CERTAIN IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF KILLING AND CAPTURING OF WHALES AND OTHER ANIMALS TO WHICH SUCH MEANS ARE APPLICABLE
Year: 1821

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, Sir
WILLIAM CONGREVE, of Cecil Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Baronet, and JAMES NISBET COLQUHOUN, of Woolwich, in the County of
Kent, Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth, did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventh day of June, in the second year of His reign, give and
grant unto us, the said Sir William Congreve and James Nisbet Colquhoun,
our exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that we, the said Sir William Congreve and James Nisbet
Colquhoun, our exors, adññiors, and assigns, 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, and also in all His
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of "CERTAIN IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF KILLING AND CAPTURING OF WHALES AND OTHER
ANIMALS TO WHICH SUCH MEANS ARE APPLICABLE;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that if we, the said Sir William Congreve and
James Nisbet Colquhoun, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under
the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be inrolled in His
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said.
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,

page_text: shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Sir William Congreve and James Nisbet Colquhoun, do hereby declare that
the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, aro particularly described and ascertained in the following descrip-
tion thereof (that is to say):-
We do not limit ourselves to the use of any particular form of rocket, but
secure to ourselves generally the right of using the projectile commonly
called the rocket in the destruction and capture of the whale and other
animals to which such means are applicable, but for which purposes it has
never before been employed, whatever may be its nature or construction,
(that is to say,) whether it be of the new or old construction of rocket,
or whether it be armed at the head with a shell charged with gunpowder
or other explosive composition to destroy the animal by explosion after it has
entered its body by the inherent projectile force of the rocket, and at the same
time to prevent its sinking by the additional buoyancy arising from the
distention caused by the gas developed in the explosion, or whether it be
armed with deflagrating matter calculated by burning to destroy life, and at
the same time to develope a buoyant gas, or whether it be armed with
a head containing deleterious matter of any kind whatsoever the object
of which shall be to destroy life or in any way diminish the power of the
animal so as to render its capture more easy.
We claim also the exclusive right of using the rocket against the whale or
other fish or other animal, whether it be used merely as an auxiliary to the
present harpoons or other means of entanglement or capture, or whether the
rocket, with or without any of its other powers above mentioned, be made to
act as the harpoon itself, and to convey the line and fasten it to the fish by
means of barbs or other such contrivance fixed to the rocket, and driven into
the animal by the projectile force of the weapon, as above stated. We do not
limit ourselves either to any particular dimensions or size of rocket. We
find that the auxiliary rocket may be used with good effect, though not heavier
than one pound and a half. A rocket of three pounds weight is also found
peculiarly applicable when employed in aid of the harpoon; but when it is
intended to carry out the line and fasten to the fish by means of the rocket, in
that case the larger rockets, such as those of six pounds weight, nine pounds,
and so forth may be required. The modes of discharging the rocket against
the fish are also various. The smaller rockets may be conveniently used from
an instrument similar to a musquet, the stick of the rocket passing down into

page_text: the barrel, and the head of the rocket resting in a short cylinder of the same
calibre as the rocket fixed to the muzzle end of the barrel, the barrel being
contrived to load at the breech with a small charge of powder merely to fire
the rocket by its flash, but not to impart any motion to it, the run of the
rocket through the cylinder, combined with that of the stick through
the barrel, giving the required accuracy of direction; or they may be
discharged from a plain iron plate tube of the same size in every part, and
open at both ends, so as to allow of passing the rocket into the breech end of
the tube for loading, this tube having either a common flint lock or a
detonating lock, or any other mode of ignition, fixed to that part of it where
the rocket is placed when charged for firing; the breech end of this tube
may be closed after the rocket is inserted, and the rocket running through the
cylinder acquires the accuracy necessary for striking the object; or these
rockets may be discharged from a trough or semi-cylinder, either wholly or in
part open, fixed on gunwale of the boat, or in any other suitable part, for the
convenience of discharging the harpoon and line rocket; the larger rockets for
the purpose of conveying the line may also be discharged so as to travel along
the surface of the water on a float attached to the rocket and carried along
with it, in which case nothing would be required but to ignite the rocket so
arranged on the surface of the water after laying it in the proper direction..
The rocket also is applicable to the distruction of the whale after it is entangled,
by being made to run along the line, and being thereby guided so as to over-
take and pierce the fish at the point of entanglement, though a very consi-
derable distance under the water. Where the rocket is used as an auxiliary
to the harpoon there will be found some cases in which it will be expe-
dient to strike the harpoon first, and other cases in which it will be best to
fire the rocket first. This must necessarily be left to the direction and
judgment of the experienced harpooner. But in the attack of the fin-whale,
which we have seen rendered a safe and easy operation by means of the
rocket, though heretofore rarely if ever attempted, it will probably be expe-
dient in all cases to commence that attack by a discharge of rockets, the
number of which, whether one or more, must also be left to the judgment of
the harpooner. Experience has, however, shewn that a single rocket will kill
the black whale dead upon the spot. The distance, also, at which the rocket
may be discharged into the fish must likewise of necessity be a matter for the
discretion and experience of the operator. Commonly it may be supposed
to take place at thirty, forty, or fifty yards distance; though it may be
discharged in close contact, if required, and with perfect safety in all cases,
from the rocket passing through the water, and striking the animal at a consi-

page_text: derable depth below the surface. It is indeed a circumstance here to be
remarked, that, the rocket, from carrying its projectile force with it as it
advances, is found to travel under water with a power not possessed by other
projectiles, whether discharged perpendicularly downwards, or in any oblique
direction, which renders it therefore peculiarly applicable to the attack of all the
large and powerful aquatic, amphibeous, or land animals, whose muscular
power or the impenetrability of whose hides now render them extremely
difficult to subdue and capture.
In witness whereof, we, the said Sir William Congreve and James
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of December, in the
year of our Lord 1821, the aforesaid Sir William Congreve and James
Nisbet Colquhoun came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.