CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RUDDER HANGINGS AND RUDDERS FOR SHIPS OR VESSELS
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
PEEKE, of Torquay, in the Parish of Tormoham, in the County of Devon,
Shipwright, and THOMAS IIAMMICK, of the same place, Ship Smith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourthi,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-first day of March, in the first year of His reign.
did, for himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, tho
said William Peeke and Thomas Hammick His especial licence, sole privi-
lege and authority, that we, the said William Peeke and Thomas Hammick,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
William Peeke and Thomas Hammick, our executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN RUDDER
HANGINGS AND RUDDERS FOR SHIPS OR VESSELS;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso, that we, the said William Pecke and Thomas Ham-
mick, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in Ilis said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and
at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Pecke and Thomas Hammick, do hereby declare that the nature
of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
is particularly described and ascertained by the following description thereof,
(reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and
letters marked thereon) that is to say:—
Our improvements in rudder hangings and rudders for ships or vessels
are designed to enable the rudder to rise with its pintles and hangings in the
event of the vessel taking ground, and without the possibility of becoming
unshipped or dislodged from its hangings by such accident; and also to enable
the rudder, when raised under these circumstances, to be still capable of being
worked with effect. These objects are obtained by the peculiar construction
of the joints or hangings that connect the rudder to the sternpost, which
will be fully understood by reference to the Drawing annexed, that is to say :-
Figure 1 is a representation of the rudder A, attached to the sternpost
B, and in complete working order. Figure 2 is a section of the same taken
vertically through the middle of the rudder, the joints, and the sternpost; and
Figure 3 is a horizontal section of the rudder A, and the sternpost B, taken
through one of the joints. The sternpost B is excavated, that is, cut away
and formed into a semi-cylindrical recess, as shewn at a in the horizontal
section, Fig. 4, for the purpose of receiving the cylindrical part of the rudder
b, seen best in the horizontal section at Fig. 5. The form and construction of
the rudder will be fully understood by the side view, Fig 6, and back view,
Fig. 7. Having shaped the part b, b, b, of the rudder of a cylindrical form,
we then cut away portions of the woodwork, as at c, c, in Fig 6, for the
purpose of enabling us to fix the socket pieces or eyes d, one of which is seen
detached at Fig. 8. These socket pieces or eyes are then made fast to the
rudder by bolting their arms as represented at d, d, d, in Fig. 6, and the eye
or socket piece is then enclosed by what we call dead wood, as Fig. 9, which
makes up the cylindrical part of the rudder flush, as at e, e, e, in Fig. 6,
leaving only the spaces f, f, f, for the reception of the circular joint pieces
9, 9, 9, one of which, detached, is shewn edgewise at Fig. 10, and its horizontal
appearance at Fig. 11. The concave part of the sternpost is lined with a
framing of metal h, h, h, in which a groove i, i, i, is made for the head or boss
k of the joint pieces to slide in. These joint pieces are severally attached to
the grooved frame by passing the boss through a square aperture, when they
are allowed to slide down the groove until they come to their respective stops,
as shewn in the representation of the hollow part of the sternpost, Fig. 12.
The rudder A is now to be connected to the joint pieces g, and the sternpost

page_text: B, which is done by bringing the rudder, as Fig 6, to the sternpost, Fig. 13,
and passing all the joint pieces g, g, into the spaces f, f,f,f, of the cylindrical
part of the rudder. The joints are now to be secured by first inserting the
long bolt through the eyes m, m, at top, and through the two upper sockets
and joint piece, as shewn at Fig. 2, and then introducing the several small
bolts or pins jjj, in Fig. 14 into the several holes o, o, o, and passing them
down through the respective eyes and joint picces, as shewn in Fig. 2, which
firmly connects the rudder and the sternpost together; and to prevent the
bolts from being thrown out by any accident, blocks or pieces of wood are
inserted into the several holes o, o, o, which fills up and renders the cylindrical
part of the rudder flush, as in Fig. 1. The particular advantage of this mode
of connecting a rudder to a sternpost is, that in the event of the vessel taking
ground and the lower part of the rudder striking against the sand or a rock,
instead of its being raised off its pintles or torn from its bearings (which is
generally the case with the ordinary construction, the rudder, on receiving
pressure from below it, slides upwards with its pintles and joints all secure, the
bosses of the joint pieces moving freely in the groove of the sternpost above
described. In order to prevent the possibility of the rudder parting from tho
sternpost by the bosses of the joint pieces falling out of the groove, the open-
ings at which the bosses are introduced are made at different heights from the
stops, so that whenever the rudder is raised up it can never happen that more
than one of the series of joint pieces shall be opposite to any of the openings,
consequently the connection of the rudder to the ship is so secure, that unless
the sternpost itself is torn away, the rudder cannot be displaced by accident.
It is unnecessary for us to describe the mode of working the rudder by
means of a tiller, as that forms no part of our Invention; but it may be
necessary to state, that in order to work the rudder in its elevated situation,
we should connect the tiller and the rudder together by a segment rack
working in a long pinion or fluted cylinder; but we do not confine ourselves
to this mode of working the rudder exclusively. We may further remark,
that in adapting our improvements, the eye pieces or sockets d may be made
of the same diameter as the joint piece 9 shewn in Fig. 15, thereby dis-
pensing with the dead wood c, Fig. 9.
Lastly, we wish it to be understood, that though we have described a peculiar
mode of constructing a rudder and its appendages, which is the best mode
that we are acquainted with of adapting our improvements in rudder hangings
and rudders to ships, yet we do not confine ourselves to the precise mode
here shewn in all its minutia, as several variations may be devised in the
detail or parts employed for adapting or applying the same principles. We

page_text: therefore desire it to be understood that our improvements consist in so
hanging the rudder to the sternpost that it may be enabled to slide upwards
with its hangings complete on the application of any force below, without
being unshipped from its bearings, and that it may return again to its proper
situation by its own gravity on the force being removed.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Peeke and Thomas Hammick,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, the Nineteenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one.
Signed, sealed, and delivered, in the
presence of
EDWIN PEEKE.
Torquay, Devon,
WILLIAM
(L.S.) EEKE
THOMAS
(L.S.) HAMMICK.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of September,
in the second year of the reign of Ilis Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said William Pecke and Thomas Hammick came before our said Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all
and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written. And
also the instrument aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the
Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King
Coorge the Third
IT TH.CCdd
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and thirty-one.