Barge

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 towboats

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. Barges are also used for very heavy or bulky items; a typical

barge measures 195 feet by 35 feet (59.4 meters by 10.6 meters), and can carry up to 1500

tons of cargo.

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)
* Company barge
* Dry bulk cargo barge (coal, rock, grain, etc.)
* Jackup barge, mainly used inshore for a stationary stable platform for civils diving

or drilling operations.
* Lighter
* Liquid cargo barge (fresh water, finished petroleum products)
* Pleasure barge- providing a floating bedroom, dance floor, or viewing platform
* Railcar barge (with tracks and using special loading/offloading facilities such as a

barge slip)
* Royal barge (ceremonial)
* Row barge
* Sand barge
* Severn trow
* Vehicular barge, often used to transport vehicles to natural shorelines such as

beaches
* Ware barge
* West country barge

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.

In the U.S. deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a leadman and or the mate. The

Captain and Pilot steer the towboat. The towboat pushes one or more barges that are held

together with rigging and is called collectively the tow. The crew live aboard the towboat

as it travels along the inland river system and or the intracoastal waterways. These

towboats travel between ports and are also called line haul boats.

Poles are used on barges to fend off the barge as it nears other vessels or a wharf, often

called pike poles, and on shallow canals for example in the UK long punt poles are used to

manoeuvre or propel the barge.
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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 "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."

By extension, the term "embark" literally means to board the kind of boat called a "barque".

The long poles used to manoeuvre or propel a barge have given rise to the saying, "I

wouldn't touch that (subject/thing) with a barge pole." This is a variation on the phrase "I

wouldn't touch that with a (insert length) pole." It appears that the association with barge

poles came after the phrase was in use. Modern useage uses a ten foot pole, but the earliest

instances in print involve a forty foot pole[1], which is improbably long for operating a

barge.