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{{short description|Flat-bottomed watercraft for transport of bulk goods}}{{Other uses}}File:Barge on River Thames, London - Dec 2009.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Barges towed by a tugboat on the River Thames in London, England, UKUKFile:US_Navy_032411-C-9409S-001_The_British_Airways_Concorde_Jet_passes_the_Statue_of_Liberty_in_New_York_Harbor_on_its_way_to_the_USS_Intrepid_Air_%5E_Space_Museum.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A British Airways Concorde being towed in Evolution|1958|p=141}}Barge often refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion.{{sfn|Eurostat|2010|p=77}} The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but on inland waterways, most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels.{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} 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 barge, from Vulgar Latin 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 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 barica, from Greek baris "Egyptian boat", from Coptic bari "small boat", hieroglyphic Egyptian D58-G29-M17-M17-D21-P1 and similar ba-y-r for "basket-shaped boat".An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary: with an index of English words by Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge from Google Books By extension, the term "embark" literally means to board the kind of boat called a "barque".

The British river barge

File:Watercolour_of_Barton_aqueduct_by_G.F._Yates_1793.jpg|thumb|River barge below 1793}}(File:Dutch_barge.jpg|thumb|A Dutch barge in Namur)In Great Britain a merchant barge was originally a flat bottomed merchant vessel for use on navigable rivers.{{sfn|A Society of Gentlemen|1763|p=261}} Most of these barges had sails. For traffic on the River Severn 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.{{sfn|Phillips|1792|p=218}} On the River Irwell there was reference to barges passing below Barton Aqueduct with their mast and sails standing.{{sfn|Phillips|1792|p=75}} Barges on the Thames were called west country barges.{{sfn|A Society of Gentlemen|1763|p=261}}

British canals: narrowboats and widebeams

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}During the Industrial Revolution, a substantial network of narrow canals was developed in Great Britain from 1750 onward. These new British canals had locks of only {{convert|7|ft|}} wide. This led to the development of the narrowboats, which had a beam of no more than {{convert|6|ft|10|in}}. It was soon realized that the narrow locks were too limiting. Later locks were therefore doubled in width to {{convert|14|ft||}}. This led to the development of the widebeam.The narrowboats were initially also known as barges, but only a very few had sails, unlike earlier vessels. From the start, most of the new canals were constructed with an adjacent towpath along which draft horses walked, towing the barges. These types of canal craft are so specific that on the British canal system the term 'barge' was not used to describe narrowboats and widebeams. Narrowboats and widebeams are still used on canals, now engine-powered.

The Thames barge and Dutch barge

On the British canal system, the Thames sailing barge, and Dutch barge and unspecified other styles of barge, are still known as barges.{{sfn|Canal & River Trust|2019}} 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. 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 [subject/thing] with a barge pole."BOOK, Speeches of Lord Randolph Churchill, G. Routledge, H. W. Lucy, Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, 1885, "...never was land so easily and cheaply in the grasp of the capitalist as it is now, if he chose to put out his hand, and yet there is not a capitalist in his senses who would touch it with a barge pole.",weblink 51,

The 19th century British barge

(File:Barge,_River_Thames_-_geograph.org.uk_-_2099639.jpg|thumb|Dumb barge on the Thames)In the United Kingdom the word barge had many meanings by the 1890s, and these varied locally. On the Mersey a barge was called a 'Flat', on the Thames a Lighter or barge, and on the Humber a 'Keel'.{{sfn|Royal Commission on Labour |1893 |p=24}} A Lighter had neither mast nor rigging.{{sfn|Royal Commission on Labour |1893 |p=52}} A keel did have a single mast with sails.{{sfn|Royal Commission on Labour |1893 |p=24}} 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.{{sfn|Royal Commission on Labour |1893 |p=24}}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.{{sfn|Redman|1843|p=238}} Within a few decades, the term dumb barge evolved, and came to mean: 'a vessel propelled by oars only'.{{sfn|McKellar|Hocking|1871|p=391}} By the 1890s Dumb barge was still used only on the Thames.{{sfn|Royal Commission on Labour |1893 |p=39}}By 1880 barges on British rivers and canals were often towed by steam tugboats.{{sfn|Dickens|1880|p=15}} 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.{{sfn|Dickens|1880|p=17}}

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 (razeeing) sailing vessels.{{sfn|Commissioner of Navigation |1905|p=22}} In New York this was an accepted meaning of the term barge. The somewhat smaller scow 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, and rivers in Egypt, India and Australia. Many of these barges were built in Great Britain.{{sfn|Seymour|1869|p=90}}Nowadays 'barge' generally refers to a dumb barge.{{sfn|CESNI|2021|p=1}} 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.{{sfn|Eurostat|2010|p=77}} In America, a barge is generally pushed.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}}

Modern use

{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2023}}File:Chicago River towboat and barge 080405.jpg|thumb|right|Towboat pushing a barge on the Chicago RiverChicago RiverFile:Tow boat La Crosse.jpg|thumb|3x3 nine unit barge going through La Crosse, WisconsinLa Crosse, WisconsinFile:Cumberland River barge traffic.jpg|thumb|Multiple barges pushed around a tight bend on the Cumberland RiverCumberland RiverFile:The tugboat, Herbert P. Brake.jpg|thumb|Towboat Herbert P. Brake of New York pushes a new barge east on the Erie Canal in Fairport, New York, United States]]Barges are used today for transporting low-value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods that way is very low and for larger project cargo, such as offshore wind turbine blades.WEB, KaranC, 2021-01-15, What is an Offshore Barge?,weblink 2024-02-15, Marine Insight, en-US, WEB, Lennon, Anastasia E., 2023-04-05, How it will happen: Barges carrying massive wind turbine parts to perform a complex dance through New Bedford Harbor,weblink 2024-02-15, The New Bedford Light, en-US, Barges are also used for very heavy or bulky items; a typical American barge measures {{convert|195|x|35|ft|m|sigfig=3}}, and can carry up to about {{convert|1500|ST|t}} of cargo.WEB, KaranC, 2021-01-15, What is an Offshore Barge?,weblink 2024-02-15, Marine Insight, en-US, The most common European barges measure {{convert|76.5|x|11.4|m|ft|order=flip}} and can carry up to about {{convert|2450|t|ST}}.As an example, on June 26, 2006, in the US a {{convert|565|ST|t|adj=on}} catalytic cracking unit reactor was shipped by barge from the Tulsa Port of Catoosa in Oklahoma to a refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Extremely large objects are normally shipped in sections and assembled after delivery, but shipping an assembled unit reduces costs and avoids reliance on construction labor at the delivery site, which in the case of the reactor was still recovering from Hurricane Katrina. Of the reactor's {{convert|700|mi|adj=on}} journey, only about {{convert|40|miles|km}} were traveled overland, from the final port to the refinery.The Transportation Institute at Texas A&M found that inland barge transportation in the US produces far fewer emissions of carbon dioxide for each ton of cargo moved compared to transport by truck or rail.WEB, Kruse, C. James, January 2022, A MODAL COMPARISON OF DOMESTIC FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION EFFECTS ON THE GENERAL PUBLIC: 2001–2019,weblinkweblink February 4, 2024, February 15, 2024, National Waterways Foundation, According to the study, transporting cargo by barge produces 43% less greenhouse gas emissions than rail and more than 800% less than trucks. Environmentalists claim that in areas where barges, tugboats and towboats idle may produce more emissions like in the locks and dams of the Mississippi River.WEB, Schmid, Eric, 2023-09-18, Is barge shipping better for the environment?,weblink 2024-02-15, Marketplace, en-US, Self-propelled barges may be used for 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.Unpowered vessels—barges—may be used for other purposes, such as large accommodation vessels, towed to where they are needed and stationed there as long as necessary. An example is the Bibby Stockholm.NEWS, Dresch, Matthew, On board 500-room barge Bibby Stockholm asylum seeker 'floatel', Dorset Live, 4 April 2023,weblink

Types

{{Div col}}

• {{annotated link|Admiral's barge}}
• {{annotated link|Articulated tug and barge}}
• {{annotated link|Barracks barge}} ("accommodation barge")
• {{annotated link|Bin barge}}
• {{annotated link|Day Peckinpaugh (canal motorship)|Canal motorship}}
• {{annotated link|Car float}}
• Ferrocement or {{annotated link|Type B shipConcrete Barge|"Concrete" Barge}}
• {{annotated link|Crane barge}}
• {{annotated link|Dredges}}
• {{annotated link|Deck barge}}
• {{annotated link|Dutch barge}}
• {{annotated link|Dry bulk cargo barge}}
• {{annotated link|Gundalow}}
• {{annotated link|Hopper barge}}
• {{annotated link|Hotel barge}}
• {{annotated link|Horse-drawn boat}}
• {{annotated link|Jackup barge}}
• {{annotated link|Landing craft}}
• {{annotated link|Lighter (barge)|Lighter}}
• {{annotated link|Liquid cargo barge}}
• {{annotated link|Log barge}}
• {{annotated link|Notch barge}}
• {{annotated link|Narrowboat}}
• {{annotated link|Norfolk wherry}}
• {{annotated link|Autonomous spaceport drone ship|Rocket landing barge}}
• {{annotated link|Oil barge}}
• {{annotated link|Paddle barge}}
• {{annotated link|Péniche (barge)|Péniche}} or Spitz barge
• {{annotated link|Pleasure barge}}
• {{annotated link|Power barge}}
• {{annotated link|Row barge}}
• {{annotated link|Royal barge}}
• {{annotated link|Sand barge}}
• Severn {{annotated link|trow}}
• {{annotated link|Spud barge}}
• {{annotated link|Tank barge}}
• {{annotated link|Thames sailing barge}}
• {{annotated link|Tub boat}}
• {{annotated link|Vehicular barge}}
• {{annotated link|Whaleback barge}}
• {{annotated link|Widebeam}}
• {{annotated link|Feed Barge}}

{{Div col end}}

Image gallery

File:PénicheRecyclageFerrailles2008Deûle2.jpg|A self propelled barge carrying recycling material on Deûle channel in Lambersart, FranceFile:Barge with cars.jpg|Self-propelled car barge on the River DanubeFile:Péniches sur le Canal du Midi.jpg|Barges near Toulouse, FranceFile:Andromeda (ship, 1958) Hannover Mittellandkanal 2006 by-RaBoe.jpg|Self-propelled barge Andromeda in canal at Hanover, GermanyFile:Messina Karden Bug.jpg|Tank barge on the River Moselle, GermanyFile:CrushedStoneBarge.jpg|Self-propelled barge carrying bulk crushed stoneFile:IjmuidenBarge.jpg|Self-propelled barge in the port of IJmuiden, NetherlandsFile:Pegasus barge being moved by Freedom Star and towboat American 2.jpg|Deck barge{{sfn|Evolution|1958|p=141}} carrying the Space Shuttle external tank for STS-119 under tow to Port Canaveral, Florida, United StatesFile:Yangzhou-Modern-Grand-Canal-boats-3351.JPG|Self-propelled barges on the Grand Canal of China near Yangzhou, Jiangsu, ChinaFile:CoalbargePittsburgh.JPG|Coal barges passing Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the Ohio RiverFile:Suphannahongsa-docked.jpg|Royal Barge Suphannahong docked at Wat Arun pier, one of the Thai royal barges featured in the royal barge ceremonyFile:Donna York.jpg|Towboat Donna York pushing barges of coal up the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky, United StatesFile:Ilia Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Volga Boatmen (1870-1873).jpg|Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870–73), by Ilya RepinFile:Kapal tongkang.jpg|Tongkang or car barge, landed on Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi, IndonesiaFile:Slipway at portland.JPG|Slipway at Portland Harbour, Dorset, England, holding a split dump barge (on right)File:Barge on Mosel by Kues (1).jpg|Barge on the river Mosel in Germany.File:Water Barge YW-59.jpg|US Navy Water Type B ship Barge, YW-59, launched August 29, 1941File: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 Barge, US-102, in the Erie CanalFile:Ww2 concrete barge, National Waterway Museum.jpg|WW2 concrete barge at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UKFile:Sun Shining Into a Barge.jpg|Sun shining into the empty asphalt barge Endeavour while under repair in Muskegon, Michigan.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 BargeFile:Prem Tinsulanonda International School barge in Bangkok.jpg|A restored teak barge used for educational programmes on the Chao Phraya river in Bangkok

See also

{{Div col|colwidth=23em}}

• American Waterways Operators
• Burlak
• Canal boat Ross Barlow
• Car float
• Chain boat
• Container on barge
• Dory
• Float (nautical)
• Hughes Mining Barge
• Lighter
• Mobro 4000
• Pusher (boat)
• Shallop
• Tub boat
• Type B ship

{{div col end}}

References

• {{citation |year=2019 |title=All craft great and small |publisher=W. Owen, London |website=Canal & River Trust|url=https://canalrivertrust.org.uk/enjoy-the-waterways/boating/getting-afloat/all-craft-great-and-small |ref={{sfnref|Canal & River Trust|2019}}|access-date=21 January 2020}}
• {{citation |last=CESNI |year=2021 |title=European Standard laying down Technical Requirements for Inland Navigation vessels |publisher=European Committee for drawing up Standards in the field of Inland Navigation (CESNI) |url=https://www.cesni.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/ES_TRIN_2021_en.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009weblink |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live }}
• {{citation |last=Commissioner of Navigation |year=1905 |title=Annual Report of the Commissioner of Navigation |publisher=Department of Commerce and Labor |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpzVAAAAMAAJ }}
• {{citation |last=Dickens |first=Charles |year=1880 |title=Dickens's Dictionary of the Thames from Oxford to the Nore |publisher=Charles Dickens, London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2NNCAAAAYAAJ }}
• {{citation |year=1958 |volume=15 |work=Proceedings of the merchant marine council |title=Evolution of the inland barge |publisher=The Merchant Marine Council of the United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hXGeoWMVfG8C |pages=140–141 |ref={{sfnref|Evolution|1958}} }}
• {{citation |year=2010 |title=Illustrated Glossary for Transport Statistics 4th Edition |publisher=Eurostat - ITF - UNECE |isbn=9789282102947 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=frS0zf2XTOcC |ref={{sfnref|Eurostat|2010}} }}
• {{citation |last1=McKellar |first1=M.W. |last2=Hocking |first2=H.H. |year=1871 |volume=III |work=Reports of the Cases Relating to Maritime Law: Decided by the Admiralty |title=Court of Common Pleas |publisher=Horace Cox, London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yXcDAAAAQAAJ }}
• {{citation |last=Phillips |first=J. |year=1792 |title=A general history of inland navigation, foreign and domestic |publisher=I. and J. Taylor, London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jdI_AAAAcAAJ }}
• {{citation |last=Redman |first=John B. |year=1843 |work=Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers |title=The terrace pier, Gravesend |publisher=Institution of Civil Engineers, London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h_4bAQAAIAAJ }}
• {{citation |last=Royal Commission on Labour |year=1893 |title=Index to the Evidence taken before Groups A., B., & C. |publisher=Her Majesty's Stationery Office |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KBk6AQAAMAAJ }}
• {{citation |last=Seymour |first=D.C. |year=1869 |title=Proceedings of the commercial convention held in New Orleands |publisher=L. Graham & Co. New Orleans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aJdQAAAAYAAJ }}
• {{citation |last=A Society of Gentlemen |year=1763 |title=A New and Complete Dictionary of Arts and Sciences |publisher=W. Owen, London |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=khc7AAAAcAAJ }}

Notes

{{Reflist|2}}

External links

{{Wiktionary|barge|bargee}}{{Commons category|Barges}}

• Barge Lehigh Valley 79 at the Waterfront Museum, Brooklyn, New York, United States
• Britain's Official guide to canals, rivers and lakes
• EB1911, Barge,
• DBA The Barge Association
• The American Waterways Operators

{{ModernMerchantShipTypes}}{{MARCOMships}}{{WWII US ships}}{{authority control}}