![Barge on River Thames, London - Dec 2009](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Barge_on_River_Thames%2C_London_-_Dec_2009.jpg)
Barge nowadays generally refers to a
flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by
tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by
pusher boats, or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many other types of barges.
History of the barge
Etymology
"Barge" is attested from 1300, from
Old French
Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligib ...
''barge'', from
Vulgar Latin
Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve ...
''barga''. The word originally could refer to any small boat; the modern meaning arose around 1480. ''Bark'' "small ship" is attested from 1420, from Old French ''barque'', from Vulgar Latin ''barca'' (400 AD). The more precise meaning of
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...
as "three-masted sailing vessel" arose in the 17th century, and often takes the French spelling for disambiguation. Both are probably derived from the
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
''barica'', from
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''baris'' "Egyptian boat", from
Coptic
Coptic may refer to:
Afro-Asia
* Copts, an ethnoreligious group mainly in the area of modern Egypt but also in Sudan and Libya
* Coptic language, a Northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century
* Coptic alphabet ...
''bari'' "small boat",
hieroglyphic
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
Egyptian
D58-G29-M17-M17-D21-P1 and similar ''ba-y-r'' for "basket-shaped boat". By extension, the term "embark" literally means to board the kind of boat called a "barque".
The British river barge
![Watercolour_of_Barton_aqueduct_by_G](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fb/Watercolour_of_Barton_aqueduct_by_G.F._Yates_1793.jpg)
In
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
a merchant barge was originally a flat bottomed merchant vessel for use on navigable rivers. Most of these barges had sails. For traffic on the
River Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
the barge was described as: ''The lesser sort are called barges and frigates, being from forty to sixty feet in length, having a single mast and square sail, and carrying from twenty to forty tons burthen.'' The larger vessels were called trows. On the
River Irwell there was reference to barges passing below Barton Aqueduct with their mast and sails standing. Barges on the
Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
were called west country barges.
Narrowboats and Widebeams
During the
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, a substantial network of narrow canals was developed in Great Britain from 1750 onward. These new British canals had locks of only wide. This led to the development of the
narrowboats, which had a beam of no more than . It was soon realized that the narrow locks were too limiting. Later locks were therefore doubled in width to . This led to the development of the
widebeam
A widebeam is a canal boat built in the style of a British narrowboat but with a beam of or greater.The Canal and River Trust (CRT) gives more than one minimum width for a wide beam on their website: "anything wider than []" in ''Wide beam, wid ...
.
The narrowboats were initially also known as barges, but only a very few had sails. From the start, most of the new canals were constructed with an adjacent
towpath
A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...
, which made it possible to tow them by draft horses. These types of
canal craft
This is a list of the types of craft to be found on the canals and non-tidal rivers of the United Kingdom for which the Canal and River Trust have a licence category:
*Thames sailing barges,
*Barges
*Dutch barges
*Cabin cruisers
*Canoes and kaya ...
are so specific that on the
British canal system
The canals of the United Kingdom are a major part of the network of inland waterways in the United Kingdom. They have a varied history, from use for irrigation and transport, through becoming the focus of the Industrial Revolution, to today's ro ...
the term 'barge' is not used to describe
narrowboats and
widebeam
A widebeam is a canal boat built in the style of a British narrowboat but with a beam of or greater.The Canal and River Trust (CRT) gives more than one minimum width for a wide beam on their website: "anything wider than []" in ''Wide beam, wid ...
s.
The Thames barge and Dutch barge
On the British canal system, the
Thames sailing barge
A Thames sailing barge is a type of commercial sailing boat once common on the River Thames in London. The flat-bottomed barges with a shallow draught and leeboards, were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and na ...
, and
Dutch barge
A Dutch barge is a traditional flat-bottomed shoal-draught barge, originally used to carry cargo in the shallow '' Zuyder Zee'' and the waterways of Netherlands. There are very many types of Dutch barge, with characteristics determined by regio ...
and unspecified other styles of barge, are still known as barges. The term Dutch barge is nowadays often used to refer to an accommodation ship, but originally refers to the slightly larger Dutch version of the Thames sailing barge.
Crew and pole
The people who moved barges were known as
lightermen
A lighterman is a worker who operates a lighter, a type of flat-bottomed barge, which may be powered or unpowered. In the latter case, today it is usually moved by a powered tug. The term is particularly associated with the highly skilled men ...
. Poles are used on barges to fend off other nearby vessels or a wharf. These are often called 'pike poles'. The long pole used to maneuver or propel a barge has given rise to the saying "I wouldn't touch that
ubject/thingwith a barge pole."
The 19th century British barge
![Barge,_River_Thames_-_geograph](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Barge%2C_River_Thames_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2099639.jpg)
In the United Kingdom the word barge had many meanings by the 1890s, and these varied locally. On the
Mersey
The River Mersey () is in North West England. Its name derives from Old English and means "boundary river", possibly referring to its having been a border between the ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Northumbria. For centuries it has formed part ...
a barge was called a 'Flat', on the Thames a
Lighter
A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...
or barge, and on the
Humber
The Humber is a large tidal estuary on the east coast of Northern England. It is formed at Trent Falls, Faxfleet, by the confluence of the tidal rivers Ouse and Trent. From there to the North Sea, it forms part of the boundary between t ...
a 'Keel'. A Lighter had neither mast nor rigging. A keel did have a single mast with sails. Barge and lighter were used indiscriminately. A local distinction was that any flat that was not propelled by steam was a barge, although it might be a sailing flat.
The term Dumb barge was probably taken into use to end the confusion. The term Dumb barge surfaced in the early nineteenth century. It first denoted the use of a barge as a mooring platform in a fixed place. As it went up and down with the tides, it made a very convenient mooring place for steam vessels. Within a few decades, the term dumb barge evolved, and came to mean: 'a vessel propelled by oars only'. By the 1890s Dumb barge was still used only on the Thames.
By 1880 barges on British rivers and canals were often towed by steam tugboats. On the Thames, many dumb barges still relied on their poles, oars and the tide. Others dumb barges made use of about 50 tugboats to tow them to their destinations. While many coal barges were towed, many dumb barges that handled single parcels were not.
The 19th century American barge
In the United States a barge was not a sailing vessel by the end of the 19th century. Indeed, barges were often created by cutting down
razee
A razee or razée is a sailing ship that has been cut down (''razeed'') to reduce the number of decks. The word is derived from the French ''vaisseau rasé'', meaning a razed (in the sense of shaved down) ship.
Seventeenth century
During the ...
ing sailing vessels. In New York this was an accepted meaning of the term barge. The somewhat smaller
scow
A scow is a smaller type of barge. Some scows are rigged as sailing scows. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, scows carried cargo in coastal waters and inland waterways, having an advantage for navigating shallow water or small harbours. S ...
was built as such, but the scow also had its sailing counterpart the sailing scow.
The modern barge
The iron barge
The innovation that led to the modern barge was the use of iron barges towed by a steam tugboat. These were first used to transport grain and other bulk products. From about 1840 to 1870 the towed iron barge was quickly introduced on the Rhine, Danube, Don,
Dniester
The Dniester, ; rus, Дне́стр, links=1, Dnéstr, ˈdⁿʲestr; ro, Nistru; grc, Τύρᾱς, Tyrās, ; la, Tyrās, la, Danaster, label=none, ) ( ,) is a transboundary river in Eastern Europe. It runs first through Ukraine and th ...
, and rivers in Egypt, India and Australia. Many of these barges were built in Great Britain.
Nowadays 'barge' generally refers to a dumb barge. In Europe, a Dumb barge is: ''An inland waterway transport freight vessel designed to be towed which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion''. In America, a barge is generally pushed.
Modern use
![Chicago River towboat and barge 080405](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Chicago_River_towboat_and_barge_080405.jpg)
Barges are used today for low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods by barge is very low. Barges are also used for very heavy or bulky items; a typical American barge measures , and can carry up to about of cargo. The most common European barge measures and can carry up to about .
As an example, on June 26, 2006, a
catalytic cracking unit reactor was shipped by barge from the
Tulsa Port of Catoosa
The primary facility of the Tulsa Ports, known as the Tulsa Port of Catoosa, is near the city of Catoosa in Rogers County, just inside the municipal fenceline of Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. Located at the head of navigation for the McClell ...
in
Oklahoma
Oklahoma (; Choctaw language, Choctaw: ; chr, ᎣᎧᎳᎰᎹ, ''Okalahoma'' ) is a U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States, bordered by Texas on the south and west, Kansas on the nor ...
to a refinery in
Pascagoula, Mississippi
Pascagoula ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the Gulfport– Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 2 ...
. Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled onsite, but shipping an assembled unit reduced costs and avoided reliance on construction labor at the delivery site (which in this case was still recovering from
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
). Of the reactor's journey, only about were traveled overland, from the final port to the refinery.
Self-propelled barges may be used as such when traveling downstream or upstream in placid waters; they are operated as an unpowered barge, with the assistance of a tugboat, when traveling upstream in faster waters. Canal barges are usually made for the particular canal in which they will operate.
Barges in the United States
![Cumberland River barge traffic](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Cumberland_River_barge_traffic.jpg)
In times before industrial development, railways, and highways: barges were the predominant and most efficient means of inland transportation in many regions. This holds true today, for many areas of the world.
In such pre-industrialized, or poorly developed infrastructure regions, many barges are purpose-designed to be powered on waterways by long slender poles – thereby becoming known on American waterways as poleboats as the extensive west of North America was settled using the vast tributary river systems of the
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
drainage basin
A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. A basin is separated from adjacent basins by a perimeter, t ...
. Poleboats use muscle power of "walkers" along the sides of the craft pushing a pole against the streambed, canal or lake bottom to move the vessel where desired. In settling the American west it was generally faster to navigate downriver from
Brownsville, Pennsylvania
Brownsville is a borough (Pennsylvania), borough in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, United States, first settled in 1785 as the site of a trading post a few years after the Sullivan Expedition, defeat of the Iroquois enabled a post-Revolutionary war ...
, to the
Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
confluence with the
Mississippi
Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...
and then pole upriver against the current to St. Louis than to travel overland on the rare primitive dirt roads for many decades after the
American Revolution
The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...
.
Once the New York Central and Pennsylvania Railroads reached Chicago, that time dynamic changed, and American poleboats became less common, relegated to smaller rivers and more remote streams. On the Mississippi riverine system today, including that of other sheltered waterways, industrial barge trafficking in bulk raw materials such as coal, coke, timber, iron ore and other minerals is extremely common; in the developed world using huge cargo barges that connect in groups and trains-of-barges in ways that allow cargo volumes and weights considerably greater than those used by pioneers of modern barge systems and methods in the
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
.
![The tugboat, Herbert P](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/The_tugboat%2C_Herbert_P._Brake.jpg)
Such barges need to be towed by
tugboat
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, su ...
s or pushed by
towboat
A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...
s. Canal barges, towed by draft animals on a waterway adjacent
towpath
A towpath is a road or trail on the bank of a river, canal, or other inland waterway. The purpose of a towpath is to allow a land vehicle, beasts of burden, or a team of human pullers to tow a boat, often a barge. This mode of transport w ...
were of fundamental importance in the early
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
, whose major early engineering projects were efforts to build
viaducts,
aqueducts
Aqueduct may refer to:
Structures
*Aqueduct (bridge), a bridge to convey water over an obstacle, such as a ravine or valley
*Navigable aqueduct, or water bridge, a structure to carry navigable waterway canals over other rivers, valleys, railw ...
and especially canals to fuel and feed raw materials to nascent factories in the early industrial takeoff (18th century) and take their goods to ports and cities for distribution.
The barge and canal system contended favourably with the
railway
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
s in the early
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...
before around the 1850s–1860s; for example, the
Erie Canal
The Erie Canal is a historic canal in upstate New York that runs east-west between the Hudson River and Lake Erie. Completed in 1825, the canal was the first navigable waterway connecting the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, vastly reducing t ...
in
New York state is credited by economic historians with giving the growth boost needed for
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
to eclipse
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
as America's largest port and city – but such canal systems with their locks, need for maintenance and dredging, pumps and sanitary issues
were eventually outcompeted in the carriage of high-value items by the railways due to the higher speed, falling costs and route flexibility of
rail transport
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
. Barge and canal systems were nonetheless of great, perhaps even primary, economic importance until after the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
in Europe, particularly in the more developed nations of the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
and especially
Great Britain
Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...
which more or less made the system characteristically its own.
Nowadays, custom built special purpose equipment called modular barges are extensively used in surveying, mapping, laying and burial of subsea optic fibre cables worldwide and other support services.
In the United States, deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a bos'n or the mate. The captain and pilot steer the towboat, which pushes one or more barges held together with rigging, collectively called 'the tow'. The crew live aboard the towboat as it travels along the inland river system or the intracoastal waterways. These towboats travel between ports and are also called line-haul boats.
Types
* Admiral's barge
*
Articulated tug and barge
A tugboat or tug is a marine vessel that manoeuvres other vessels by pushing or pulling them, with direct contact or a tow line. These boats typically tug ships in circumstances where they cannot or should not move under their own power, suc ...
*
Barracks barge ("accommodation barge")
* Bin barge
*
Canal motorship
*
Car float
A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...
*
Ferrocement
Ferrocement or ferro-cement is a system of construction using reinforced mortar or plaster (lime or cement, sand, and water) applied over an "armature" of metal mesh, woven, expanded metal, or metal-fibers, and closely spaced thin steel rods ...
or
"Concrete" Barge
*
Crane barge
A crane vessel, crane ship or floating crane is a ship with a crane specialized in lifting heavy loads. The largest crane vessels are used for offshore construction. Conventional monohulls are used, but the largest crane vessels are often catam ...
*
Dredges
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing da ...
* Deck barge
*
Dutch barge
A Dutch barge is a traditional flat-bottomed shoal-draught barge, originally used to carry cargo in the shallow '' Zuyder Zee'' and the waterways of Netherlands. There are very many types of Dutch barge, with characteristics determined by regio ...
*
Dry bulk cargo barge
A dry bulk cargo barge is a barge designed to carry freight such as coal, finished steel or its ingredients, grain, sand or gravel, or similar materials. Barges are usually constructed of steel. They have an outer hull, an internal v ...
*
Gundalow
A gundalow (also known in period accounts as a "gondola") is a type of flat-bottomed sailing barge once common in Maine and New Hampshire rivers. It first appeared in the mid-1600s, reached maturity of design in the 1700 and 1800s, and lingered i ...
*
Hopper barge
A hopper barge is a kind of non-mechanical ship or vessel that cannot move around by itself, unlike some other types of barges, that is designed to carry materials, like rocks, sand, soil and rubbish, for dumping into the ocean, a river or lak ...
*
Hotel barge
A hotel barge (fr. ''péniche hôtel'') is a barge that has been built or converted to serve as a hotel or other kind of lodging. Hotel barges are generally found on rivers and canals in Europe, and may be used for river cruises or permanently mo ...
*
Horse-drawn boat
A horse-drawn boat or tow-boat is a historic boat operating on a canal, pulled by a horse walking beside the canal on a towpath.
United Kingdom
The Romans are known to have used mules to haul boats on their waterways in the UK. Boat horses were t ...
*
Jackup barge
A jackup rig or a self-elevating unit is a type of mobile platform that consists of a buoyant hull fitted with a number of movable legs, capable of raising its hull over the surface of the sea. The buoyant hull enables transportation of the unit a ...
*
Landing craft
*
Lighter
A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...
*
Liquid cargo barge
Liquid cargo barges are barges that transport petrochemicals, such as styrene, benzene and methanol; liquid fertilizer, including anhydrous ammonia; refined products, including gasoline, diesel fuel, and jet fuel; black oil products, such as asph ...
* Log barge
* Notch barge
*
Narrowboat
*
Norfolk wherry
The Norfolk wherry is a type of boat used on The Broads in Norfolk and Suffolk, England. Three main types were developed over its life, all featuring the distinctive gaff rig with a single, high-peaked sail and the mast stepped well forward.
Dev ...
*
Rocket landing barge
* Oil barge
*
Paddle barge
*
Péniche or Spitz barge
*
Pleasure barge
A pleasure barge is a flat-bottomed, slow-moving boat used for leisure. It is contrasted with a standard barge, which is used to transport freight. Many places where canals or rivers play a prominent role have developed pleasure barges for conduc ...
*
Power barge
Power most often refers to:
* Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work"
** Engine power, the power put out by an engine
** Electric power
* Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events
** Abusive power
Power may a ...
* Row barge
*
Royal barge
A royal barge is a ceremonial barge that is used by a monarch for processions and transport on a body of water.
Royal barges are currently used in monarchies such as the United Kingdom, Sweden and Thailand.
Traditionally the use of royal barges ...
* Sand barge
* Severn
trow
A trow was a type of cargo boat found in the past on the rivers Severn and Wye in Great Britain and used to transport goods.
Features
The mast could be taken down so that the trow could go under bridges, such as the bridge at Worcester and ...
*
Tank barge
A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong vehicle armour, armour, and good battlefield mobility (military), mobility prov ...
*
Thames sailing barge
A Thames sailing barge is a type of commercial sailing boat once common on the River Thames in London. The flat-bottomed barges with a shallow draught and leeboards, were perfectly adapted to the Thames Estuary, with its shallow waters and na ...
*
Tub boat
A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals. The English boats were typically long and wide and generally carried to of cargo, though some extra deep ones could carry up to . They a ...
* Vehicular barge
*
Whaleback barge
]
A whaleback was a type of cargo steamship of unusual design, with a hull that continuously curved above the waterline from vertical to horizontal. When fully loaded, only the rounded portion of the hull (the "whaleback" proper) could be seen ...
*
Widebeam
A widebeam is a canal boat built in the style of a British narrowboat but with a beam of or greater.The Canal and River Trust (CRT) gives more than one minimum width for a wide beam on their website: "anything wider than []" in ''Wide beam, wid ...
Image gallery
File:PénicheRecyclageFerrailles2008Deûle2.jpg, A self propelled barge carrying recycling material on Deûle channel in Lambersart
Lambersart () is a commune in the Nord department in northern France.
This commune is located in the Métropole Européenne de Lille, and is a suburb of the city of Lille, bordering it on its northwest side.
Inhabitants of the town are called ...
, France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
File:Barge with cars.jpg, Self-propelled car barge on the River Danube
The Danube ( ; ) is a river that was once a long-standing frontier of the Roman Empire and today connects 10 European countries, running through their territories or being a border. Originating in Germany, the Danube flows southeast for , pa ...
File:Péniches sur le Canal du Midi.jpg, Barges near Toulouse
Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...
, France
File:Andromeda (ship, 1958) Hannover Mittellandkanal 2006 by-RaBoe.jpg, Self-propelled barge ''Andromeda'' in canal at Hanover
Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
, Germany
File:Messina_Karden_Bug.jpg, Tank barge on the River Moselle
The Moselle ( , ; german: Mosel ; lb, Musel ) is a river that rises in the Vosges mountains and flows through north-eastern France and Luxembourg to western Germany. It is a bank (geography), left bank tributary of the Rhine, which it jo ...
, Germany
File:CrushedStoneBarge.jpg, Self-propelled barge carrying bulk crushed stone
File:IjmuidenBarge.jpg, Self-propelled barge in the port of IJmuiden, Netherlands
File:Pegasus_barge_being_moved_by_Freedom_Star_and_towboat_American_2.jpg, Barge carrying the Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
external tank for STS-119 under tow to Port Canaveral
Port Canaveral is a cruise, cargo, and naval port in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is one of the busiest cruise ports in the world with 4.5 million cruise passengers passing through during 2016. Over 5.4 million tonnes of bulk car ...
, Florida
Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...
, United States
File:Yangzhou-Modern-Grand-Canal-boats-3351.JPG, Self-propelled barges on the Grand Canal of China
The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal (, or more commonly, as the「大运河」("Grand Canal")), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. Starting in Beijing, it passes ...
near Yangzhou
Yangzhou, postal romanization Yangchow, is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province (Suzhong), East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yan ...
, Jiangsu
Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...
, China
File:CoalbargePittsburgh.JPG, Coal barges passing Heinz Field
Acrisure Stadium is a football stadium located in the North Shore neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. It primarily serves as the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League (NFL) and the Pittsburgh Panth ...
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
on the Ohio River
The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...
File:Suphannahongsa-docked.jpg, Royal Barge ''Suphannahong'' docked at Wat Arun
Wat Arun Ratchawararam Ratchawaramahawihan ( th, วัดอรุณราชวราราม ราชวรมหาวิหาร ) or Wat Arun (, "Temple of Dawn") is a Buddhist temple ('' wat'') in Bangkok Yai district of Bangkok, Th ...
pier
Seaside pleasure pier in Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th century.">England.html" ;"title="Brighton, England">Brighton, England. The first seaside piers were built in England in the early 19th ...
, one of the Thai
Thai or THAI may refer to:
* Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia
** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand
** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand
*** Thai script
*** Thai (Unicode block ...
royal barges featured in the royal barge ceremony
Image:Donna York.jpg, Towboat
A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...
''Donna York'' pushing barges of coal up the Ohio River at Louisville
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border.
...
, Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
, United States
File:Ilia Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Volga Boatmen (1870-1873).jpg, ''Barge Haulers on the Volga
''Barge Haulers on the Volga'' or '' Burlaki'' (russian: Бурлаки на Волге, ''Burlaki na Volge'') is an 1870–1873 oil-on-canvas painting by artist Ilya Repin. It depicts 11 men physically dragging a barge on the banks of the Volg ...
'' (1870–73), by Ilya Repin
Ilya Yefimovich Repin (russian: Илья Ефимович Репин, translit=Il'ya Yefimovich Repin, p=ˈrʲepʲɪn); fi, Ilja Jefimovitš Repin ( – 29 September 1930) was a Russian painter, born in what is now Ukraine. He became one of the ...
File:Kapal tongkang.jpg, ''Tongkang'' or car barge, landed on Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi, Indonesia
File:slipway at portland.JPG, Slipway
A slipway, also known as boat ramp or launch or boat deployer, is a ramp on the shore by which ships or boats can be moved to and from the water. They are used for building and repairing ships and boats, and for launching and retrieving small ...
at Portland Harbour, Dorset
Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...
, England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, holding a split dump barge (on right)
File:Barge on Mosel by Kues (1).jpg, Barge on the river Mosel in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
File:Water_Barge_YW-59.jpg, US Navy Water Type B ship
The Type B ship is a United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) designation for World War II barges. Barges are very low cost to build, operate and move. Barges were needed to move large bulky cargo. A tug boat, some classed as Type V ships, co ...
Barge, YW-59, launched August 29, 1941
File:YFN-958-Covered_Lighter_Barge-Non-Self-Propelled.jpg, YFN-958 a covered lighter barge, non-Self-propelled. Built by Mare Island Navy Shipyard in 1944.
File:Concrete Barge - Erie Canal - Lock 13 - 3.jpg, Ferrocement
Ferrocement or ferro-cement is a system of construction using reinforced mortar or plaster (lime or cement, sand, and water) applied over an "armature" of metal mesh, woven, expanded metal, or metal-fibers, and closely spaced thin steel rods ...
Barge, US-102, in the Erie Canal
File:Ww2 concrete barge, National Waterway Museum.jpg, WW2 concrete barge at the National Waterways Museum
The National Waterways Museum (NWM) is in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, at the northern end of the Shropshire Union Canal where it meets the Manchester Ship Canal (). The museum's collections and archives focus on the Britain's navigable inl ...
, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK
File:Sun Shining Into a Barge.jpg, Sun shining into the empty asphalt
Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...
barge ''Endeavour'' while under repair in Muskegon, Michigan
Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expa ...
.
File:Pelican Barge, Darling Harbor, Sydney, NSW, AU.jpg, A barge decorated to look like a pelican carrying a jumbotron display.
File:AWB Rajawali Natuna.jpg, Accommodation Work Barge
See also
*
American Waterways Operators
The American Waterways Operators, is the national trade association for the U.S. tugboat, towboat and barge industry.
For more than 60 years AWO has promoted the contribution of the domestic waterways transportation industry to the U.S. economy. A ...
*
Burlak
A burlak ( rus, бурла́к, p=bʊrˈlak) was a towpath puller in Russian Empire.
Overview
The exact origin of the word is unknown. Different versions include old middle-German ''bûrlach'' (working team with fixed rules, artel), or Tatar ''b ...
*
Canal boat ''Ross Barlow''
*
Car float
A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a t ...
*
Chain boat
A chain boat,John MacGregor (1867). ''The voyage alone in the yawl "Rob Roy": from London to Paris, and back etc.'', London: Maranda merrill, Son and Marston, pp. 97-99. chain tug or chain-ship was a type of river craft, used in the second half o ...
*
Container on barge
Container on barge is a form of intermodal freight transport where containers are stacked on a barge and towed to a destination on an inland waterway.
Mississippi River & tributaries
There is limited use of this mode of transport because a la ...
*
Dory
A dory is a small, shallow-draft boat, about long. It is usually a lightweight boat with high sides, a flat bottom and sharp bows. It is easy to build because of its simple lines. For centuries, the dory has been used as a traditional fishin ...
*
Float (nautical)
Floats (also called pontoons) are airtight hollow structures, similar to pressure vessels, designed to provide buoyancy in water. Their principal applications are in watercraft hulls, aircraft floats, floating pier, pontoon rhinos, pontoon c ...
* ''
Hughes Mining Barge
The ''Hughes Mining Barge'', or ''HMB-1'', is a submersible barge about 99 m (324 ft) long, 32 m (106 ft) wide, and more than 27 m (90 ft) tall. The ''HMB-1'' was originally developed as part of Project Azorian (mor ...
''
*
Lighter
A lighter is a portable device which creates a flame, and can be used to ignite a variety of items, such as cigarettes, gas lighter, fireworks, candles or campfires. It consists of a metal or plastic container filled with a flammable liquid or ...
*
Mobro 4000
*
Pusher (boat)
A pusher, pusher craft, pusher boat, pusher tug, or towboat, is a boat designed for pushing barges or car floats. In the United States, the industries that use these vessels refer to them as towboats. These vessels are characterized by a squar ...
*
Shallop
Shallop is a name used for several types of boats and small ships (French ''chaloupe'') used for coastal navigation from the seventeenth century. Originally smaller boats based on the chalupa, the watercraft named this ranged from small boats a l ...
*
Tub boat
A tub boat was a type of unpowered cargo boat used on a number of the early English and German canals. The English boats were typically long and wide and generally carried to of cargo, though some extra deep ones could carry up to . They a ...
*
Type B ship
The Type B ship is a United States Maritime Administration (MARAD) designation for World War II barges. Barges are very low cost to build, operate and move. Barges were needed to move large bulky cargo. A tug boat, some classed as Type V ships, co ...
References
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Notes
External links
Barge Lehigh Valley 79 at the Waterfront Museum Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York,
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
Britain's Official guide to canals, rivers and lakes*
DBA The Barge AssociationThe American Waterways Operators
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Shipping