Editing Barge (section)

== 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|Greek]] ''baris'' "Egyptian boat", from [[Coptic language|Coptic]] ''bari'' "small boat", [[hieroglyphic]] Egyptian <small><hiero>D58-G29-M17-M17-D21-P1</hiero></small> and similar ''ba-y-r'' for "basket-shaped boat".<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8cMWickoS6oC&dq=egyptian+word+for+boat+Bairi+&pg=PA202 ''An Egyptian hieroglyphic dictionary: with an index of English words''] by Sir Ernest Alfred Wallis Budge from [[Google Books]]</ref> By extension, the term "embark" literally means to board the kind of boat called a "barque".

=== British river barges ===
==== 18th century ====
[[File:Watercolour_of_Barton_aqueduct_by_G.F._Yates_1793.jpg|thumb|River barge below [[Barton Aqueduct]] {{circa|1793}}]]

In [[Kingdom of Great Britain|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 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.{{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}} Early barges on the [[River Thames|Thames]] were called west country barges.{{sfn|A Society of Gentlemen|1763|p=261}}

==== 19th century ====
[[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 [[River Mersey|Mersey]], a barge was called a 'Flat', on the Thames a [[Lighter (barge)|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}}
[[File:Dutch_barge.jpg|thumb|A Dutch barge in [[Namur]], Belgium]]

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 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.{{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.

=== British canals: narrowboats and widebeams ===
[[File:Narrowboat at Bosley Locks No 2, Cheshire - geograph.org.uk - 4272674.jpg|thumb|A Narrowboat exiting a narrow British canal lock, Bosley Locks No 2]]
During the [[Industrial Revolution]], a substantial network of [[Canals of the United Kingdom|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 {{convert|7|ft|}} 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. {{convert|6|ft|10|in}} . It was soon realized that the narrow locks were too limiting, and later locks were therefore doubled in width to {{convert|14|ft||}}. This led to the development of the [[widebeam]] canal boat. The narrowboat (one word) definition in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' is:<ref>{{citation|year=2003|chapter=narrowboat |title=[[Oxford English Dictionary]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|chapter-url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/255857}}</ref>
{{Blockquote|Narrowboat: a British canal boat of traditional long, narrow design, steered with a tiller; spec. one not exceeding 7 feet (approx. 2.1 metres) in width or 72 feet (approx. 21.9 metres) in length}}

The narrowboats were initially also known as barges, and the new canals were constructed with an adjacent [[towpath]] along which [[draft horse]]s 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 [[narrowboat]]s and [[widebeam]]s. Narrowboats and widebeams are still seen on canals, mostly for leisure cruising, and now engine-powered.<ref>{{cite web |title=Narrowboat or barge? Canal boats explained |url=https://uk.boats.com/boat-buyers-guide/narrowboat-or-barge-canal-boats-explained/ |website=Boats.com |access-date=25 October 2024}}</ref>

=== 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."<ref name="auto">{{cite book | title = Speeches of Lord Randolph Churchill | publisher = G. Routledge | editor = H. W. Lucy | author = Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill | year = 1885 | quote = "...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." | url = https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.81509 | page = [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.81509/page/n53 51] }}</ref>

=== 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 ([[razee]]ing) 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.