Editing Barge (section)

==== 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}}