Leonardo da Vinci designed a paddle boat that used rotating paddle wheels for movement.
His watercraft studies explored ways to propel a vessel without relying entirely on wind or a large crew of rowers. In the paddle-boat concept, mechanical motion turned wheels fitted with paddles, pushing against the water and driving the hull forward. The arrangement resembles the principle later used by paddle steamers, although Leonardo’s design had no steam engine.
The drawings belong to Leonardo’s wide-ranging investigations of waterways, transport, and machines. He studied boats alongside canals, locks, pumps, and other hydraulic systems, treating water as both a route for travel and a physical force that could be controlled.
The design was not a modern powered boat. Leonardo provided no working engine capable of delivering continuous mechanical power, so the practical energy source remains an important limitation. It is best understood as a paddle-propulsion concept rather than a completed vessel or a steamship.