A working boat built for mud
The sailing barge of the Thames estuary was not a gentle craft. It was a large, flat-bottomed, shallow-draft working boat built to carry bulk cargo into creeks, wharves and tidal rivers where deeper vessels could not go, and to dry out on the mud at low tide. The best-known type is the Thames spritsail barge, which in its later years became one of the most recognisable sights on the waters around London, Essex and Kent, with tan or red-brown sails.
This article is about the sailing barge itself. The broader story of barges on rivers and canals, including towing, is covered elsewhere, and so is the use of the word for towed craft without sails.
Origins in a busy estuary
The Thames and its neighbouring estuaries have long been important trade routes. Lighters and other flat-bottomed boats moved goods around the Pool of London, and traders sent cargoes along the estuary and its tributaries. Over the 18th and 19th centuries, as London grew, the demand for building materials, food, fuel and fodder increased sharply. The sailing barge developed to meet that demand, and its numbers grew in the 19th century to include hundreds of vessels, although exact totals are uncertain.
The design is generally thought to have developed from earlier types of barge and hoy, with gradual changes rather than a single moment of invention. Early barges were smaller and simpler, and later examples became larger and more refined as owners looked for more capacity.
The flat bottom and the leeboards
A boat with a flat bottom and a shallow draft can enter very shallow water, but it has a problem: it makes a great deal of leeway, being pushed sideways by the wind. A deep keel solves that on a conventional sailing vessel but would defeat the whole point of a shallow barge.
The barge solved it with leeboards: large, board-shaped fins hung on each side of the hull on pivots. The crew lowers the board on the lee side, away from the wind, and it acts like a centreboard that resists sideways movement. When the barge turns and the wind comes from the other side, the other board is lowered, and the first is raised. In shallow water, the boards can be raised to avoid grounding. The same principle was used in the Dutch tradition for many craft, including the Dutch jacht and other leeboard boats, which probably influenced developments in English waters, although the exact line of influence is debated.
The sprit rig
The distinctive part of the barge is its rig. The main sail is a spritsail: a four-cornered sail whose peak is held up by a long diagonal pole, the sprit, which runs from low on the mast to the upper corner of the sail. There is no boom along the foot of the sail, so the sail can be brailed up to the mast quickly, which helps in crowded waters and makes the sail easier for a small crew to handle.
Most larger barges also carried a mizzen mast at the stern with a small sail, which helped steering and tacking, a topsail above the main sail, and a foresail or jib forward. Compared with the work they did, the crews were small. A barge of considerable size could be worked by two people, a skipper and a mate, and this economy of labour was one of its main attractions. A very large main sail and topsail could produce good speed for such a boat, but the actual figures varied.
The masts could be lowered by means of a hinged mast case, allowing the barge to pass under bridges, an arrangement shared in principle with other river boats described under the wherry rig.
Cargoes and trades
Sailing barges carried an extensive list of goods. Many carried bricks and cement from Thames and Medway works to build London, as well as grain, hay and straw for the city’s horses. Other cargoes included stone, coal, timber, mud and rubbish, and sometimes manure used as fertiliser on Essex and Kent farms. Barges also served the London docklands, and the work of lighters and dockers is explored in the history of dock labour. Some types were specialised, such as hay barges known for their stacked loads of hay and large deck cargoes. Barges also took part in coastal trade, travelling beyond the estuary to ports on the English coast and across the Channel in suitable weather, although these longer trips were less typical.
Barges were built in yards along the Thames and Medway, many of them using wood, and later ones also used iron or steel. The Medway area also had close ties with the Royal dockyards, and its shipwrights’ skills were applied to barge building too.
Racing, engines and decline
In 1863, the first Thames barge match was held, and similar races became a popular summer event for barge owners and crews, with races continuing to the present day under a different organisation. The matches show the pride that skippers took in their vessels.
From the late 19th and early 20th century, however, steam and then motor power began to take over the trade. Many barges were fitted with auxiliary engines, which let them work without waiting for wind, and eventually road and rail transport also took trade. Some barges continued to carry cargo under sail well into the 20th century, and a handful were still trading in the second half of it.
Survivors
Today a number of Thames sailing barges survive, restored for charter, sail training and events. They remain a reminder that a boat shaped by its local waters can be both practical and beautiful.