Barges

“ The barges employed are big, roomy barges one hundred and twenty feet long, sixteen feet broad, and ten feet high. Care is taken to use only fairly new and clean barges which have been used in the conveyance of timber or stone or other clean and harmless cargoes. ”

“ These barges were only a little more conspicuously aflame and aflutter with bright hats and parasols and volatile skirts than the shores; and they were all one fluent delight of color. On the shore opposite the barge where we were guests, there ran, soon after we had taken our first cups of tea, a cry of undergraduates, heralding the first of the two shells which came rowing past us. Then, almost ere I was aware of it the bow of a shell which was behind touched the stern of the shell which was before, and{200} the first bump had been achieved. ”

“ One day we were all having tea, and some friends had dropped in, when a voice was heard calling "Barges, Barges." Without more ado the whole Mess rose, a form was overturned, and off they scampered as fast as they could to get their cars and go off immediately. The men left sitting there gazed blankly at each other and finally turned to me for an explanation— (being a lorry, I was not required) . "Barges," I said; "they all have to hurry off as quickly as possible to unload the cases." ”

“ The draught is but 5 ft. or less, and the heavy pole mast is set far forward, while there is an open well, so it would not be the best kind of craft for bad weather. Still, for modest sails out of the harbour, for Dutch waters, and for Norfolk rivers, these barges possess every advantage, while they are most comfortable to live upon.
The barges look smarter than the wherries, inasmuch as they have white sails instead of brown or black, and yacht-like decks and fittings; but I must say that for pure river cruising I prefer the plain wherry. ”

“ The barges for carrying cattle and those for carrying ice are just like the toys that are made for children and called "Noah's Arks." They are houses built upon strong boat hulls. The ice-barges are always white, and canvas windmill wheels are forever whirling above them, just as if they were some new kind of boats made to go by air propellers instead of wheels or screws in the water. ”

“ Two stones’-cast before they came to land, the horsemen went out of the barges on horseback, to a sandy plot of very hard and clear ground, where all of them landed without any resistance. As soon as those that passed first were on land on the other side, the barges returned to the place where the governor was; and, within two hours after sunrising, all the people were over.140 The river was almost half a league broad. If a man stood still on the other side, it could not be discerned whether he were a man or no. ”

“ Misson says of barges, 'They give this name in England to a Sort of Pleasure Boat, at one End of which is a little Room, handsomely painted and Cover'd, with a Table in the Middle, and Benches round it; and at the other End, Seats for 8, 10, 12, 30 or 40 Rowers. There are very few Persons of Great Quality but what have their Barges, tho' they do not frequently make use of them. Their Watermen wear a Jacket of the same Colour they give for their Livery, with a pretty large Silver Badge upon their Arm, with the Nobleman's Coat of Arms emboss'd in it. ”

“ The barges are owned by the same persons who own the steamboats by which they are propelled, and are generally considered as attached to and making part of the particular boat in connection with which they are used; though quite often an individual or corporation owning several boats, running in a particular trade, have a large number of barges, which are taken in two by whatever boat of the same line may be found most convenient. In every case, however, the barge is considered as belonging to the boat to which she is attached for the purposes of that voyage. ”

“ Then, at last, there are the barges on the Danube, and very rudimental they are; huge in size, with flat bottoms, and bows and stems cocked up, and a roofed house in the middle of their sprawling length. The German boys must have these models before them when they make the Noah's Arks for English nurseries; and Murray well says of these barges, they are "nothing better than wooden sheds floating in flat trays."
In 1839 a steamer was tried here, but it got on a bank, and the effort was abandoned ”

“ The barges that were now floating up the crowded Medway interested me exceedingly, and acquaintance was readily made with their inhabitants almost every day for the next three weeks, until it became evident that “Barge Life” is a stratum of society quite as full of character and incident as any other, and wide open for examination by those who would study a genus of mankind very little known. Large and important duties are entrusted to these men; rich cargoes are committed to their honesty and skill ”

“ There are barges which go up and down with the tide. At ebb tide they lie in the mud; the men in charge go ashore to drink; the boys then climb on board in search of what they can get. If the barge is laden with sugar they cut holes in the bags and fill their pockets, their hats, their boots, their handkerchiefs with the stuff, which they carry ashore and sell. They get a halfpenny a pound for their plunder. If the barge is laden with coals they carry off all that their clothes will hold; one goes before to warn the rest of danger; plenty of houses on the way are open to them ”

“ New barges must be built every year, for those that are floated down the Urak can not be returned on account of the swiftness of the current. They are, however, used for other purposes in Okhotsk. It takes four men ten days to build a barge, [Pg 201] and four or five to man one. I most respectfully ask the Imperial College of Admiralty to consider the number of men employed at this work, and what they are accomplishing. ”

“ The college barges at Oxford are houseboats moored in the river for the use of members of the college rowing clubs. In New England the word barge frequently means a vehicle, usually covered, with seats down the side, used for picnic parties or the conveyance of passengers to or from piers or railway stations. ”

“ On the morning of the 29th the barges, which had been anchored at Chécy, crossed the Loire, and those who were with the convoy loaded them with victuals, ammunition, and cattle. [945] The river was high. [946] The barges were able to drift down the navigable channel near the left bank. The birches and osiers of l'Île-aux-Bœufs hid them from the English in the Saint- [Pg i.268] Loup bastion. Besides, at that moment, the enemy was occupied elsewhere. The town garrison was skirmishing with them in order to distract their attention. The fighting was somewhat hard. There were slain and wounded ”

“ The French take very good care of their trees, and when they cut one down, always plant another in its place.
Often the barge passed other long tows, whose barge-people would shout greetings across to them. For most bargees are acquainted, at least by sight, and the dogs would bark "How do you do's" as well. Great coal barges from Belgium passed, having come laden many hundreds of miles across France; and others with hogsheads of wine from the south, which have been brought by sea to Rouen. ”

“ Barch, masculine, ‘castrated hog,’ from Middle High German barc (barges) , Old High German barug and barh; compare Anglo-Saxon bearh, bearg, English barrow, Dutch barg, berg, Old Icelandic bǫrgr; Gothic *bargws (*burgus) . No evidence of a pre-Teutonic stem bhargh, bhark, for ‘hog, can be adduced from other languages. Latin verres and Sanscrit varâha-s, ‘boar,’ cannot be allied to it, any more than Latin porcus, which belongs to Ferkel. It is more probable that Russian borov (primitively Slavonic *borovŭ) is a cognate. ”

“ Some of the barges are masted and carry a huge and lovely sail, but the ones in use for I.E.F.D. are propelled by little tugs attached to their sides and quite invisible from beyond, so that the speeding barges seem magically self-moving. ”

“ Barges and boats were commonly drawn by domesticated seals and walruses. Their arts and productions are described in detail, and are about the same as those of Northern Europe a thousand years ago. The people are numerous, and live in peace and happiness. ”

“ Cependant le bas-latin berga, garde, défense (qui vient de l’allemand bergen, défendre, protéger) , n’ aurait-il pas pu donner, par une série de sens, défense, fortification, meule, et finalement bord escarpé?”—Dictionnaire de la langue Française. Littré.
[446] “On appelle aussi en tèrme de Mèr, bèrges, ou barges, les grands rochers, âpres & rélevez à pic; c’est-à-dire, droitement & à plomb, comme les bèrges ou barges d’Olone: telles sont Sylla & Carybde vers Messine.”—Dictionnaire Trevoux.
[447] Gerard Mercator was born at Rupelmonde, in East Flanders, on the fifth of March, 1512. ”

“ They were of all colors and shapes, and every one was bordered with pearls.
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One of the biggest flat-bottomed barges, manned by a score of oarsmen, lay at the foot of the street waiting to receive us. I stepped aboard, the guards followed and the Crooked One took a seat beside me. Then, while the crowd scrambled for all the empty boats remaining, our oarsmen dipped their paddles and we moved slowly away toward the center of the bay. ”

“ If they are coming in with the tide, so that the current helps them, they do not need the steam-tug; but men stand up at one end and help the barge along, and guide it by a huge oar called a sweep. Some of these men and their wives live always on these barges, and earn their living by taking things up the river. There is only a tiny dirty little cabin, the size of the smallest room you ever saw, and so Mrs. ”

“ See that our barge be manned forthwith, and tarry not for aught of state or ceremony. Thyself will go with us, and stop not thou to don thy newest-fashioned doublet: this is no matter that brooks ruffling!—’Sdeath, man! ’tis life or death! And now begone, sir! we lack our tirewoman’s service!”
An hour had not elapsed before a barge—easily distinguished as one belonging to the royal household, by its decorations, and the garb of the rowers—shot through a side arch of Westminster bridge, and passed rapidly, under sail and oar, down the swift current of the river, now almost at ebb tide. ”

“ That ever scuttled ship or cut a throat.’ A great merit of a barge as a house is that when she is ‘light,’ or almost ‘light,’ as the Ark Royal is, she can be sailed out of rough water on to a sand and left there, provided care be taken that she does not sit on her anchor. By the time there is only three feet of water the waves are very small, and thus, however strong the wind may be and however hard the sand, a barge will take the ground so gently that one can scarcely say when she touches. ”

“ As each of the men reaches the stern, he crosses to the other side, runs along it, and comes again to the landward side of the bow, when he recommences operations. The barge in the mean time is ascending at a rate not exceeding one mile in the hour.
The bar is at length passed, and as the shore in sight is straight on both sides of the river, and the current uniformly strong, the poles are laid aside, and the men being equally divided, those on the river side take to their oars, whilst those on the land side lay hold of the branches of willows, or other trees, and thus slowly propel the boat. ”

“ The barge is on shipboard—he is master in his own ship—he can land whenever he will—he can never be kept beating off a lee-shore a whole frosty night when the sheets are as hard as iron; and, so far as I can make out, time stands as nearly still with him as is compatible with the return of bed-time or the dinner-hour. It is not easy to see why a barge should ever die.
Half-way between Willebroek and Villevorde, in a beautiful reach of canal like a squire's avenue, we went ashore to lunch. There were two eggs, a junk of bread, and a bottle of wine on board the Arethusa ”

“ If we had a barge we could anchor clear of the town, and when the holidays came we could up anchor and clear off to a place more after our own hearts. Of course a barge is the very thing—the most easily handled ship for her size in the world. I see the way out quite clearly now.’
A Barge at Sunset in the Lower Thames
‘Yes, that sounds very jolly, but there would be a lot of drawbacks too.’ The Mate began to retreat towards the drawing-room. ”

“ In the barge, at either end, go as many as twenty or even thirty men, some sitting rowing, others facing them and standing to row, and others punting with their poles of immense length that taper away at the top to the slight girth of a fishing rod. The shirts of the men, mauve, pink, white, red, or purple, their light blue or black coats, red sashes, trousers of velvet or velvet corduroy of many shades, from bright yellow to dark brown, the long shining yellow punt poles, and the white pyramids of salt on the sea of sapphire, combine to form a strange and beautiful sight. ”

“ Why, I'm going that way myself,' replied the barge-woman. 'This canal joins the river some miles further on, a little above Toad Hall; and then it's an easy walk. You come along in the barge with me, and I'll give you a lift.'
She steered the barge close to the bank, and Toad, with many humble and grateful acknowledgments, stepped lightly on board and sat down with great satisfaction. 'Toad's luck again!' thought he. 'I always come out on top!'
'So you're in the washing business, ma'am?' said the barge-woman politely, as they glided along. ”

“ I was not famous in the nursery for keeping my things very tidy, but I fancied I could stow my clothes away to perfection in a locker, and almost cook my own dinner with the bargeman's little stove.
And every time a barge was loaded up, and the bargemaster took his post at the rudder, whilst the old horse strained himself to start—and when the heavy boat swung slowly down the canal and passed out of sight, I felt more and more sorry to be left behind upon the wharf. ”