Also 8 -idge. [f. WATER sb. + -AGE.] Conveyance or transport by water; the charge made or the money paid for this. Also attrib.
1688. in Gutch, Collect. Cur., II. 378. To Mr. Ince for Coach-hire, Waterage, Porterage, and other petty Expences.
1703. in Jrnl. Derbysh. Archæol. Soc. (1881), III. 45. Payd for carrage, Wateridge & Porter to helpe into ye vessells with the Marble.
1766. W. Gordon, Gen. Counting-ho., 280. Pays for … waterage abroad.
1815. Falconer’s Dict. Marine (ed. Burney), Waterage, money paid for carriage of goods and merchandise, &c. by water.
1829. Examiner, 282/1. The carriage and waterage was paid at the coach-office, and, on the parcel arriving on board, the waterage-money … was charged again.
1861. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, III. 239. ‘Waterage’ costs the [coal] whipper an average of 6d. a-week…. ‘Waterage’ means the conveyance from the vessels to the shore.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Waterage, the charge for using shore-boats.
