The conducting or conveying of water from place to place.(noun)
Means of conveyance by water, collectively; vessels; boats.(noun)
The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)
Use "water-carriage" in a sentence
"On page 28: “As by means of water-carriage a more extensive market is opened to every sort of industry then what land-carriage alone afford it, so it us upon the sea-coast and along the banks of navigable rivers, that industry of every kind begins to subdivide and improve itself.”"
"Amidst a long discussion, which he “crammed into mine ear against the stomach of my sense,” I only remember, that it was part of his project to preserve a portion of the lake just deep enough and broad enough for the purposes of water-carriage, so that coal-barges and gabbards should pass as easily between Dumbarton and Glenfalloch as between Glasgow and Greenock."
"As we were now not far from the latitude of Mozambique, I was somewhat tempted to strike away from the river to that port, instead of going to the S.E., in the direction the river flows; but, the great object of my journey being to secure water-carriage, I resolved to continue along the"