Just like those bigger riverboats, the Soon Hong No. 7 carried a spare drive shaft and propeller. I still don't know how they would have gone about changing that mid-river.
The answer is in the photo below. At some point in this boat's history the owners obviously decided to do away with the advanced steering system and replace it with a manual one. I really didn't think about it at the time but looking back now I think these guys managed to scrape together enough money to buy a derelict hull and bolt a new(ish) outboard to it. Hey Presto - people will now pay us to ferry them up and down river!
Clearly the boat had seen better days. The windshield and side glass had long since disappeared. I wondered if in fact they had been plexiglass that had turned yellow and opaque. Note also that there is no-one steering up front! As you'll see in tomorrow's photo, even this wire and pulley arrangement was no longer in service, the steering mechanism having been superseded again. But despite the engineering modifications, the boat floated and it got the job done.