A METHOD OF DRAGGING SHIPS OUT OF THE WATER ON DRY LAND
Year: 1819

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I; THOMAS
MORTON, Shipbuilder, in Leith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-third day of March,
Eighteen hundred and nineteen years, in the fifty-ninth year of His reign,
did give and grant to me, the said Thomas Morton, my exors, admors, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, 'that I,
the said Thomas Morton, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of
"A METHOD OF DRAGGING SHIPS OUT OF THE WATER ON DRY LAND;" in which
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas
Morton, 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,
to be enrolled in His Majesty's Chancery within two calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said 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
Thomas Morton, do hereby declare that my said Invention is fully described
and ascertained in manner following, that is to say :-
My Method of Drawing Ships out of the Water on Dry Land consists in
the application of a particular kind of carriage to the inclined plane, platform,
road or slip up which the vessel is intended to be drawn, which carriage runs

page_text: upon the said inclined plane with trucks, wheels or rollers, or it may slide with
grease or other unctuous substance, and the carriage can descend thereupon
into the water so that the vessell may be floated over it. The vessell must be
steadied on the frame with blocks and shores, as after described, to stay the
vessell upon the carriage and retain it firmly in a vertical position; and then 5
the carriage thus bearing the vessell is hauled up the inclined plane out of the
water by capstans or other power. The inclined plane is formed of any
suitable substance, and laid with a gradual descent from the stocks down into a
sufficient depth of water. The slope is nearly the same as the slips commonly
used for building and launching ships, and I find it. of advantage that a way 1
shall be laid in it of wood, iron, or other fit substance, beneath each beam of
which the carriage consists. The said carriage is constructed in the following
manner-One or more large beams of timber, iron, or other fit substance is.
provided to lay along the keelway in the middle of the inclined plane; this
may be called the main or keel beam; it must be nearly as long as the keel of 1
the largest vessell intended to be drawn up, for the keel of the vessell is intended.
to lay upon this beam; and blocks may therefore be fixed upon the upper
surface of the beam to bear the keel, though this is not indispensably necessary..
To the under side of the keel beam. frames or bushes. of iron or other..
substance are fixed to receive trucks, wheels, or rollers, which are disposed at 12
such dištances asunder that the beam will be sufficiently borne up thereby.
from springing or bending, or otherwise the under side of the keel beam may :
slide on the inclined plane with any unctuous substance; the said trucks, !
wheels, or rollers run, or the said keel beam. may slide, upon iron or other
suitable substance laid down the keelway above mentioned. There are likewise
two or more (I prefer two) other such beams to run with trucks, &c., or to
slide with any unctuous substance on the inclined plane or on the above-
mentioned ways. These beams lay parallel to the keel beam, and on each
side of the same, where two or more are used), and at a suitable::distance:
asunder, I prefer such distance as will be fully equal to the breadth of the
largest vessell which the carriage is intended to. receive, or: if they shall be..
kept closer together, that the cross pieces after mentioned shall project:over::
them to the breadth of the said vessel-fully. All these long parallel beams are
united-together by cross pieces fixed athwart them, and attached to them in any
convenient way. I prefer that the sternmost or, aftermost cross piece should
extend quite across from one side beam to the other, crossing the.. middle; or.
keel beam, and firmly bolted to all three, with knees to steady it; and that the
others 'should be moveable, so that they can be taken out when the ship is
drawn up and properly steadied with shores from the ground or otherwise;

page_text: likewise to brace the carriage there are pieces of wood or ties of iron or other:
substance fixed to the keel beam near its fore or higher end, and attached to:
the side beams or cross pieces in an oblique direction. This frame or carriage
is drawn up the inclined plane by means of ropes or chains fastened to one or
more of the beams, and hauled by any suitable power. I prefer a chain
fastened to the fore end of the main or keel beam, the purchase a wheel and:
pinion: If a pall or palls are attached to the carriage, the end of which can
drop into the teeth of a rack laid on the inclined plane, it will prevent the
carriage from running back if the chain or rope should break. To fix and
steady the vessell upon the carriage; blocks may be applied beneath her bottom!
in any way that may be most convenient. In my carriage blocks are fitted>
upon the cross pieces thereof with grooves, rebates, or are otherwise guided, in
which they slide to or from the keel of the vessell. These blocks are made up:
to different heights and forms, corresponding to that part of the vessell beneath:
which each one is intended to apply. To each such sliding block a rope is fixed,
which being carried across the middle beam below the vessell's keel, is reeved
through a block sheave or eyebolt attached to the opposite side beam, and the
end of this rope is taken on board the vessell when floated over the carriage, in
order that by hauling it in the block may be drawn in and jambed fast
beneath the bottom of the vessell; and to prevent these sliding blocks from
springing back a pall or palls are attached to the outer end of the blocks,
which fall into the teeth of a rack laid upon each of 'the cross pieces. These
palls I do not consider to be necessary, but as an additional security-;and-
farther, to steady the vessell, if it should be necessary, several shores may be
fastened by joints or hinges to the side beams of the carriage (or to the ends
of the cross pieces which may project over the side beams). The joints or
hinges are at the lower ends of the props, so that their upper ends may be
turned outwards clear of the vessell while floating on, and afterwards turned
in and applied to the sides of the vessell above the water, and may be spiked
thereto, or cleats may be nailed to her sides close above the top end of such
shores, but I do not consider these as indispensibly necessary. To draw up in
ship by this method, the sliding-blocks of the carriage are put back as far
from the middle or keel beam as they can go; and the shores, if there are.
any, are turned upon their hinges at the lower ends into such a position that
the vessell can enter between them. The carriage is let down the inclined
plane at low water, or into the water, and the vessell is floated over the car-
riage into the exact position which she must occupy, with the keel along the
keel beam. This position is easily ascertained by guides fixed on each side of "
the fore end of the keel beam to receive the fore foot or advanced part of the

page_text: keel of the vessel, and-also by water lines fore and aft, together with a water
staff fixed to the fore end or upper end of the keel beam, and two bars (or
they may be joined in one), which are fixed to the after end of the keel beam,
one on each side by a bolt, on which as a centre of motion they fall down out
of the way of the vessell until she is placed over the carriage; they are then
hauled up, and the vessell being so placed that one of the bars comes on each
side of the after end of the keel, they will confine her to settle down truly. If
there is only one bar it is made forked, so as to take in both sides of the keel.
When the keel comes to bear upon the keel beam the vessell may be steadied
by blocks or shores in the manner which may be found convenient. In my
carriages the ropes attached to the sliding blocks, the ends of which are sus-
pended from the tops of the shores or otherwise, are taken on board the vessell,
and hawled in to draw the said blocks tight beneath her bottom; and also the
shores are brought against her sides and spiked fast, or secured by cleats.
The vessel is thus firmly retained on its carriage in the vertical position, and
the carriage and the vessel are drawn up the inclined plane by a capstan or
other power.
I wish to be understood that I do not lay claim to the Invention of
drawing ships on shore up an inclined plane; but only for the improvement of
performing the same by the aid of such a carriage or machine as I have'
described, and which for more convenience may be provided with sliding blocks.
or shores to support and hold the ship in an upright position without straining
her, the whole purchase being attached to the carriage.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Morton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of April, One thousand eight