was made from a series of photographs – one of which can be seen below. There’s a further video and that shows that Canal Boaters (the video’s maker) have an intent to depict the old British Waterways Board with humour. Though why not the present Canal and River Trust too happens to be a mystery!
Peter Jones steering n/b Eirlys across the aqueduct in this photograph from a few years ago. The boat is at the same exact location as the AI generated video. Image from Canal Junction who have a useful page on the aqueduct and Trevor.
There’s one more video (shown below) of the same boat and steerer (though the crew are missing) and this shows the aqueduct apparently flexing and leaking. While it does very minimally flex its barely noticeable – and besides the structure which opened in 1805 is so well built leaks are almost an impossibility – and they would not occur in the way this Tik Tok video has made out.
@canalboaters.com Going over the pontcysyllte aqueduct. #pontcysyllte #canalboats #narrowboat #canal #banter ♬ Shake Your Hips – Dollar Bill and His One Mand Band
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