A bumboat is a small boat used to ferry supplies to ships moored away from the shore.[1] The name comes from the combination of the Dutch word for a canoe—"boomschuit" ("boom" meaning "tree"), 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.