GLOSSARY

• Barge The general name for wide beam boats used for inland commercial carrying. Although the narrowboats are often refered to as 'barges' they are more correctly called narrowboats.
• Working narrowboat - general term applied to a range of boats used on the narrow canals and limited by the gauge of the locks and other structures to dimensions of about 70 feet (approx. 21 metres) by 7 feet beam (approx 2.1m). They travelled to nearly all parts of the inland waterways, on both canals and rivers.
• The Yorkshire or Humber keel was a flat-bottomed, double-ended sailing barge - a direct descent from the long ships of the Vikings. They had the reputation of sailing close to the wind and were easy to handle, sometimes in the charge of a single man, although often operated as family boats. The last sailing keel was in service until 1949.
  The older type of keel was distinguished by its carved and painted decorations in the form of grapevines, and by a tall wooden stovepipe above a cabin at the fore end. It had a single mast, a little forward of midships, usually carriing a square sail, often with an additional topsail.
  Of carvel build (i.e. with planks flush, not overlapping), it had leeboards (a plank frame fixed to the side of a flat-bottomed vessel and let down into the water to diminish leeway) on either side and strong, bluff bows (i.e. having a vertical or steep broad front).
  The mast was mounted in a deep tabernacle - a socket or double post for a hinged mast that can be lowered for passing under low bridges.
  The area of the hull below the waterline was usually dressed with tar, while the upper works were painted in light colours and frequently varnished. It measured 58 feet (approx 17.5 m) long and was 14 feet 6 inches (approx 4.5 m) in the beam and 6 feet to 6 feet 9 inches (approx 215 cm) in draught, some have been recorded with up to 8 feet of draught.
  It had a capacity between 90 and 100 tons. (1 ton = 1016.05 kg, a metric ton or tonne = 1000 kg).
• Tom Puddings were rectangular, almost square, steel compartment boats used on the Aire and Calder Navigations. They were hauled in trains by power-boats, originally steam tugs but later diesels, rounded at bow and stern. The system was invented by William H. Bartholomew, then engineer to the Aire and Calder company. First operated for the bulk transport of coal in 1865.
  The dimensions of each boat were 20 feet (approx 6m) long, 16 feet (approx 4.8 m) beam, loading 35 tons to a draught of 6 feet. These were too broad of beam for the Barnsley Canal but were used by the the Aire & Calder, the eventual owners of the canal.
• Bargee - a crewman or owner-skipper of a barge.