The wooden baleinière riverboats of the Democratic Republic of Congo are a double-edged sword: they are socio-technical achievements whose operation is based on ancient environmental knowledge and whose constant movements ensure both the mobility of people and the food security of the country's river towns, including the capital Kinshasa’s. However, their vulnerability to shipwreck reflects the current state of the existing infrastructure, as well as the precarious functioning of the economy and the level of competence with which the country operates today, including at regulatory level. We maintain that the root causes are structural rather than due to the errors of individuals: there is no realistic alternative in the face of ever-increasing demand; the scale that the phenomenon has assumed makes it essential to professionalise the workforce, which should be done by making the most of local knowledge and skills; the development of a responsible professional ethic will help to combat negligence and the trivialisation of risks, while professional management will prevent ships from becoming unbalanced; the main root cause of shipwrecks, however, remains economic vulnerability: passengers and crew live from day to day and cannot afford to wait.