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A wharf, quay (, also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a
harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more
berths (
mooring
A mooring is any permanent structure to which a vessel may be secured. Examples include quays, wharfs, jetties, piers, anchor buoys, and mooring buoys. A ship is secured to a mooring to forestall free movement of the ship on the water. An ''an ...
locations), and may also include
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 ...
s,
warehouse
A warehouse is a building for storing goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial parks on the outskirts of cities ...
s, or other facilities necessary for handling the ships. Wharves are often considered to be a series of docks at which boats are stationed.
Overview
A wharf commonly comprises a fixed platform, often on
pilings
A deep foundation is a type of foundation (architecture), foundation that transfers building loads to the earth farther down from the surface than a shallow foundation does to a subsurface layer or a range of depths. A pile or piling is a ...
. Commercial ports may have warehouses that serve as interim storage: where it is sufficient a single wharf with a single berth constructed along the land adjacent to the water is normally used; where there is a need for more capacity multiple wharves, or perhaps a single large wharf with multiple berths, will instead be constructed, sometimes projecting over the water. A pier, raised over the water rather than within it, is commonly used for cases where the weight or volume of cargos will be low.
Smaller and more modern wharves are sometimes built on flotation devices (
pontoons) to keep them at the same level as the ship, even during changing tides.
In everyday parlance the term ''quay'' is common in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and many other Commonwealth countries, and the Republic of Ireland, whereas the term ''wharf'' is more common in the United States. In some contexts ''wharf'' and ''quay'' may be used to mean
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 ...
,
berth, or
jetty
A jetty is a structure that projects from land out into water. A jetty may serve as a breakwater, as a walkway, or both; or, in pairs, as a means of constricting a channel. The term derives from the French word ', "thrown", signifying some ...
.
In old ports such as
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
(which once had around 1700 wharves
) many old wharves have been converted to residential or office use.
Certain early railways in England referred to goods loading points as "wharves". The term was carried over from marine usage. The person who was resident in charge of the wharf was referred to as a "wharfinger".
Etymology
Wharf
The word ''wharf'' comes from the
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlers in the mid-5th c ...
''hwearf'', cognate to the
Old Dutch
In linguistics, Old Dutch (Dutch: Oudnederlands) or Old Low Franconian (Dutch: Oudnederfrankisch) is the set of Franconian dialects (i.e. dialects that evolved from Frankish) spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from aroun ...
word ''werf'', which both evolved to mean "yard", an outdoor place where work is done, like a shipyard (
Dutch
Dutch commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
* Dutch people ()
* Dutch language ()
Dutch may also refer to:
Places
* Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States
* Pennsylvania Dutch Country
People E ...
: ''scheepswerf'') or a lumberyard (Dutch: ''houtwerf''). Originally, ''werf'' or ''werva'' in Old Dutch (''werf'', ''wer'' in
Old Frisian
Old Frisian was a West Germanic language spoken between the 8th and 16th centuries along the North Sea coast, roughly between the mouths of the Rhine and Weser rivers. The Frisian settlers on the coast of South Jutland (today's Northern Fri ...
) simply referred to inhabited ground that was not yet built on (similar to "
yard
The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...
" in modern English), or alternatively to a ''
terp
A ''terp'', also known as a ''wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt'' or ''værft'', is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides an ...
''. This could explain the name Ministry Wharf located at Saunderton, just outside High Wycombe, which is nowhere near any body of water. In support of this explanation is the fact that many places in England with "wharf" in their names are in areas with a high Dutch influence, for example the Norfolk broads.
Staith
In the northeast and east of England the term ''staith'' or ''staithe'' (from the Norse for landing stage) is also used. The two terms have historically had a geographical distinction: those to the north in the
Kingdom of Northumbria
la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum
, conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria
, common_name = Northumbria
, status = State
, status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...
used the Old English spelling ''staith'', southern sites of the
Danelaw
The Danelaw (, also known as the Danelagh; ang, Dena lagu; da, Danelagen) was the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. The Danelaw contrasts with the West Saxon law and the Mercian ...
took the Danish spelling ''staithe''. Both originally referred to jetties or wharves. In time, the northern coalfields of Northumbria developed
coal staith
The Keelmen of Tyne and Wear were a group of men who worked on the keels, large boats that carried the coal from the banks of both rivers to the waiting collier ships. Because of the shallowness of both rivers, it was difficult for ships of any sig ...
s specifically for loading coal onto ships and these would adopt the ''staith'' spelling as a distinction from simple wharves: for example,
Dunston Staiths
Dunston is particularly known for wooden coal staiths, first opened in 1893 as a structure for loading coal from the North Durham coalfield onto ships. In the 1920s, 140,000 tons of coal per week were loaded from the staiths, and they continued to ...
in
Gateshead and
Brancaster Staithe
Brancaster Staithe is a village on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. Brancaster Staithe merges with Burnham Deepdale, forming one village.
Brancaster Staithe is in the civil parish of Brancaster, together with Burnham Deepdale and ...
in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
. However, the term ''staith'' may also be used to refer only to loading chutes or ramps used for bulk commodities like coal in loading ships and barges.
Quay
''Quay'', on the other hand, has its origin in the
Proto-Celtic language
Proto-Celtic, or Common Celtic, is the ancestral proto-language of all known Celtic languages, and a descendant of Proto-Indo-European. It is not attested in writing but has been partly reconstructed through the comparative method. Proto-Celti ...
. Before it changed to its current form under influence of the modern
French ''quai'', its
Middle English
Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English ...
spelling was ''key'', ''keye'' or ''caye''. This in turn also came from the
Old Norman
Old Norman, also called Old Northern French or Old Norman French ( fro, Ancien Normant, nrf, Ancien Normaund), was one of many varieties of the ''langues d'oïl'' native to northern France. It was spoken throughout the region of what is now calle ...
''cai'' (
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 intellig ...
/ French ''chai'' "wine cellar"),
meaning originally "earth bank near a river", then "bank built at a port to allow ship docking".
[CNRTL (French]
/ref> The French term ''quai'' comes, through Picard or Norman-French, from Gaulish language, Gaulish ''caio'', ultimately tracing back to the Proto-Celtic ''*kagio-'' "to encompass, enclose". Modern cognates include Welsh ''cae'' "fence, hedge" and Cornish ''ke'' "hedge",
Gallery
File:Long wharf and shipping, by J.W. & J.S. Moulton.jpg, Stereoscopic view
Stereoscopy (also called stereoscopics, or stereo imaging) is a technique for creating or enhancing the depth perception, illusion of depth in an image by means of stereopsis for binocular vision. The word ''stereoscopy'' derives . Any stere ...
of Long Wharf in Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
, United States, c. 19th century, jutting into Boston Harbor
Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States.
History
...
File:Boston Long Wharf 2.JPG, Modern view of Boston's Long Wharf (2006)
File:Tokoinranta Helsinki.jpg, The shore of the Tokoinranta wharf in Hakaniemi, Helsinki
Helsinki ( or ; ; sv, Helsingfors, ) is the capital, primate, and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, and has a population of . The city ...
, Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
(2007)
File:Wapping king henrys wharf 1.jpg, King Henry's Wharves, typical London wharves converted to apartments
File:St Thomas Marriott Pacquereau Bay 1.jpg, Wharf by Marriott/Pacquereau Bay on St. Thomas
File:tourist boat at sa calobra (majorca spain) arp.jpg, Tourist boat loading passengers at a small quay, Sa Calobra Sa Calobra is a small village in the Escorca municipality on the northwest coast of the Spanish Balearic island of Mallorca.
The port village is a popular destination for coach trips and road cyclists. It is accessed by a single winding road, d ...
, Majorca, Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
See also
* Bollard
* Canal basin
A canal basin is (particularly in the United Kingdom) an expanse of waterway alongside or at the end of a canal, and wider than the canal, constructed to allow boats to moor or unload cargo without impeding the progress of other traffic, and to al ...
* Dock (maritime)
* Port
A port is a maritime facility comprising one or more wharves or loading areas, where ships load and discharge cargo and passengers. Although usually situated on a sea coast or estuary, ports can also be found far inland, such as H ...
* Safeguarded wharf
Safeguarded wharves are those wharves in London which have been given special status by the Mayor of London and the Port of London Authority (PLA) which ensures they are retained as working wharves and are protected from redevelopment into non ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Authority control
Freight transport
Coastal construction
Port infrastructure