Barge often refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but on inland waterways, most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels. The term barge has a rich history, and therefore there are many other types of barges.
USS Algonquin, completed as El Toro in 1891 for the Southern Pacific Railroad's Morgan Line, was a small harbor tug commissioned by the United States Navy 2 April 1898. Renamed Accomac, after Accomac, Virginia, June 1898, renamed Nottoway in 1918 and, after the Navy adopted alphanumeric hull numbers on 17 July 1920, classified as YT-18, a district tug. On 5 October 1942 the name was cancelled and the tug was simply YT-18 until 1944 when classification was changed to YTL-18, a little harbor tug. Over the years as a Navy tug, from 1898 to 1946, the tug served from Cuba to Boston.
A railroad car float or rail barge is a specialised form of lighter with railway tracks mounted on its deck used to move rolling stock across water obstacles, or to locations they could not otherwise go. An unpowered barge, it is towed by a tugboat or pushed by a towboat.
Steam Tug Wattle is a steam-powered tugboat in preservation at Melbourne, Australia.
Weeks Marine is a marine construction and dredging contractor based in Cranford, NJ. It was founded by Francis Weeks and his son Richard B. Weeks in 1919 as the Weeks Stevedoring Company.
Neafie, Levy & Co., commonly known as Neafie & Levy, was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shipbuilding and engineering firm that existed from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. Described as America's "first specialist marine engineers", Neafie & Levy was probably the first company in the United States to combine the building of iron ships with the manufacture of steam engines to power them. The company was also the largest supplier of screw propellers to other North American shipbuilding firms in its early years, and at its peak in the early 1870s was Philadelphia's busiest and most heavily capitalized shipbuilder.
Jupiter is an American tugboat. It was built in Philadelphia in 1902 by Neafie & Levy for the Standard Oil Company of New York ("Socony"), and was named Socony No. 14. In 1939 it was sold to the Independent Pier Company in Philadelphia, and was renamed Jupiter.
Yankee is an early-20th-century steel hulled ferry which is registered as a historic vessel with the National Register of Historic Places. As of 2006 it was berthed in Hoboken, New Jersey. In mid-2013, the ferry was moved to the Henry Street pier in the Gowanus Bay Terminal in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
The Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal was a shortline railroad and marine terminal with its main facilities and administrative offices located on 86–88 Kent Avenue in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York City.
USS Lykens (SP-876/AT-56) was a steam tugboat purchased from the Reading Company by the United States Navy in 1917. Because she was privately built, she was not of a ship class. She was the only U.S. Navy ship of this name.
Luna is a historic tugboat normally berthed in Boston Harbor, Massachusetts. Luna was designed in 1930 by John G. Alden and built by M.M. Davis and Bethlehem Steel. She is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1985, the Luna was designated as a Boston Landmark by the Boston Landmarks Commission.
The third USS Powhatan was a steam tug that served in the United States Navy from 1898 to 1928, was renamed USS Cayuga in 1917, and was later designated YT-12.
Bouker No. 2, originally Robert Rogers, was a tugboat built in 1904 for merchant service in and around the waters of New York City. During World War I, the tug was commissioned into the United States Navy as USS Bouker No. 2 (SP-1275), and continued in naval service until 1921. Briefly considered for service as a fireboat in Norfolk, Virginia, she was instead returned to merchant service in 1922 as a tugboat, under the name New York Marine Co. No. 6. She was sunk in collision with a passenger steamer in 1926.
John H Amos is a paddlewheel tugboat built in Scotland in 1931. The last paddlewheel tug built for private owners, now owned by the Medway Maritime Trust. She is one of only two surviving British-built paddle tugs, the other being Eppleton Hall preserved at the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park in San Francisco, California.
USCGC Lilac (WAGL/WLM-227) is a former Coast Guard buoy tender which is now a museum ship located in New York City. Lilac is America's only surviving steam-powered buoy tender, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Standard Oil Company No. 16, later Pegasus, was a historic harbor tugboat located at Morris Canal Basin, Jersey City, New Jersey. She was built in 1907 by the Skinner Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company of Baltimore, Maryland for the Standard Oil Company. She had heavy steel frames and deck beams. She was 100 feet in length, 23 feet in beam and 11.2 feet in depth. She was registered at 175 gross tons. She had an original wooden pilot house and the engine room dated to 1953-1954 when converted from steam to diesel. At that time, Standard Oil sold the tug to the McAllister Towing and Transportation Company and she was renamed McAllister 41. In 1955, she was renamed John E. McAllister.
Mayflower is a steam tug built in Bristol in 1861 and now preserved by Bristol Museums Galleries & Archives. She is based in Bristol Harbour at M Shed. She is the oldest Bristol-built ship afloat, and is believed to be the oldest surviving tug in the world.
Howard Smith Limited was an Australian industrial company. Founded in 1854 as a shipping company, it later diversified into coal mining, steel production, stevedoring, travel, railway rolling stock building, sugar production and retail. Its divisions began to be sold off in the 1990s with the remainder taken over by Wesfarmers in August 2001.
Essayons was a tugboat of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. Her mission with the Corps was to support the installation of breakwaters and piers, and the dredging of harbors on Lake Superior. She was built in 1908 and served with the Army until 1949, when she was sold to the Zenith Dredge Company. Essayons continued her support of port construction and maintenance under her new owner until the mid 1960s. In 1994 she was sold again, this time to a local businessman, who hoped to convert her into a floating Bed and Breakfast. This plan never came to fruition and she sank at her moorings in Duluth Harbor in 2009.
Mystic Steamship Company, also known a Boston Tow Boat Company was a Boston, Massachusetts shipping company. Named after the Mystic River. The company was founded in 1854 as the T-Wharf Towing Company. Boston Tow Boat Company was an operator of ship salvaging, icebreaker shipping, and a tugboat operator. The other major operation was transporting coal. Mystic Steamship Company operated collier ships and coal barges. Coal was load at Newport News, Virginia and delivery to New York Harbor, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Mystic Steamship Company was also a bulk grain transporter. Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates purchased and ran Mystic Steamship Company. Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates is now Eastern Enterprises. T-Wharf Towing Company merged into the Boston Gas Eastern Enterprises Incorporated, its parent company on June 30, 1917. Boston Gas Eastern Enterprises reformed the shipping lines as the Boston Towboat Company Incorporated. Boston Fuel Transportation Company purchased Boston Towboat Company in 1985. Boston Fuel renamed the company the Boston Towing and Transportation Companies. In 1940, the company became the Mystic Steamship, a Division of Eastern Gas and Fuel Associates.
