A barge is typically a flat-bottomed vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. Original use was on inland waterways, while modern use is on both inland and ocean water environments. The first modern barges were pulled by , but on inland waterways, most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many 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). A more precise meaning (see
Barque) arose in the 17th century and often takes the French spelling for disambiguation. Both are probably derived from the
Latin barica, from
Greek language baris "Egyptian boat", from
Coptic language 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".
British river barges
18th century
In Great Britain, 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, the barge was described thus: "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. Early barges on the
River Thames were called west country barges.
19th century
In the United Kingdom, the word barge had many meanings by the 1890s, and these varied locally. On the
River Mersey, a barge was called a 'Flat', on the Thames a Lighter or barge, and on the
Humber 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 Thames barge and Dutch barge today
On the British river system and larger waterways, the Thames sailing barge, and
Dutch barge 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.
British canals: narrowboats and widebeams
During the Industrial Revolution, a substantial network of canals was developed in Great Britain from 1750 onward. Whilst the largest of these could accommodate ocean-going vessels, e.g. the later Manchester Ship Canal, a complex network of smaller canals was also developed. These smaller canals had locks, bridges and tunnels that were at minimum only wide at the
waterline. On wider sections, standard barges and other vessels could trade, but full access to the network necessitated the parallel development of the
narrowboat, which usually had a beam a couple of inches less to allow for clearance, e.g. . It was soon realized that the narrow locks were too limiting, and later locks were therefore doubled in width to . This led to the development of the
widebeam canal boat. The narrowboat (one word) definition in the
Oxford English Dictionary is:
The narrowboats were initially also known as barges, and the new canals were constructed with an adjacent towpath along which walked, towing the barges. These types of canal craft are so specific that on the British canal system the term 'barge' is no longer used to describe and . Narrowboats and widebeams are still seen on canals, mostly for leisure cruising, and now engine-powered.
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."
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 (
) sailing vessels. 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.
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
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.
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 barges measure and can carry up to about .
As an example, on June 26, 2006, in the US a 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 journey, only about 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.
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.
Types
-
("accommodation barge")
-
Ferrocement or
-
or Spitz barge
-
Severn
In the United States, "deck barge" may refer to flat deck barges, work flats, fuel flats or flats. Smaller flats are used in shipyards to permit workers to access vessels in drydocks.
Gallery
File:PénicheRecyclageFerrailles2008Deûle2.jpg|A self propelled barge carrying recycling material on Deûle channel in Lambersart, France
File:Barge with cars.jpg|Self-propelled car barge on the River Danube
File:Péniches sur le Canal du Midi.jpg|Barges near Toulouse, France
File:Andromeda (ship, 1958) Hannover Mittellandkanal 2006 by-RaBoe.jpg|Self-propelled barge Andromeda in canal at Hanover, Germany
File:Messina Karden Bug.jpg|Tank barge on the River Moselle, 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|Deck barge carrying the Space Shuttle external tank for STS-119 under tow to Port Canaveral, Florida, United States
File:Yangzhou-Modern-Grand-Canal-boats-3351.JPG|Self-propelled barges on the Grand Canal of China near Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China
File:CoalbargePittsburgh.JPG|Coal barges passing Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on the Ohio River
File:Suphannahongsa-docked.jpg|Royal Barge Suphannahong docked at Wat Arun pier, one of the Thailand royal barges featured in the royal barge ceremony
File:Donna York.jpg|Towboat Donna York pushing barges of coal up the Ohio River at Louisville, Kentucky, United States
File:Ilia Efimovich Repin (1844-1930) - Volga Boatmen (1870-1873).jpg| Barge Haulers on the Volga (1870–73), by Ilya Repin
File:Kapal tongkang.jpg| Tongkang or car barge, landed on Ketapang Port, Banyuwangi, Indonesia
File:Slipway at portland.JPG|Slipway at Portland Harbour, Dorset, England, holding a hopper barge (on right)
File:Barge on Mosel by Kues (1).jpg|Barge on the river Moselle in Germany
File:Water Barge YW-59.jpg|US Navy Water Type B ship 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 Barge, US-102, in the Erie Canal
File:Ww2 concrete barge, National Waterway Museum.jpg|WW2 concrete barge at the National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK
File:Sun Shining Into a Barge.jpg|Sun shining into the empty Bitumen 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, Sydney
File:AWB Rajawali Natuna.jpg|Accommodation Work Barge
File: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
Notes
External links
