Dracone Barge [SEP] discoverer or inventor
Dracone Barge
A Dracone Barge is a large flexible watertight tube intended to carry a liquid cargo while towed mostly-submerged behind a ship. One large current example of the type has a capacity of 935 cubic metres (4.23m diameter, 91m long) while weighing only 6.5 tonnes empty.
The Dracone Barge was invented in 1956 by Professor William Hawthorne as a new type of oil tanker. The intent was to create an improved transport technology: the long tube can be pulled by a lower powered vessel than the
Flexible barge
A flexible barge is a fabric barge (non-rigid) for the transportation of bulk fresh water or other liquid bulk items such as chemicals or oil.
History.
One such barge is called the Dracone Barge invented in 1956. Other similar devices are the Spragg Bag invented in the 1980s, the water bag proposed by Nordic Water Supply in the late 1990s and the more recent REFRESH modular waterbag, developed in the 2010s. Terry Spragg of Manhattan Beach, California, builds flexible fabric barges for the