Modern use

Self-propelled barges may be used as such when 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.

Types of barges

• Barracks barge
• Car float
• Dutch barge
• Dry bulk cargo barge
• Hopper barge
• Jackup barge
• Lighter and Dumb steel lighter

• Liquid cargo barge
• Log barge
• Oil barge and Dumb steel oil barge
• Pleasure barge
• Power barge
• Royal barge (e.g. Thailand's royal barges)
• Row barge

• Sand barge
• Severn trow
• Thames sailing barge
• Tom Pudding
• Vehicular barge

On the Great British canal system, the term 'barge' is used to describe a boat wider than a narrowboat, and the people who move barges are often known as lightermen. In the United States, deckhands perform the labor and are supervised by a leadman or the mate. The captain and pilot steer the towboat, which pushes one or more barges held together with rigging, collectively called 'the tow'. The crew live aboard the towboat as it travels along the inland river system 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. These are often called 'pike poles'. On shallow canals in the United Kingdom, long punt poles are used to manoeuvre or propel the barge.

Etymology

The long poles used to manoeuver or propel a barge have given rise to the saying "I wouldn't touch that 2 with a barge pole." This is a variation on the phrase "I wouldn't touch that with a length pole." It appears that the association with barge poles came after the phrase was in use. Modern usage uses a 'ten-foot' pole, but the earliest instances in print involve a forty-foot pole3, which is improbably long for operating a barge.

Image gallery

Image:Barge with cars.jpg|Car barge on the Danube River Image:Péniches sur le Canal du Midi.jpg|French barges near Toulouse Image:Hannover binnenschiff voll 01.jpg|Self-propelled barge Andromeda in canal at Hanover, Germany Image:CrushedStoneBarge.jpg|Self-propelled barge carrying bulk crushed stone Image:IjmuidenBarge.jpg|Self-propelled barge in the port of IJmuiden in The Netherlands Image:Sts et barge.jpg|Barge carrying the Space Shuttle external tank for STS-119 under tow to Port Canaveral, Florida Image:Horse Drawing Barge on the Kennet and Avon Canal.JPG|Horse drawing a barge on the Kennet and Avon Canal. Image:Yangzhou-Modern-Grand-Canal-boats-3351.JPG|Self-propelled barges on the Grand Canal of China near Yangzhou Image:CoalbargePittsburgh.JPG|Coal barge passing Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, PA on the Ohio River.