Wharf

A perpendicular bank or mound of timber, or stone and earth, raised on the shore of a harbor, river, canal, &c., or extending some distance into the water, for the convenience of lading and unlading ships and other vessels.

Webster.

A broad, plain place near a river, canal, or other water, to lay wares on that are brought to or from the water. Cowel. There are two kinds of wharves, — legal quays and sufferance wharves. The former are established by act of parliament, or exist as such by immemorial usage. The latter are places where goods may be landed and shipped by special permission of the crown.

Tomlins.

By the customs clauses consolidation act, 1853 (Stat. 16 & 17 Vict. ch. 107), § 13, the commissioners of customs may from time to time, by order under their hands, appoint places to be sufferance wharves for the lading and unlading of goods by sufferance, in such cases, under such restrictions and in such manner as they shall see fit. Mozley & W. A wharf is a structure erected on a shore below high-water mark, and sometimes extending into the channel, for the laying vessels alongside to load or unload, and on which stores are often erected for the reception of cargoes.

Doane v. Broad Street Assoc, 6 Mass. 332. Wharfage.

Money paid for landing wares at a wharf, or for shipping or taking goods into a boat or barge from thence. Cowel. Strictly speaking, wharfage is money due, or money actually paid, for the privilege of landing goods upon, or loading a vessel while moored from, a wharf.

The Gem, 1 Brown Adm. 37.

On the distinction between wharfage and harborage, see Hays v. Briggs, 74 Pa. St. 373.

Wharfinger.

One who owns or keeps a wharf, or has the oversight or management of it. Cowel. A wharfinger is one who keeps a wharf for receiving goods for hire; and his responsibility begins when the goods are delivered at, or rather on, the wharf, and he has, either expressly or by implication, so received them.

Rodgers v. Stophel, 32 Pa. St. 111.