I was reading an article in The Independent (an interview of a native English speaker) and I read the following sentence:
We travelled across by the boat to Mljet National Park . . .
Shouldn't we say "by boat" instead ?
I was reading an article in The Independent (an interview of a native English speaker) and I read the following sentence:
We travelled across by the boat to Mljet National Park . . .
Shouldn't we say "by boat" instead ?
We travelled across by boat, by train, and so forth, with no article, is usual when you are speaking merely of the mode of transport you are using. It is equivalent to We took a boat, a train, and so forth.
By the boat, the train, and so forth imply a particular boat or train—usually ‘the’ regularly scheduled boat or train or whatever to that particular destination.
We traveled by the 7:48 to Birmingham.
We traveled by the Brussels ferry.
I took the #87 bus downtown.
This is probably why Ms. Coleman speaks of “the boat to Mljet National Park”. As Vic suggests, we would ordinarily keep across to together if we were speaking of the park as our destination; but Ms. Coleman is probably using “to Mljet National Park” to distinguish which boat: the one which goes to that park as opposed to other boats which go to other locations on the island, or to other islands.
There is nothing specifically wrong with that statement.
"by boat" vs "by the boat":
Using "by the boat" implies that there is an alternative to the boat for crossing, such as a bridge.
Articles are not used before common nouns in some cases: We went there by boat. We went there on foot. Make way for me. Make room for me. They lost heart. Learn the poem by heart. They work by day. They went by land. Send word to your father. The house caught fire. The man begs from door to door.
But to mention some particular boat, train etc. THE can be used. We crossed the river by the boat (a particular boat). We went to Kolkata by the 7:30 train.(The particular train which starts at 7:30.) Hope, it is clear now.
That's not the only mistake. The correct way to write it would be:
"We travelled across to Mljet National Park by boat.
Adverbs of manner go before the main verb, after the auxiliary verb or at the end of the sentence. When there are two or more adverbs in the same sentence and there is a verb of movement, such as "go", "come", "leave", travel", then the adverbs come in the following order: place-manner-time
I know that this was not what you are asking about, but there were two mistakes.
As for "By boat", there's nothing to explain; we always say."by boat","by bus", "by train",etc.