Ferry

Ferry (from A.-S. faran, to go), a passage by boat over water. Foot-passengers are lesually conveyed in rowing-boats, horses and carriages in flat-bottomed barges, with a sloping surface at one end to facilitate landing. The barges are either rowed or drawn over the river by means of a rope, which masses over pulleys or through rings fixed to the parge. The ferryman propels the barge by pulling the rope. If the distance be great, steam-ferries are now commonly used.

A flying-bridge is a kind of ferry-boat used in military operations. The boat is attached by a rope to a buoy in the middle of the river, and steered in an oblique direction, so that, owing to the force of the current meeting its side, it tends to take a course at right angles to its length. Meanwhile the rope draws it towards the buoy, the result of the combined forces being that it moves with the buoy as centre, and so passes over the river.