The History of the Thames Barge

The Thames Barge design evolved throught the necessesity to be able to cary a wide variety of cargos, ranging from the sparse hay and straw cargos carried by the 'stackies' to denser more easily carried cargos of sand and shingle.

The hey-day of the Thames sailing barge was 1907 during which there were just over 2000 of these veseles registered on on the east coast, this number gradually dwindled to 1650 by 1918 and 1100 by 1930. At the beginning of the SecondWorld War there were still 600 barges still in operation, although a number of these were just being used for storage and were in varying stages of decay.

Some sailing barges were purpose built as barge yachts

• Mamgu ex Cawana built 1904
• Daisie built 1907
• Dinah built 1887

And more recently

• Juno built 2003
• Rachel Louise under construction.