boatage

From boat +‎ -age (suffix forming nouns denoting an action, process, or result; a charge, fee, or toll; or a sense of appurtenance or collection).^[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈbəʊtɪd͡ʒ/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈboʊtɪd͡ʒ/, [-ɾɪd͡ʒ]

• Audio (General American); [ˈboʊɾɪd͡ʒ]:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: boat‧age

boatage (countable and uncountable, plural boatages) (nautical)

1. (uncountable) Conveyance, chiefly of goods, by boat.
   • 1784 July 15 (date written), John Byng, “A Tour to North Wales, 1784”, in C. Bruyn Copper, editor, The Torrington Diaries: Containing the Tours through England and Wales of the Hon. John Byng (later Fifth Viscount Torrington) between the Years 1781 and 1794, volume 1, London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, published 1934, →OCLC, page 169:

     At the verge of the town we had the misert of embarking on board another ferry-boat, the danger and destruction of horses; […] for they are oblig'd to leap out of, and into, deep water. […] This bad boatage, over a stream one mile broad is one of the causes of a new London road being open'd thro Llanwrst, which in a short time will eclipse the old Chester road.

3. (uncountable) A charge for transporting goods or people by boat; (countable) an instance of this.

   Synonyms: (obsolete) fraught, (dated) shippage

   • 1611, Randle Cotgrave, compiler, “Droict de Rivage”, in A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues, London: […] Adam Islip, →OCLC, signature [Ee v], verso, column 1:

     Droict de Rivage. Shorage, or Boatage; the Cuſtome, or Toll for vvine, or other vvares, put vpon, or brought from, the vvater, by boats.

     This is the earliest attestation of the word noted by the Oxford English Dictionary.

   • 1826, “Voyage Round the Island. [Hire of Vessels, &c.]”, in The Beauties of the Isle of Wight; […], Portsea, Hampshire: […] S. & S. Horsey; sold also by Longman & Co. […], →OCLC, table heading, page 93:

     Passengers by Steam on the Quarter Deck, and in the Best Cabin, Boatages to and from the Vessel included.

   • 2006, Roz Southey, “Organs and Psalms”, in Music-making in North-east England during the Eighteenth Century, Aldershot, Hampshire; Burlinton, Vt.: Ashgate Publishing, →ISBN, part 3 (Music as an Aid to Piety), page 107:

     The Stockton organ was financed partly by the sale of pews in the newly erected organ gallery and partly by subscription. Around 80 subscribers (including Lord Darlington) subscribed £250 12s.; [Thomas] Griffin was paid £200 for building the organ and the rest of the money went towards boatage and porterage, painting and gilding, and the cost of hiring [John] Garth and the Durham singers to perform at the dedication.

4. (uncountable) The total capacity of a number of boats, especially of lifeboats on a ship.
   • 1995, George W. Hilton, “Prologue”, in Eastland: Legacy of the Titanic, Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, →ISBN, page 3:

     The Titanic’s boatage and flotation equipment were also well above minimum requirements. She carried 3,560 life belts; 48 life buoys; 14 30-foot lifeboats; 2 emergency cutters; and 4 Englehardt collapsible rafts.

5. (uncountable, obsolete) Boats collectively.
   • a. 1662 (date written), Thomas Fuller, “Westmerland”, in The History of the Worthies of England, London: […] J[ohn] G[rismond,] W[illiam] L[eybourne] and W[illiam] G[odbid], published 1662, →OCLC, page 137:

     For the Tovvn of Perith in Cumberland, he [William Strickland] cut a paſſage vvith great Art, Induſtry, and Expence, from the Tovvn into the river Petterill for the conveiance of Boatage into the Iriſh ſea.

• “boatage”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.