IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIP-BUILDING, TO FACILITATE THE USE OF WATER AS BALLAST
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Gray Lawrie, of Glasgow, Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIP-BUILDING, TO FACILITATE THE USE OF
WATER AS BALLAST."
Sealed the 29th February 1856, and dated the 31st October 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Gray Lawrie at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st October 1855. .
I, JAMES GRAY LAWRIE, of Glasgow, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature
of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHIP-BUILDING, TO FACILITATE THE USE
OF WATER AS BALLAST," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the construction of iron ships, with a view
to their being more suitable for using water as ballast. For this purpose a
ship is built with one or more water chambers in a direction fore, and aft the
ship, and occupying a greater or less length below deck and in the holds
thereof, according to circumstances. In some cases a ship is built according
Invention with two water ballast chambers, one on either side of the
ship's hold, leaving a space or passage between them of greater or less width,
according to the space occupied by the water ballast chambers, such space
being made suitable for receiving cargo; and in order that the water ballast_
chambers may also be suitable for carrying cargo, vertical doors are formed in
to my

page_text: the sides or ends, or both, which are made suitable for being closed water-
tight. These water ballast chambers may be each in one capacity, or be
divided into several, which may have doors into each other and into the
longitudinal space between them. Provision is to be made for filling any or
all the compartments with water, and for emptying them by pumps. The
upper parts of these water ballast chambers are to be closed in water-tight
with iron plates, planked over and made suitable for receiving cargo on the top,
and between the top and, the deck above. In some cases the longitudinal space
or passage between the water ballast chambers above mentioned is dispensed
with, and a water ballast chamber made from side to side of the ship, and of
such length as may be desired, which may be divided into any required number
of separate compartments with doors, to facilitate the stowage of cargo in
more or less of the space contained in the water ballast chamber. The top
of such water ballast chamber is to be covered with sheets of iron, water-tight,
to be planked and formed suitably for receiving cargo thereon between the
top of the chamber. and the deck above; and, as above mentioned, provision
is to be made for filling them with water, and for emptying them...
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Gray Lawrie in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
GRAY LAWRIE, of Glasgow, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said James Gray Lawrie, Her special licence that I, the said James Gray
Lawrie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as .I, the
said James Gray Lawrie, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SHIP-BUILDING, TO. FACILITATE THE USE OF WATER AS BALLAST," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Gray Lawrie, my executors

page_text: or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Gray Lawrie, 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, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object the construction of iron ships, with a view
to their being more suitable for using water as ballast. For this purpose a
ship is built with one or more water chambers in a direction fore and aft the
ship, and occupying a greater or less length below deck and in the holds thereof,
according to circumstances. In some cases a ship is built according to my"
Invention with two water ballast chambers, one on either side of the ship's hold,
leaving a space or passage between them of greater or less width, according
to the space occupied by the water ballast chambers, such space being made
suitable for receiving cargo; and in order that the water ballast chambers
may also be suitable for carrying cargo, vertical doors are formed in the sides
or ends, or both, which are made suitable for being closed water-tight. These
water ballast chambers may be each in one capacity, or be divided into several,
which may have doors into each other and into the longitudinal space between
them. Provision is to be made for filling any or all the compartments with
water, and for emptying them by pumps. The upper parts of these water
ballast chambers are to be closed in water-tight with iron plates, planked over
and made suitable for receiving cargo on the top, and between the top and the
deck above. In some cases the longitudinal space or passage between the
water ballast chambers above mentioned is dispensed with, and a water ballast
chamber made from side to side of the ship, and of such length as may be
desired, which may be divided into any required number of separate com-.
partments with doors, to facilitate the stowage of cargo in more or less of the
space contained in the water ballast chamber. The top of such water ballast
chamber is to be covered with sheets of iron, water-tight, to be planked and
formed suitably for receiving cargo thereon between the top of the chamber'
and the deck above; and, as above mentioned, provision is to be made for"
filling them with water and for emptying them.
:
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe more fully the manner of performing the same.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a fore and aft section of that part of the ship in which the water
compartment is situated; Figure 2 is a plan; and Figure 3, a cross section.
In the several Figures, A represents the upper deck of the ship; B, the hatches
in that deck, affording openings by which the cargo can be put into the hold
or removed from it; C, the deck, forming the top of the water hold; E, E',
hatches in the deck C, through which cargo can be put in or removed from
the water hold; and D, the ends of the water hold. The water constituting
the ballast of the ship is thus confined by the bottom of the ship, the deck C,
and the bulkheads D. The mode of constructing the water hold is as follows:-
The top of it C consists of iron plates rivetted together, and extends from side
to side of the ship. This top may, if desired (and is shown on the Drawing
to be so), be covered with wooden planks; and the mode of securing these
wooden planks on the top of the iron top of the water hold is shown in
Figure 8, in which the bolt securing the plank N down is tapped or screwed
through the iron top M, and is also provided with a nut underneath. In
Figure 8, the bolt is shewn screwed through a beam of the deck C, as well as
through the iron top M, but need not necessarily be so, because it will answer
to have the bolt screwed through the plate at a part where there is no beam;
and the object of screwing the bolt through the plate is to provide means by
which the bolt will continue water-tight through the plate, even though the
planks should shrink or be removed altogether; and obviously, if the bolt be
screwed through the plate with ordinary care and tightness, and a proper
jointing be used betwixt the plate and the nut on the point of the bolt, no
water can pass through.
The mode of making the top of the tank water-tight with the side of the
ship is shown more particularly in Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7, in which M is the
iron top of the water hold, which is notched so as to pass tolerably close to
the side of the ship at the intermediate spaces betwixt the frames. L, an angle
iron, carried all along on the top of the tank to which it is rivetted, as well as
to the reverse frames. G, the skin of the vessel, which at the place of this
jointing is kept apart from the frames I of the ship. K, the reverse frames of
the ship, which also at this place are kept apart from the frames I. H, blocks
of cast iron or other suitable material placed in the spaces formed by the
frames I, the angle iron L, and the skin G. These blocks do not fill com-
pletely the spaces, but leave, as shown on the Drawing, narrow spaces all
around them, into which, as well as around the frames I and reversed frames K,
is put rust, rust putty, or other suitable composition; the angle iron L is made

page_text: water-tight upon the top of the tank and on the inside of the reverse frame in.
any usual mode of making such combinations water-tight. It is thus obvious
that at this place, that is, betwixt the angle iron L and the side of the ship,.
no leakage of water, either up or down, can take place, because all around
the solid parts I, K, and H, a suitable jointing is put, which is itself water-
tight, and fits so closely to those solid parts, as to prevent any water from
passing up or down. The bulkheads D are made water-tight with the skin of
the ship and the iron top of the water hold in the usual way, and which need.
not be particularly described. Figures 9 and 10 show the construction of the
water-tight door F, which may be used or not in the bulkheads D. An iron
frame P, shown in section in Figure 10, and of sufficient height and width to
provide the desired size of opening into or through the bulkheads D, is secured
in a water-tight manner on or to the bulkhead D, and this frame. P has a
groove all around, in which is placed a gasket or, india-rubber jointing; and
when the door, which is shown hinged to the one side of the frame P, is shut
upon this gasket or jointing, so as to compress it, a sufficient number of bolts
in the notches S secure the door hard upon the jointing, and prevent any water
passing out or in. In addition to these bolts in the notches S, it, is proposed, for
the purpose of more effectually having the door water-tight, to place it on the
inside of the bulkhead D, so that when the door is shut and the compartment
full of water, the pressure of the water itself keeps the door close on the jointing.
The openings through the deck Care provided with hatches or covers of iron
or other suitable material, and so constructed as that they can by any ordinary
mode of jointing shut up completely those openings, so that when the water
hold is full of water none can escape or leak through them. Provision is made
by cocks or valves to admit water from the outside of the ship into the water
hold when it is desired to fill it, so that without pumping the hold may be
filled as high as the water outside. Pumps, worked by hand or otherwise, are
provided to fill it above that level, and so arranged as to be used also for
emptying the water out of the hold.
In the foregoing description the water chamber is considered as constructed
so as to contain the water ballast in one undivided chamber, but a purpose of
my Invention is that the chamber or chambers may be divided into different
parts, one part or parts being placed forward in the ship, and another part
or parts placed aft; or the water chambers may be separated, so as to
have a passage in a fore and aft direction betwixt them, as would be the
case if the water chamber in the Drawing, Figure 3, was confined betwixt a
fore and aft bulkhead placed at O, and the left-hand side of the ship, and also
betwixt a fore and aft bulkhead placed at O', and the right-hand side of the

page_text: ship, thus leaving a part of the hold of the ship betwixt O and O' uninter-
fered with, in which case water-tight doors. may be employed at the sides
of water.chambers, and, when necessary or..desirable, a. water-tight door, con-
structed as:described, can be used to-form-a-communication betwixt one water
chamber and another.
"
Having thus. described. the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not claim the
constructing of ships, with water chambers generally, as ships have before been
constructed with chambers with a view to carry water as ballast; but what
I claim is, the constructing of ships, as herein described, with water chambers
in the lower parts thereof, and in such manner that cargo may be stowed
below. deck in and upon such chambers.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Gray Lawrie, have hereunto set
my hand" and "seal, this First day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness, by Cenger W
FRED HARRIS
J. G. LAWRIE. (L.S.)