CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAILS FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1805

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MALCOLM
COWAN, Commander in Ilis Majesty's Royal Navy, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
in and by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Eleventh day of June, in the forty-fifth year of His reign, for Himself, Ilis
heirs and successois, did give and grant unto me, the said Malcolm Cowan,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence, full power,
sole pivilege and authonty, that I, the said Malcolm Cowan, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself or themselves, (>)
by my or their deputy or deputies, sei vants or agents, or such others as I, the
said Malcolm Cowan, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed. should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of His said Majesty's said United
Kingdom called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all is said Majesty's Colones and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF SAILS
FOR SHIPS AND VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS," in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Malcolm Cowan, by an

page_text: instrument in writing under my band and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same Letters
Patent, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Malcolin Cowan, do hereby declare and ascertain the nature of my said In-
vention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, by the Plans
or Drawings in the margin of these Presents, and as follows, that is to
sny
The sails are to be made of canvass or any other proper substance, article,
or material, with the cloths or seams horizontal, with a reef or reefs at the
foot, according to the use they are intended for, and are to be so constructed
as to icef or reduce at the foot or lower parts as well as at the head or upper
parts, and to have as many reefs as may be thought necessary. The reefs are
to be made with or without bands at the fore or after part of the sails, to reef
or reduce and set again by means of the bands, eyelet holes, ropes, lines,
points, robins, gaskets, blocks, thimbles, cringles, and hanks, all or as many of
which as may be required, according to the dimensions of the sails and other
circumstances.
The bands to be either roped or not, as may be found

page_text: brought up and bent to the cringles above the upper reef band M, a boom
tackle or burton, hooked to the reef pendants; N, the crow-foot legs to the
top gallant bunt line, for keeping the slack sail up clear of the stay.-N.B. The
reef bands are sewed by the upper part to the after part of the sails, to
prevent the rope from guting the sail when the whole sail is set. The rope
of the reef band of the course is the same size as the common foot rope, and
the foot 1opes must be in proportion to the rate of the ship For first-rates
three, three quarters, or four inch; second rates, three and an half; thud rates,
three-inch rope. As the quantity of sail below the reef band does not require
so strong a foot rope as when the whole sail depended on it, the rope of the
reef bands of the top sails should be smaller than the leech ropes, as the foot
of the sail will be considerably strengthened when reefed. These sails are not
so heavy as the common ones A seventy-four gun ship's course is reduced in
weight about two hundred pounds, as the points, bands, and eyelet holes of the
old reefs are not required, nor any additional geer Men-of-war will find one
reef at the foot of the top sails very useful in chace, in squally weather, or
when obliged to haul suddenly on a wind, or on other occasions. Merchant's
ships will only require two icefs in the top sails, as the squarest part of the
sail is taken off by reefing at the foot instead of the head, but more reefs may
be added if necessary, When the courses are to be recfed, cast off the lower
clews from the thimbles in the upper clews; haul up the slack sail by the
bunt lines, and haul tort the reef line one pait at a time from the middle
of the sail towards the clews, and make it fast round the upper clews,
so as to confine the lower clews. To set the sail, reeve a few turns
of the lashing for the clows, and haul them down, overhauling the reef
line and bunt lines To rcef the top sails, send a man up to each
lower yard arm, settle the hallyards, and haul the sail down by the reef
tackles, and pass the turns of the earings though the thimbles in the
earing cringles and on the foot rope, and make them fast; hoist the sail toit up,
haul through the slack of the bunt lines, and haul tort the reef line on each side
towards the clews, and make fast. The top gallant sails are reefed from the
deck by the clew lines, and a single bunt line with a crowfoot. The bunt lines
and reef lines will confine the slack sail when reefed close up in the wake of
the reef band, and the bunt lines will only require to be kept hand tort, as is
usual, to prevent them from chafing the sail.
Advantages proposed -To enable ships to reef their courses in a few
minutes when on a lee shore in stormy weather, when it may be necessary to
reduce the sails, at the same time dangerous to take then effect off the ship by
hauling them up, to reef them on the yard, or when the ship's crews are

page_text: reduced by sickness, by part of them being in prizes, or employed on shore, or
weakened by labour or fatigue, in gales of wind, in frosty weather, when it is
difficult to handle the sail, in merchant's ships with few seamen, and partly
manned with invalids, Lascars, Indians, or Negroes, &c. &c, the sails can be
hauled up and set again in less time, as one part of the sail is taken off or
set again at a time, and consequently receives less of the force of the wind.
When ships are obliged to carry a press of sail in squally weather, in chace, or
other occasions, the sails may be reefed and set again in a minute, without
starting tack or sheet, or risque of splitting. If a sail should split in one pait
it would be stopped by the reef bands When the sail is hauled up it will be
almost furled to the yard from the bunt line being brought abaft the sail and
bent to the cingles on the rope of the reef band. The weight of the reefs is
removed from the yaid to the foot of the sail without encreasing the strain on
the yards. The sails being reduced at the foot instead of the head, will stand
longer and better in a gale of wind, as the squarest part of the sail is taken off
when 1ecfed; when carrying sail in action these sails can be hauled up at the
lower part out of the way of the fine from the guns, or in fishing the anchor,
as the fore sail is very often in the way, particularly to leeward. The expence
of these sails will be less, and they will last longer fiom not being so liable to
split in hauling up or setting Half worn sails are worth altering, as there will
be a considerable saving in the wear and tear of the sails Ships with these
sails will make quicker voyages, from the safety with which they can carry sail
by day or night, and in many situations would be in perfect safety when shups
with the old sails might be utterly lost.
Observations. The sails made on this plan are applicable to ships and
vessels of every description, and may, in many situations that ships are liable to
be in, be the means of saving them from destruction, particularly in the winter
season, when so many ships are unavoidably exposed in gales of wind to the
dangers of lee shores and narrow seas
N.B. One principal object of my Invention is the application of a reef or
reefs at the bottom of the sails, which has not been heretofore; but the same
may either be used alone or in conjunction with a reef or reefs at the top of
the sails, as at present in use.
Another object of my Invention is, to have the cloths of which the sails are
made and seams or joinings horizontal, instead of vertical; but my improve-
ment in reefing is equally applicable to sails, the cloths and seams of which
are vertical.
Another improvement is shewn in the sail marked O in the said Drawings,
which may be applied to ships and vessels of all descriptions using fore and aft

page_text: sails, and may serve occasionally for awnings, and facilitate the management
of brigs, ketches, schooners, sloops, and cutters, in blowing or bad weather.
In witness whereof, I, the said Malcom Cowan, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Seventh day of December, in the forty-sixth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
King, Defender of the Faith, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and five.