A
lighter is a type of flat-bottomed
barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from
moored ships. Lighters were traditionally unpowered and were moved and steered using long
oars called "sweeps" and the motive power of water currents. They were operated by highly skilled workers called
lightermen and were a characteristic sight in
London's docks until about the 1960s, when technological changes made this form of
lightering largely redundant. Unpowered lighters continue to be moved by powered tugs, however, and lighters may also now themselves be powered. The term is also used in the
Lighter Aboard Ship (LASH) system.