The barge owners refused to comment.

Drawing water from the river as the mill expanded soon ensured that this would become a contentious issue between the mill and the barge owners.

Telephone calls to the companies identified by New York State as the barge owners were not returned.

His father, John Gull, was a barge owner and wharfinger and was thirty-eight years old at the time of William's birth.

William's middle name, Withey, came from his godfather, Captain Withey, a friend and employer of his father and also a local barge owner.

At least 236 of the 245 people aboard the sunken barge were rescued, the barge owner said.

There must be lots of barge owners wanting similar gang-planks.

Another article reports an "extraordinary record of civil and criminal environmental violations" by an interlocking company of barge owners in New York Harbor.

While barge owners and agricultural corporations have advocated building new locks to ease congestion along the bustling waterways, the proposals have encountered opposition, including from environmental groups.

Mr Anderson therefore gave him the Hailing Ferry in perpetuity and set him up in a shed selling chandlery to the barge owners.