Barge
From Freepedia
- For other uses, see Barge (disambiguation).
A barge is a flat-bottomed boat, built mainly for river and canal transport of heavy goods. Most barges are not self-propelled and need to be moved by tugboats towing or pushing them. Barges on canals (towed by draft animals on an adjacent towpath) contended with the railway in the early industrial revolution but were outcompeted in the carriage of high value items due to the higher speed, falling costs, and route flexibility of rail transport. Barges are still used today for low value bulk items, as the cost of hauling goods by barge is very low.
Self propelled barges may be used as such when traveling downstream or upstream in placid waters and operated as an unpowered barge with the assistance of a tugboat when traveling upstream in faster waters.
Types of barges:
- Barracks barge (living quarters)
- Dry bulk cargo barge (coal, rock, grain, etc.)
- Liquid cargo barge (fresh water, finished petroleum products)
- Railcar barge (with tracks and using special loading/offloading facilities such as a barge slip)
- Vehicular barge, often used to transport vehicles to natural shorelines such as beaches
- Royal barge (ceremonial)
- Lighter
On the UK canal system, the term barge is used to describe a boat wider than a narrowboat.
The people who move barges are often known as lightermen.
A barge pole is used by lightermen to fend off the barge as it nears other vessels or a wharf. These long poles have given rise to the saying, "I wouldn't touch that (subject/thing) with a barge pole." The meaning is that something is so unseemly or contentious that the person wants to avoid it or being associated with it at all costs. A common variation is to say, "I wouldn't touch that with a (insert length) barge pole." Typically the length for small avoidance is "ten foot": The greater the length, the more the sayer feels it is to be avoided.
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 Olf French barque, from Vulgar Latin barca (400 AD). The more precise meaning "three-masted ship" arose in the 17th century, and often takes the French spelling for disambiguation.
Both are probably derived from a Latin *barica, from Greek baris "Egyptian boat", ultimately from m Coptic bari "small boat."
External links
- DBA - Dutch Barge Association Living aboard ex-commercial barges or any other type of broad-beam inland waterways craft
