Patent ID: 8490567

Claim:
An apparatus for coupling a pushboat to a barge, said barge having a notch in a stern portion, said notch shaped to receive a bow portion of said pushboat, said barge having two vertically elongated side sockets recessed in side walls of said notch, having a plurality of holes stepwise arranged from top to bottom and facing each other, and a vertically elongated center rack placed on a centerline of the barge at a deepest point of said notch, and said pushboat having, on both sides of said bow portion, two transversely elongated side connecting pins arranged to be axially extended and retracted via operating power and a longitudinally elongated bow connecting pin arranged to be axially extended and retracted via operating power wherein: (a) each of the plurality of holes in the side sockets is a circular conical concave hole that has a hemi-spherical part near an entrance; (b) the center rack has vertically arranged teeth; (c) an outer end of each of said side connecting pins is shaped as a hemi-spherical head with a conical pointed tip so that when each side connecting pin is extended via operating power and inserted into one of said plurality of holes of said side socket, said hemi-spherical head comes into contact with said hemi-spherical part of said one of said plurality of holes of said side socket; (d) said bow connecting pin has a wedge-shaped outer end which, when said pin is extended via operating power, engages with corresponding teeth of said center rack.