AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SAVING LIFE AT SEA
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Arthur Dillon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th July 1875.
I, THOMAS ARTHUR DILLON, of Number Nineteen, Lower Sherard
Street, in the City of Dublin, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SAVING
LIFE AT SEA," to be as follows:—
The object of the said Invention is to establish a better method of
communication between the crews or passengers of stranded or wrecked
ships and the people on shore desirous of rescuing them from danger.
The Invention will be more clearly understood if the exisiting method
of rocket and mortar apparatus adopted by the Board of Trade and
managed by the coast guards be described-First, of the mortar system.
As soon as possible a mortar of suitable size is planted within range of
the ship. A shot having a line attached to it is fired over the vessel.
The line carried by the shot is hauled out by the crew or passengers on
board. Attached to the inshore end of the line is a stout rope or
hawser, which being got on board is made fast Attached to this
hawser is a block and double or endless line like a window pully cord

page_text: "
or signal hallyard rope, so that when the hawser has formed a stout
bridge the people on shore can by means of the endless line or "whip
just described haul in and out the basket, cradle, or brecclies apparatus
wherein the people are conveyed to shore
The rocket system only differs from that of the mortar in so far that
the line is carried to the ship in the first instance by a rocket instead of
a shot, all subsequent operations are so nearly similar that it is not
necessary to dwell upon them. But over and over again it has happened
that notwithstanding the excellent aim of the coast guards and their
most determined exertions to save life, their hopes are defeated through
the ignorance, want of skill, or terror of those on board. Repeatedly the
lines from the shore have-been carried on board most successfully, yet
the passengers and crews have failed to see their use or been unable to
haul out the hawser and gear attached to them on shore.
Some years ago I proposed to fire off a double line and block, so as
instantly to be able to send a man out from the shore as soon as the
block caught by means of a grapple in the rigging. I found the
principle fairly successful when it was a mere experiment on dry land
and that the range was short; it failed when the distance became greater
and the ship taller I now propose to fire the usual light single line by
rocket or mortar, in the first instance in the usual manner, and in casc
the crew or passengers do not understand its use or are incapable of
using it, I supplement the system by adopting the following method
and apparatus, which I believe to be new and which I claim as my
Invention. The first line having been accurately sent over or on to the
vessel and failing to be used by the crew or passengers, the coast guards
or their assistants or substitutes in charge of the apparatus will put a
piece of light metal or other tube of suitable kind on the first line, as a
pyrotechnist is in the habit of doing, continually attaching rockets to
thus tube they will carry it swiftly along the line precisely as the rockets
of the pyrotechnist run along his wire; if now to this light metal or
other tube just alluded to a series of barbed hooks are fastened at onc
end (the foremost end) and a block with an endless cord rove through it
at the near or inshore end, when the rockets are fired obviously the
barbed tube with block and endless cord will rush along the first cord up
to the ship, the barbs catching in the rigging or gear will prevent the
return of the tube which may be for convenience termed a "traveller,"
because it runs along the first line nearly in the same way that a light

page_text: cardboard travels along the string of a boy's kite
Once on board and
the grapple hooks of the traveller fastened, the people inshore find
themselves able to send off written or printed instructions by the aid of
the endless cord or "whip" described as being rove through the block
at the near end of the traveller, and by hauling out a yet stronger line
through the medium of the endless line, that is by bending on to one
side of the latter another similar or thicker cord and causing it to follow
round through the shcave, a sufficiently powerful support may be gained
for a man to go out upon and assist the shipwrecked people.
In order to avoid all risk of burning the line by the rocket flame I
adopt the precaution of either firing the rockets so that their flame will
burn at an angle from the line, or I attach a wire tail to the rocket, and
this tail to the traveller, so that when fired the rocket will risc clear of
the apparatus, or I steep the lines used in fire resisting fluid, such as
alum, tungstate of soda, or such like chemical composition.