Thanks Beeguy. I was curious about those odd boats and your concise, informative comment hit the spot. You're better than Google.

The Philadelphia & Reading Railway took a big piece of the anthracite traffic off the canal to the city of brotherly love. Several of the barges seen here may not been able to get a cut of the remaining traffic. So they were sold to the war effort. Rushed into service, they still bear their Pennsylvania port names. The builders and canalboatmen likely did not dream they would ever go down the Atlantic coast to fight in a war.