According to Randall Spackman, as to the size of the barges, the Book of Ether states simply that they were "small" (Ether 2:16) and "the length of a tree" (Ether 2:17). The barges may have been small in comparison with typical sea-going craft from lower Mesopotamia. Casson reported that the capacity of Mesopotamian vessels ranged from an extremely large ship of 300 gur or approximately 31 tons, to a normal vessel of 60 gur, about 6 tons, to the smallest craft which only carried a single ton of cargo. Casson estimated that a small barge carried about 30 gur or 3 tons of cargo. Several sea-going junks were described by Donnelly, ranging from 30 to 70 feet in length. Thus, the declaration that the Jaredite barges were small could reasonably mean that they were approximately 30 to 40 feet long and capable of carrying about 3 to 5 tons of cargo.
It is interesting that the Jaredite record speaks of the barges as "small" in direct proximity with references to the vessels being "light upon the water" (Ether 2:16). A small barge may have been more seaworthy than a larger vessel. Heyerdahl's experience with small craft is instructive: "Speaking of aboriginal watercraft, safety at sea does not increase with the size of the vessel; indeed, numerous experiments in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans have convinced the writer and others of the fact that primitive vessels less than thirty feet in length have a greater chance of survival in stormy seas than similar vessels of larger dimensions. It is a great advantage to a vessel to be small enough to move freely between and over the swells, since a boat much over thirty feet long will either be forced to bury bow or stern into surrounding waves, or will bridge two waves simultaneously with the risk of breaking amidships."
An alternative meaning of the word "small" may mean that the barges were overcrowded when they were loaded. [Randall P. Spackman, The Jaredite Journey to America, pp. 74-76, unpublished]