A NEW METHOD OF PRESERVING THE PLANK AND SHEATH- ING OF SHIPS SAILING TO THE EAST AND WEST INDIES, AND OTHER PARTS OF THE WORLD, IN A MORE SECURE AND LASTING MANNER THAN BY ANY METHOD HITHERTO PRACTISED
Year: 1728

page_text: ROBINSON AND HAUKSBEE'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, BENJAMINE
ROBINSON and FRANCIS HAUKSBEE, of the City of London, Esquires, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Sacred Majesty George the Second, by the Grace
of God of Great Britaine, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith,
&c., by His Letters Patents, bearing date at Westminster, the Ninth day of
May, in the first year of His reigne, reciteing that the said Benjamine Robinson'
and Francis Hauksbee have, by their petition, humbly represented to His
Majesty that they had, with great study, labour, and expence, invented and
brought to perfection "A NEW METHOD OF PRESERVING THE PLANK AND SHEATH-
ING OF SHIPS SAILING TO THE EAST AND WEST INDIES, AND OTHER PARTS OF THE
WORLD, IN A MORE SECURE AND LASTING MANNER THAN BY ANY METHOD HITHERTO
PRACTISED," which method of sheathing ships doth, as the Petitioners humbly
conceive, greatly tend to the preservation of all ships whatsoever which, in the
course of their voyage, pass through or remaine long in those seas where the
worm abounds, His said Majesty, of His especiall grace, certaine knowledge;
and meer motion, did, for Himselfe, His heirs and successors, by the aforesaid
Letters Patents, give and grant unto the said Benjamine Robinson and Francis
Hauksbee, their executors, administrators, and assignes, His speciall lycence,
full power, sole priviledge and authority of using the said Invention within
that part of Great Britaine called England, Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, for and during the terme of fourteen years from the
date thereof, according to the Statute in that case made and provided, as by

page_text: the said Letters Patents, or the enrollment thereof, relation being thereunto
bad, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW, in order to render the grant contained in the said Letters Patents
the more certaine, wee, the said Benjamine Robinson and Francis Hauksbee,
do hereby declare that the following account is an exact and particular descrip-
tion of the nature and method of our said Invention (that is to say):-
The method of sheathing of ships of every denomination, and of preserving
them from the worm in a more secure and lasting manner than has been
hitherto done, is as follows (that is to say):-
After the ship is caulked and pitched as in the coñion manner, it is then
to have its whole outward surface covered over with plates, or rooled copper,
brass, tinn, iron, or tinned plates, or with a composition formed out of either or
all of these metals amongst themselves, or with other metals or minerals, or
with any mineral compositions as may be most suitable to the nature of the
waters of those seas that the ship or ships may make their voyages too, and in
which they shall for any time continue. Also our method for preparing (in
order to their preservation) the boards, timbers, planking, &c. used or to be
used in or about such ship or ships as are designed to make voyages into those
seas which may not require sheathing with metal, or of preparing boards for
the sheathing of such ships, is as follows:-First, the boards, timbers, plank-
ing, sheathing boards, &c. are to be placed, and must for some time continue,
in a proper degree of heat, untill their vegetable juices are exhaled or extracted,
and their pores sufficiently opened. Then the said boards, &c. are to be im-
pregnated deep into their substance with an oyle or other proper fluid pre-
pared from animals or vegetables. This being done, a liquor prepared from
sea salt and the salts of animals, vegetables, or minerals is also to be intro-
duced into the pores of the said boards, &c., which, uniting itself intimately
with the oleous or other proper preparation with which the boards, &c. were
before impregnated, does indurate or harden together within the pores of the
said boards, &c., and not on their surface only, but deep into their substance,
into the nature and consistence of a gum or bitumen, by which means the
very component or internal, as well as external parts of the boards, &c., will
be covered over with a gummy coat, or lined with a gummy substance, or, if
we may so say) will be embalmed with a gummy or bituminous compositions,
and consequently will be prevented from rotting, and will be freed from all
possibility of decay from the usuall causes thereof. And, lastly, where it shall
be found not necessary to cover over or sheath the externall surface of the ship
with the metall as before proposed, because of their quick returne, we under-
take to cover the whole outward surface of the ships or vessels with a paint or

page_text: ste-like composition which, in a short time, will become a hard and tough
dy, and will effectually defend the externall surface of the vessells, &c. from
e very first attacks of the worm.
In witness whereof, wee, the said Benjamine Robinson and Francis
Hauksbee, have hereunto sett our hands and seals, this Thirteenth
day of September, in the second year of reigne of our Sovereign
Lord George the Second, by the grace of God of Great Britaine,
France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c., and in the
year
of our Lord One thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight.