The barge is of course the ONLY means of transferring cargo and fuel from islands to your carrier. Without a barge, your ship will eventually run out of fuel and munitions.

Barges are slow but tough, they can take more than half the total damage of a Carrier and are practically immune to torpedo attack due to their shallow draft.

There are various popular workshop mods that alter the appearance and speed of barges:

• Turbo Barges - Very popular, barges travel at around 100m/s
• Alt Barge - Barges look similar to Needlefish