Also 8 cargoe. Pl. cargoes. [17th c. a. Sp. cargo loading, burthen, or perhaps carga load, freight, cargo, in It. carico, carica, med.L. carricum, carrica load, f. late L. carricāre to load, f. carrus CAR: see CHARGE.]
1. The freight or lading of a ship, a ship-load.
1657. R. Ligon, Barbadoes, 8. As we had Cause to suspect him for the Cask, so wee had for the Cargo.
a. 1692. Pollexfen, Disc. Trade (1697), 116–7. The Ships Adventure and Bristol, whose Cargoes cost in England about 60000 l. were seized, or destroyed by the said Ship of War.
1705. Lond. Gaz., No. 4151/4. The Catharine Maurice … with her Cargo of Brown Sugar and Ginger.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 7. We had a very rich cargo on board.
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 321. The specie was leaving the country in cargoes.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxii. 67. Having discharged her cargo and taken in ballast.
† b. A bill of lading. Obs.–0 (Cf. CARGASON 2.)
1678. Littleton, Lat. Dict., A cargo or Bill of lading or list of goods, mercium catalogus.
1721. Bailey, Cargo … Also a Bill of Lading, or List of the Goods of a Ship.
2. transf. (cf. load). † b. slang. (see quot. 1690.)
1690. B. E., Dict. Cant. Crew, Cargo, a good round Sum of Money about a Man.
1714. H. Grove, Spect., No. 558, ¶ 5. Advancing towards the Heap, with a larger Cargo than ordinary upon his Back.
a. 1762. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., xciv. 155. I am promised a cargo of lampoons from Bath.
1806–7. J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), II. xxxi. A cargo of novels.
1839. Darwin, Voy. Nat., xv. 385. Six were intended for riding and four for carrying cargoes.
3. Comb., chiefly attrib., as cargo-boat, -book, -liner, -port (an opening in the side of a ship for delivering cargo), -ship, -steamer.
1859. Merc. Mar. Mag. (1860), VII. 8. Cargo boats conveying goods to Canton from Ships.
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., Cargo-book, shows the mark, number, quality, and (if measurement goods) the dimensions of such packages of a ship’s cargo.
1884. St. James’s Gaz., 10 April, 5/1. The owners of cargoships and steamers.
¶ See also CARGA.
