THE MEANS OF SAVING HUMAN LIFE IN CASES OF DISASTERS. AT SEA, BY CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS OF VESSELS' DECKS OR PARTS THEREOF, WHICH I TERM SAFETY DECKS OR DECK,
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HENRY OLDMIXON, Lieutenant in Her Majesty's Royal Navy, of No. 3,
Clifford's Inn, London, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did by petition represent to Her most Excellent Majesty
Queen Victoria the First, that I had invented "THE MEANS OF SAVING HUMAN
LIFE IN CASES OF DISASTERS. AT SEA, BY CERTAIN ARRANGEMENTS OF VESSELS' DECKS
OR PARTS THEREOF, WHICH I TERM SAFETY DECKS OR DECK," and Her said Majesty
being willing to encourage all useful inventions, did issue Her Letters Patent
under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-second day of May, One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, and in
the first year of Her reign, whereby Her said Majesty did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Henry Oldmixon,
Her especial licence, that I, the said William Henry Oldmixon, my exors,
admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Henry-Oldmixon,.
my exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, and exercise, and vend, within England,
and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my said Invention termed
"safety decks or deck," for the purpose aforesaid; in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said William Henry
Oldmixon, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and

page_text: by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Henry Oldmixon, do hereby declare that the nature of the Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and
ascertained in manner following (that is to say):
It consists of building the top-gallant forecastle and poop decks of vessels
separately from the vessel they may be intended for, and afterwards in 50
securing them in their usual place or places on the vessel, that in case of
disaster they may be readily released or detached, so as to serve as an efficient
raft or rafts in preserving the lives of those on board, but at other times con-
stituting the usual deck or decks of a vessel; and for this purpose I propose to
construct it or them in the following described manner:-The safety poop deck
consists of a timber frame of the required size and form of the poop, each part of
the frame to be as broad as the quarter deck bulwark on which it is to rest, the
angles or corners to be strengthened by wooden knees; within this frame, from
side to side, rafters or carlins are placed four or five feet apart, of the same
depth as the frame, and of about half the breadth, their ends to be secured by
light iron brackets or knees to be placed horizontally in the angles; "it is then
to be lined underneath with stout planking, caulked and payed, rendering it.
water-tight. Two square metal cases having apertures on the upper side are
placed between the three middle rafters or carlins, one before the other, and
resting on the landing; these are intended to contain a certain supply of
provisions and water; the deck plank is then nailed down over all in the usual
way, and caulked and payed. The rafters or carlins within the deck are to be
further secured to the frame by clamp plates that embrace the edge of the
deck, and are flush with it and the lining below, with ends long enough to be
bolted to and through the rafters or carlins; those clamps will act also as
plates to the screws, having holes above and below, and a corresponding hole
being also made in the frame for the screw to pass through. Upon the deck
I place a strong wooden trunk of any required dimensions, with two lids
opening in the middle; within this trunk will be scuttles communicating with
the apertures in the cases. The trunk is intended to preserve these entrances
from water, and to contain arms, instruments, valuables, or additional pro-
visions, and may be used externally as a resting place for women or children,
&c. A mast clamp is fixed to the after part to support a mast or spor
should it be found requisite. The deck being built and prepared in the above
manner, will be ready to be attached to the hull of the vessel, and for this
purpose a rough tree is to be placed and strongly secured in the usual way on

page_text: the timber heads of the quarter-deck bulwark; the safety deck is to be placed
on this, and the screws passed through the holes in the edge or frame of the
deck, and through corresponding holes made in the rough tree, until they
enter the female screws between the timber heads, which attach the deck to
the hull more or less firmly, as may be desired. The same method of con-.
struction is applicable to the top-gallant forecastle deck, adapting it to the shape.
and dimensions of that part of the vessel; it is also attached in a similar
manner, but no trunk will be added to this deck. The mode in which I
propose in case of danger to release the deck is to turn the screws out to their
points, that should the vessel founder, the deck would be left floating on the
surface of the water, with whatever may happen to be upon it. In case of fire
or of any other exigency, I propose using three tackles or purchases, one of them
to be hooked to the after angle of the poop safety deck, and to the opposite
quarter of the vessel, another to be hooked fore-and-aft to the angle of the deck,
and to the paddle box or chain plate, the third also fore-and-aft on the opposite
side, but hooked the reverse to the second. A hawser being fastened to the
safety deck (seized securely to eye bolts inserted in it), all the screws must be
taken out excepting the foremost crew on the side over which it is intended
to launch the said deck, which abuts or turns on the screw as a pivot; the
stern tackle starts the deck laterally, and when the side tackles take or act,
they complete its removal into the water. Should wreck on shore occur, it
may be also disengaged as above, and veered by hawsers to the shore. Should
even the vessel go to pieces with the deck in its place, it would float away
uninjured, and present a compact floating body for the preservation of the
shipwrecked, as already shewn. Should a poop or top-gallant forecastle deck
not be desirable, a false quarter deck, of a construction similar to the poop
deck and fastened similarly, can be fitted over the quarter deck, the companion
wheel, skylight, &c., being built on this upper or safety deck, which in cases of
disaster is to answer the same purposes as proposed in the use of the poop
deck.
I claim as my Invention the safety deck or decks aforesaid, to be con-
structed and employed according to my foregoing description of them.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Henry Oldmixon, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
W. H. OLDMIXON. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid William Henry Oldmixon came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her 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.