At the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, there is a special barge constructed in 1732 for this man, Prince Frederick, Prince of Wales, son of King George II of England and father of the future King George III.
This 63 foot long barge was designed by the landscape painter, William Kent and built at Whitehall by John Hall in 1732. It is now the main attraction at the National Maritime Museum.
The National Maritime Museum at Greenwich, England has some of the best collection of maritime objects of England’s past history. Its vast assortment of ship models is one of the most outstanding in the world, a virtual paradise for the enjoyment of the ship modeler’s art. This museum should be a must visit when in England. Mr. Casey A. Hill posted this story and photos on Facebook.
In this modern age, royal barges are still in vogue on special occasions on the Thames River in England, when the Queen is rowed to a certain location.
Tankerbuilder, if you would like to see an actual scratch build model of a cememonal barge, the National Maritime Museum has model in 1/16th scale of a barge made for the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, about the year 1780.
All I can say , seeing the Royal barge being used , and this one , WOW ! ! T.B.— P.S. Being Wood , I wonder if they keep her in a water filled impoundment to keep her tight ?
Tanker-Builder, you like ceremonial barges ? Feast your eye on this ceremonial barge at the Musee National de la Marine, at Paris, France. Built in 1810 for the personal use of Napoleon Bonaparte himself. How would you like to be rowed around in aquatic luxuary when the personal ego was at an all time high ?
The most lavish of ceremonial rowing barges must surely go to the Bucentaur (Bucintoro, in Italian) a ceremonial barge used by the mayor of Venice and earlier by the Doges in the ceremony, “Marrage of the Sea” (Sposalizio del Mare), to dip a gold ring in the Adriatic Sea to signify the union of Venice and the Adriatic. The practice began on May 9, 1000 AD, when Doge Pietro Orsealo and a Venicean naval force defeated Dalmation pirates threating Venice. Since then, on Ascension Day, a special barge is assigned to this ceremony. The most lavish barge, the Bucentaur was build in 1729 with gold leaf ornamentation, and destroyed by Napoleon in 1798, when he invaded northern Italy. This 115 foot long two deck barge required 168 oarsmen and 40 sailors to operate this vessel. A replica was made in 2008 to resume the annual “Marrage of the Sea”. a thousand year tradition for Venice.
Happy modeling Crackers [A]
Really beautiful workmanship. When did the definition of a barge change? Admittedly I’m not a naval vessel guy, but the barges toting scrap kind of bring down the class/name
Great thread Anthony. When i was much younger, late 70’s early 80’s, we used to go to museums a lot in London, but i don’t recall ever going to the NMM. Will have to put that on the list as i am planning re-visiting some of those museums.
Incidentally, the photo you posted of Her majesty was on board the MV Spirit of Chartwell during the 2012 Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.
This vessel wasn’t rowed, it was built in Holland for use on the Rhine and has seen been sold off and is now a hotel boat in Portugal.
You may well be thinking of the Royal barge Gloriana.
This was built for the occasion but the Queen was not on her during the pagent.
John, like you i am not a naval guy, but its my understanding that a barge is a flat bottomed boat for canal or river transport. There use as commercial vessels is certainly not new.
I looked into the definition of barge awhile ago. I am a fan of Great Lakes bulk carriers (ore boats to some). Some originally were engineless and towed, then had engines added and were called steam barges. Seemed like an oxymoron.
Then investigated definition in a number of dictionaries, including the big Oxford. There are an amazing number of definitions, including in Europe any freight carrying vessel! However, the one that seems best in regards to GL vessels is a ship with a high prismatic coeffient- that is, very full hull. The cross section is almost rectangular rather than semi-circular like so many fast vessels. This was useful on great lakes and in canals because of shallow depths. So they had to be full bodied to get much cargo in them. Many vessels of the type on GL were called canalers. But even ships that didn’t use Welland canal still had that hull form because many GL ports were up shallow rivers, or the ports themselves, especially on Lake Erie, were inherently shallow.
Unlike Don, I did not think to delve into the OED.
However what Bish states above jibes with something I remember reading from H. I. Chappell, that a barge was a boat with flat, or flattened floors (the lowest portion of the frame). By context, I know he was speaking of boats made up on frames, rather than formers with bent frames.
Now, by long-standing Naval tradition, the Captain has a “gig” and an admiral has a “barge” (commodores also rate barges)–even when those are the same size vessel.
Yes, in order to get a high prismatic coefficient the floors must be flat or almost so. In addition, the bow and stern must be pretty full. No clipper bows or flowing stern lines. A square blockish shape is the way to get maximum volume for a given depth. Ships like that do not sail very well in rough weather, but early thinking on GL (incorrect) is that one would never be far from a port on the lakes. The large number of wrecks on lakes proves the fallacy of that idea, but money talks in shipping. Thames sailing barges are good example of such full lines.
Tankerbuilder, if you would like to see an actual scratch build model of a cememonal barge, the National Maritime Museum has model in 1/16th scale of a barge made for the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights, about the year 1780.
