A wooden flat-bottomed boat, a metallic cylinder, or a frame covered with canvas, India rubber, etc., forming a portable float, used in building bridges quickly for the passage of troops.

A low, flat vessel, resembling a barge, furnished with cranes, capstans, and other machinery, used in careening ships, raising weights, drawing piles, etc., chiefly in the Mediterranean; a lighter.

An inflatable boat 22 feet long or larger. These mammoth rafts usually have 3-foot tubes and 9 foot beams and range in length from 22 to 37 feet.

A floating flat structure, typically rectangular in shape.

A floating island on which to dock a boat.

(nautical) a floating structure (as a flat-bottomed boat) that serves as a dock or to support a bridge

a float supporting a seaplane

The floating apparatus from which triathletes dive to start the swimming leg.

A floating flat structure used for work alongside the ship, to facilitate embarkation or disembarkation of persons, or to move cargo alongside.

Vessel with flat deck and a shallow draft.→ Floating Crane

A pontoon is a flat-bottomed boat or the floats used to support a structure on water. It may be simply constructed from closed cylinders such as pipes or barrels or fabricated as boxes from metal or concrete. These may be used to support a simple platform, creating a raft.