Large, chunky boats with square, upturned ends and flat roofs inched upstream carrying sacks of rice, teak logs, people.

Dwarfed by their load the boats inched painfully along the seaward sideof the reef, but when they tried to tow the mast around the point ofRas Ibn Khum, the current that swirled along the headland took them inits jaws, and held them fast.

As the boat inched its way up the Arkansas, the brown river gradually narrowed, and as it narrowed the boatmen and whiskey traders grew more restless.

As the boat inched toward the terminal, a barge pulling the wreckage of the World Trade Center to the Fresh Kills landfill followed aft and Captain Matthews crossed himself and considered his own ill luck.

A few boats with dim lights inched along the horizon.

The boat inched close to the dock.

Their boat rolled and pitched, inching closer until a mere six feet separated them from the Adelaide.

The water fizzed and the boat inched back towards the sea, retreating along the channel it had cut into the fringe.

One or two small boats inched ahead of tiny trails of white water.

Slowly the boat inched away from the site where the ship had gone down, away from the people in the water, all begging for life, for one last chance.