CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS TO ALL KINDS OF GUN AND CARRONADE CARRIAGES, SO AS TO FACILITATE THE WORK- ING OR USING, SECURING, AND HOUSING THEREOF, PARTICULARLY ADAPTED TO SHIPS
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL
COME, I, RICHARD FRANCIS HAWKINS, of the Parish of Saint Ann,
Limehouse, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Eighth day of April, in the forty-seventh year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said Richard Francis Hawkins, my exors, adññiors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Richard Francis Hawkins, my exors, adñors, 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, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS TO ALL
KINDS OF GUN AND CARRONADE CARRIAGES, SO AS TO FACILITATE THE WORK-
ING OR USING, SECURING, AND HOUSING THEREOF, PARTICULARLY ADAPTED TO
SHIPS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said Richard Francis Hawkins, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal; to cause a particular description of the nature.
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,

page_text: to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one
calender month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Richard Francis Hawkins, do hereby declare that my said Inven-
tion is described in the annexed Drawings and description thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Francis Hawkins, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Eighth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seven.
A, crank handles by which the gun is hove or run out or in; B, a
square or hollow socket in same; C, squares on which the handles ship
or fix; D, D; ratchets or paul catches in which a paul acts as at E, E,
for the purpose of holding on what is hove in of the breast runner, as
well as to hold the gun in after it is fired. It is to be observed that
as one runner goes off the barrel K, the other comes on, and it will be
seen that when one ratchet or paul is intended to catch, the other must
be cleared or freed; F, F, F; F, plates for the gudgeons .or bearing
parts; b, screws by which they are fastened; G, G, G, G, bearing parts
of the spindles or shafts; H, a pinion or cogged wheel, which acts in
the cogged wheel I, and forms the power, which may be increased or
diminished, according to circumstances, or a single winch or barrel alone
will be sufficient to light guns; K, a barrel or winch, which may be
made of wood; or iron, or any other fit material, the diameter of which
may also be regulated by circumstances, but the size I generally adapt
is about four or five inches; a, a, a, three eyes to make fast the standing
parts of the runners; L,' a chock or eye bolt fixed to lower cill of a
ship's port, through which the breast runner is rove, but the reaving
thereof may be varied many ways, as it may be single double, treble,
&c., and either of rope or chain, or the breaching itself can be so rove
as to be brought to the purchase by leading the standing parts. to the

page_text: barrel or winch, or the gun can be fought by my breast and train
runners alone, without the use of a breaching, if preferred, and when
that is intended it is only making the shaft or spindle which runs
through the barrel or winch proportionably strong, so as to take the
recoil of the gun'; M, standing parts of the breast runner when rove
double, the bite rove through two holes in the breast piece of the
carriage, and in à chock, as at L, with a shiver therein or otherwise; N;
a runner rove singly, by which the gun. is held in board, after the recoil;
and may also be rove.various ways, which will be well understood by
every competent mariner; now as this runner comes on the barrel upon
the other going off, and is caught or held by means of the ratchet fixed
to that shaft or spindle, the gun is thereby secured and prevented going
out until released or freed after being loaded or otherwise; O, a clamp,
or preventer piece, by means of which the pinion is held in gier for
heaving, and when the gun is out and ready to fire, then the same must'
be lifted up and the pinion shoved or moved out of gier, that is, out of
the coggs of the wheel; when done, the barrel is free for letting the
runner go off and the gun to run in; e, e, two holes in the breast piece.
Fig. 2, a common carronade carriage with my method of working the
same; A, A, a spindle or shaft; B, B, B, three barrels about four inches
diameter, the end ones for heaving out with a runner rove as per
Figure or otherwise, the middle barrel for the train or inner runner;
all of which act as above described; C, C, two ratchets fixed on shaft,
the teeth reversed, as shewn; D, D, plates covering the bearings or
gudgeons; E, E, squares for handles; F, F, handles; G. a hole for
train runner to lead through; H, H, small eye bolts to lead the breast
runner fair. Fig. 3, shews perspectively a common gun carriage when
fitted, and without making any alteration in the carriage or old system,
to which recourse can be had if any accident was to happen, which, in
short, it is hardly possible, without the carriage being first disabled.
Fig. 4, a single barrel or winch. 2, barrel; q, q, shaft; t, n, ratchet and
paul for holding breast runner on; v, u, ditto for holding on train
runner.
Note. My Invention has the peculiar advantage of holding the gun
entirely safe while in the act of heaving out, and when against the cill

page_text: of the port it is perfectly secure from running in again until relieved,
and also when housed the gun may then be hove as taut as you please
to the ship's side.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighth day of May,
in the year of Our Lord 1807, the aforesaid Richard Francis
Hawkins 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 stampt according to the tenor of the
Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One