IMPROVEMENTS IN REEFING AND STOWING SAILS
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Moore Clough, of Whitby, in the County of York,
Shipowner, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REEFING AND STOWING
SAILS."
Sealed the 8th September 1864, and dated the 26th March 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Moore Clough at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
26th March 1864.
I, MOORE CLOUGH, of Whitby, in the County of York, Shipowner, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REEPING
AND STOWING SAILS," to be as follows:-
I connect with the top-gallant yard and top-sail yard (or other yards) rollers
and reefing and stowing tackle and lines leading to the deck; the reefing and
stowing tackle leading to the deck, the rollers with their supporters and the
blocks are fitted and work below their respective yards instead of above
them. I have improved square blocks at the yard arm with two rollers, one
horizontal, the other perpendicular, held in a frame. The reefing and stowing

page_text: tackle is below; the top-sail yard has no ironwork above the yard, and is not
carried to or connected with the top-mast head, but may extend as far round
the fore part of the roller as the sail will admit. The halyards that hoist the
yard and sail up may be connected or not to support or help each other.
The rollers work in supporters connected with or supported on the yards.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Moore Clough, in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th September 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MOORE
CLOUGH, of Whitby, in the County of York, Shipowner, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Moore Clough, Her special licence that I, the said Moore Clough,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Moore
Clough, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
REEFING AND STOWING SAILS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Moore Clough, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in
the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Moore Clough, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of improvements in reefing and stowing sails. For

page_text: this purpose I connect with the top-gallant yard and top-sail yard, or other
yards, rollers and reefing and stowing tackle, together with lines leading to the
deck. The reefing and stowing tackle leading to the deck, the rollers with
their supporters, and the blocks are fitted and work with regard to their
respective yards as herein-after described. I employ improved clamp blocks at
the yard arm. The reefing and stowing tackles are below their respective
yards, and are not carried to or connected with the top-mast head. The
halyards that hoist the yard and sail up may be connected or not with the
reefing chain or rope to support or help each other. The rollers work in
supporters connected with or supported on the yards.
I now proceed with reference to the Drawings to describe more particularly
in what manner the Invention may be carried into effect.
The Drawings show a top sail and top-gallant sail provided with my
arrangements for reefing and stowing the same.
Figure 1 is a view showing the top sail and top-gallant sail, and reefing
and stowing arrangements; Figure 2 is a view from the aft side, showing the
sails in full.
I lead a reefing and stowing chain or rope from the ends of a sail roller
along the low side or other side of the yard. I fasten to this chain or rope a
tackle which I lead down towards deck, and by hauling or pulling on this
tackle I am enabled to reef or stow the sails from the deck. I also use for
making the sail self-reefing an additional single chain or rope, which I fasten
to the chain or rope that leads along the yard, and thence carry it down
through a leading block hung about one-third up the lower mast, and thence
lead it upward and fasten it to the top sail (or other sail) halyards, and when
the halyards are hoisted and lowered this chain or rope will act as a common
window blind cord and roll the sail off and on the roller. It may be observed
that in my arrangements the tackle and gear are not led to the top-mast
head, and there is no danger of their fouling. The Figures shew the reefing
chains or ropes which lead towards the deck and thence upwards, and are
attached to the balyards, and as I reef or stow all the square sails in the
same manner by ropes or chains led towards the deck through blocks or
pulleys, these Figures are sufficient to explain my mode of reefing all
such sails.
Figures 3, 4, 5, 5ª, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10, are views of parts detached. a, a,
are the sail. rollers; b, reefing chains or ropes; c, blocks at yard arms;
d, blocks near the mast; e, travellers; f, leading blocks; 9, part where the
chain or rope 6 is made fast to top-sail halyards; h, h, top-sail halyards;

page_text: accommodation táckle; j, tripping line, shewn in dotted lines; k, down
haul or stowing tackle reaching to deck; by this tackle I am enabled to reef
and stow sails from 'deck without using the reefing chain or rope b, or the
accommodation tackle i; 7, 1, are standards for supporting the rollers a;
m, spindle of rollers; n, supporters; o; lower yard; p; top-sail yard; q, top-
gallant yard; r, top-gallant sail; s; top sail; t, slings of the lower yard. I
fix.a roller a below the yard at such distance before it as will prevent the sail
from chafing against the rigging. On this roller, which is nearly of the length
of the yard, I wind the sail in order to reef and stow it; for this purpose I
wind a chain or rope on the roller ends (in the form known to seamen as a
parbuckle). I fasten the chain or rope to each end of the roller, and I reève
it through a block c at the yard arm opposite the roller, and thence carry it
along the low side or any other side of the yard towards the mast through a
second block d. The chain or rope has a traveller e hung on the middle. To
this traveller I fasten a single part of chain or rope, and lead it down
towards the deck to and through a block f hung about one-third up the lower
mast, thence up to top-sail halyard chain, and fasten it to it at g, about or
abreast of the lower mast-head cap. In this way the chain of rope b is
attached to the top-sail halyards h, and becomes one with it. By these
means when the yard is hoisted the sail rolls off the roller, and when the yard
is lowered the sail rolls on the roller, and in this way the sail is raised and
lowered in a manner similar to that in which a common window blind is
raised and lowered. By these arrangements the yard will come down freely,
safely, and with certainty, and the gear will be prevented from fouling. In
order that the yard may hoist easily a tripping line; may be attached to the
accommodation tackle i from under the top to light up the chain when
hoisting the yard, I use a tackle k, leading from the reefing chain or rope,
which goes round the roller to the deck. This tackle will both reef and stow
the sail without using the part that reeves through the leading block as just
described. It may also be used for down haul in helping the yard to lower
freely when the ship is listed on one side. I also sometimes use an accom-
modation tackle which I attach to a leading block and thence to deck, and
which tackle I haul tight when the sail is set, or slacken it when the sail is
hoisted up.
I form the roller a, Figure 10, as a plain roller smaller near the
ends than at the centre, so as to accommodate sail and leech rope and allow
of their being wrapt on equally tightly. The roller is hooped at the ends and
has a spindle m driven into it working in the holes in the standards 1, l. The
roller has no jackstay nor battens. I use supporters n, of which three modi-

page_text: fications are shown in Figures 6, 7, 8. They are made of wrought or cast
malleable iron by preference, and contain wood friction rollers bushed with
iron, and they connect roller and yard to strengthen them both. The
supporters are secured to the yard by a clasp hoop n¹, tightened by a screw.
I use three descriptions of iron blocks as shewn in the Drawings, two of
which are open at one end, and the other has an eye at each end for attaching
tackle at one end and tripping line at the other.
.
My improved standard shewn in Figure 9 is in one piece. The brace
bolt w passes through the hoop and yard to fasten the standard to the yard;
w is the brace eye; w³ is the lift eye. In my improved supporters n two
bolts n³ are used for strapping the supporter on to the yard, and are inserted
at parts made broader to impart strength and for security.
I sometimes, according to the same arrangement, attach a piece or pieces of
metal, or a metal weight or weights, to my reefing chain or rope below the top
of the lower mast. The metal has a hole in the centre so that it can be rove
on a rod of iron or a small chain, one end of which is attached to the low
side of top truss, or other convenient part, and the other end to the deck, to
keep the weight steady notwithstanding the motion of the ship; this or these
metal weights roll the sail on the roller or assist the tackle to do it.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
manner the same may be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
claim as of my Invention the reefing and stowing of sails by winding them on
rollers considered generally and apart from the arrangement claimed by me,
and I declare that what I do claim as of my Invention is,―
First, the mode of recfing and stowing sails in which a reefing and stowing
chain or rope is led from the sail roller ends along the low side or any other
side of the yard, and to which chain or rope is fastened a tackle led down
towards the deck, whereby sails can be reefed and stowed, substantially as
described.
Second, the additional single chain or rope fastened to the reefing chain
or rope, and led down through a leading block and thence upwards, and
fastened to the halyards, whereby sails may be rolled off and on rollers,
substantially as described.
Third, the employment of a plain roller, small near the ends, without
jackstay or battens, substantially as described.
Fourth, the improved arrangement of standard with spindle, as herein-before
described.
TRAL AL
SANA maturated and need as decorihod

page_text: Sixth, the arrangement and combination of parts constituting the improved
means herein-before described for reefing and stowing sails.
In witness whereof, I, the said Moore Clough, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
MOORE CLOUGH. (L.S.)