Improvements in Ships' Boats.
Year: 1890

page_text: Improvements in Ships' Boats.
I, CHARLES ELLIS HALLS of 74 St. Georges Street, London Engineer do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to improvements in ships' boats, and has for its object to carry
out into practice fully and efficiently the regulations lately made by Her Majesty's
Board of Trade according to which ships boats will henceforward have to be fitted
with a compass as a fixture instead of its being thrown as heretofore into the boat as
it was about to be lowered and lashed thereto in any expedient manner.
My invention consists in so fitting a binnacle to the thwart of a boat that its compass
can be conveniently seen as the boat is being propelled and in providing means for
draining off the water splashing over the said thwart, and a lamp for lighting the
instrument at night, so that the course of the boat may always be clearly ascer-
tainable.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 is a plan of the binnacle and lamp fitted to the thwart of a ship's boat
Fig. 2 being a sectional elevation thereof and Fig. 3 a similar view at right angles
to Fig. 2. Fig. 4 shows the gutter or water way provided for the escape of water.
According to my invention I cut a circular hole a in the thwart 6 of a boat B and
I partly bevil such hole at the back. The binnacle proper A contains a compass C
suspended therein in the ordinary manner and has so far no special feature of
novelty but it is formed integrally at the back with an extension c which contains a
lamp d of any suitable construction and is furnished with a glass e in front that is to
say where it opens into the binnacle. The back of the lamp d has the form of a door f
hinged thereto and the upper part of the inner surface of which is provided with a
suitable reflector g for the purpose of concentrating the rays of light upon the compass.
Fig. 3 shows the mode of suspension of the compass C in the binnacle A ; h is the
ring suspended by the screws i inside the binnacle A and carrying the journals j of
the compass C (Fig. 2).
To fix the binnacle to the under surface of the thwart b (Figure 2) the quadrangular
upper flange thereof is secured to such under surface by screws or in any other suit-
able manner and in order to form a gutter for the escape of the water liable to splash
over the said thwart, this upper flange k is arranged to form a hollow chamber
(Fig. 4) the underside of which is furnished with a number of perforations n so that
the water splashing over the thwart and resting for a moment upon the circular glass
top m of the binnacle A will run around the periphery of such glass into the chamber
in order to pass through the perforations n and fall into the boat so that the compass
may never be obscured by a layer of water. The glass plate m is inclined as shewn
in Fig. 2 and its centre forms with that of the compass an oblique line to the vertical
axis of the binnacle for the purpose of facilitating the reading thereof. A cover o
perforated at o' is hinged to the bottom of the binnacle and secured thereto by a pin p
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The mode of fixing and arranging a binnacle in a ship's boat substantially as
herein described and shown in the accompanying drawings.
2. Forming a binnacle in one piece with a lamp and fitting the same to the thwart
of a ships boat substantially as herein described and shewn.