IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS OF WAR AND IN ARMING SHIPS OF WAR
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Augusto Albini at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th November
1868.
I, AUGUSTO ALBINI, of Genoa, but now residing at Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Captain in the Italian Navy, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIPS OF WAR AND IN
ARMING SHIPS OF WAR," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing and arming ships of war in the
manner herein-after explained, by which method of construction and arming
guns at the bow and stern of the ship can fire in the direction of the keel.
..In building and arming ships of war according to my Invention 1.do not
alter the figure of the ship so as to affect its seaworthy qualities, the bull
being similar to the hull of ordinary ships from the keel to the line of the
main deck. My improvements are situated above the main deck. Instead
of building the bulwarks above the main deck on each side of the ship of the
ordinary figure, I make them of an angular figure, that is, in place of the
ordinary curved form I make a series of angular recesses formed by vertical
planes situated alternately at right angles, or nearly right angles, and parallel
with the keel or with the ship's longest diameter. These angular recesses,
commencing at the bow and stern respectively, extend on either side in the
direction of the ship's length to a distance depending on the number of guns
required, each gun being situated in one of the angular recesses described.
That side of each angular recesses which is transverse to the ship's length,

page_text: and through which the gun is fired, I protect with armour plates six or seven
inches thick, and that side of each angular recess which is parallel to the ship's
length I protect with thinner armour plates. By this arrangement the weight
of the armour plating and of the guns, instead of being on the outer edge of
the ship, is brought near the centre of the ship, and the tendency to a rolling
motion in the ship diminished. Heavy guns can be carried and fired much
nearer the centre of the ship than if they were fixed on the broadside. The
bow and stern are not overloaded by this arrangement, as the weight is
uniformly divided in the direction of the length of the ship, and the projecting
stem under the water line gives sufficient buoyancy to the ship. The guns
inside the angular recesses or casemates are mounted on carriages which are
worked on one side, as they are fixed so close to the bulwarks as to have only
sufficient room for the limited training of the guns required to concentrate
their fires. I prefer to mount the guns on sliding carriages, as they offer
great facilities for working the guns on one side, and in a rough sea to bring
the guns to lay on the end of the slide and thereby bring the weight more
amidship. In order to preserve the outside shape of the ship at each end
when not in action I close the angular recesses with ports of the ordinary kind
working on hinges, or I arrange the ports so that they may be moved like a
door and fall in and lie flush with the longitudinal side of the casemates when
in action. I do not limit myself to these arrangements, as the ports may be
entirely dispensed with and the upper deck made to follow the angular shape
of the recesses. Instead of making the recesses of the angular shape described,
the angles of the said recesses may be rounded, the outer angles with convex
planes and the inner angles with concave planes, so as to give to the said
recesses an undulatory instead of a rectangular figure. The sides of the
angular recesses parallel with the keel may have portholes through which the
guns can be fired broadside.