RIGGING OF SHIPS OR VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
BROWN, a Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and now residing in Castle Court,
Budge Row, Watling Street, in the City of London, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the "Third, by His
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fourth day of February, 'in the forty-eighth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Samuel Brown, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority that I, the said Samuel Brown, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of His United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Dominion of Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my new improvements and Inventions.in
the "RIGGING OF SHIPS OR VESSELS OF ALL DESCRIPTIONS;" in which Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Samuel Brown,
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 High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited 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, that I, the
said Samuel Brown, 'Lieutenant in His Majesty's 'Navy, do declare that my
Inventions and improvements consist in rigging and certain other materials
appertaining to ships or vessels, which I make of metal constructed in a

page_text: peculiar manner, and in certain apparatus to be used with the same, which
metallic rigging and materials are to be substituted for and applied to the
purposes of cordage in the rigging and equipping of ships and vessels of all
descriptions; and the following directions are hereby given to mechanics and
others employed or to be employed in the fabricating and constructing the
said metal rigging and materials, &c., viz*:-
Particular attention must be made in the choice of the metal to be manu-
factured for the above purpose. Copper and iron are both appropriate and
of sufficient strength, but the latter, as it is the cheapest, will most probably
have the preference. It must be of the softest and toughest nature, for altho'
hard tempered iron may be as strong when subjected to a heavy strain in
a straight pull, yet it would be more liable to break from a twist or snap
from a sudden jerk than iron of a soft and tough nature. The standing
rigging or stays are to be composed of a series of rods of iron, or other appro-
priate metal, of the length of from two to six feet, according to the length of
the shroud. They are to be connected and fitted into each other by means
of eyes at their extreme ends, and well welded, but sufficient room must be
allowed to each rod to work or move in the eye. They are also to be fitted
at intermediate distances with ess hooks, or shifting shackles, so that if by any
accident a shroud or stay should be broke, such broken piece may be removed
and another applied to its place. Before the metallic rigging is applied to the
purposes for which it is intended, it must be proved of equal strength and
as near the weight of the rope for which it is to be substituted as possible,
and it is not an objection its being lighter if it is of sufficient strength. If
the ship or vessel has not before been rigged it must be proportioned, aș
before mentioned, to the size of the rope, which experience has ascertained to
be necessary for such ship or vessel to be so rigged. The intention of this
proof is to prevent any subsequent risk of its snapping from a flaw in the iron,
or from bad workmanship, as no ordinary strain will be so great as that
which it would undergo in the trial. And to enable riggers and others to
fit and apply the aforesaid metallic rod rigging, the annexed Drawing and the
following directions are given :-
Fig. 1 represents a ship's lower mast, rigged with iron rod rigging, with the
apparatus used in setting up and securing do.
Fig. 2. A represents a single block with a strong wrought-iron strap, which
hooks to an eye bolt in the collar at the mast head, in which is rove a short
piece of oval link chain with strong hooks at each end, to which the middle
pair of shrouds is to hook. B, C, and D represent the lower blocks for the
rigging, in which are rove similar pieces of oval link chain, to which the lower
ends of the shrouds are to hook.

page_text: Fig. 3 represents an open view of the manner in which the shrouds
communicate with each other, and which will appear when in their
places, as in Fig. 1. Upon the same principal they may communicate
with each other with the standing parts of the shrouds in the chains.
See Fig. 6 & 7. The mast head is fitted with a strong hoop or collar,
with eyebolts projecting from it a little without the trussel trees, the
eyes to incline downwards. The pendants (which are to be made of oval
link chain) hook to the eyebolts appropriated for them. The foremast
shroud hooks to the first eyebolt in the collar, the lower end to the first ess
hook in the lower block. The second shroud hooks to the foremost
hook in the mast-head block, the lower end to the second hook in the
foremost lower block. The third shroud hooks to the aftermost hook in the
mast-head block, the lower to the foremost hook in the second lower block.
The fourth shroud hooks to the second eyebolt in the mast-head collar,
the lower end to the aftermost hook in the second lower block. The two after-
most shrouds or swifters hook to the aftermost eyebolt in the collar at the mast
head, the lower ends to the hooks in the third or last lower block. The stays
are fitted with open collars, which may be lashed abaft the mast head over
all. As the four shrouds abreast the mast, from which it derives its principal
support, all communicate with each other, they must always bear an equal
strain. The second after shroud or swifters tend chiefly to support the mast in
sailing large; I have not, therefore, connected them with the rest, but they
will always have a strain equal to each other. When the rigging is all set
up for a full due, every shroud is to be secured with a stopper of this form,
which hooks to the lower link of the shrouds, and to their respective chain
plates, so that if by any accident one should be carried away, the rest would
not unreeve, but immediately draw tight to the stopper in the chains. For
example, if the 1st shroud were broke, the second would be held up by the
stopper in the chain; if the second were broke the 3d would be held by the
stopper at the mast head, the 1st by the stopper in the chains; if the 3d were
broke, the 4th would be held by the stopper at the mast head, and in like
manner they would be secured by the stoppers if they were carried away from
the 4th to the 1st. The stoppers are to be hooked on a small degree slacker
than the rigging, to allow the strain in the shrouds to draw into each other as
the ship is laboring.
Fig. 4 represents the rigging girt in with tackles below the catharpins.
The inner blocks are lashed on each side the mast; the outer are fitted to a
span or 4-tailed strap, which is seized to the rigging. The tackle folds lead
down the mast in midships, and are fitted with small gun tackle purchases,
As the rigging
to which are hung weights cased in a trunk abaft the mast.

page_text: is allowed a little play, these weights will draw in the slack of the shrouds
as the ship rolls to leeward, and will gradually ease them out to their full
extant when the ship righted or took a weather roll. By this means the
rigging will have every advantage of the elasticity which rope possesses, and
will be less liable to snap from sudden tension than rope shrouds in the
common way of setting up. As the swifters tend to prevent the mast from going
forward, I have not given them a communication, or swifted them in common
with the shrouds that support the mast sideways; but when it is deemed
necessary to give them a spring, when there is a heavy sea, they can be girt
with a small tackle leading across, and a weight applied, which can be cased
in a trunk on the ship side within the rigging, and a span is fitted for that
purpose.
Fig. 5 represents a ship's mainstay, set up with blocks instead of hearts.
To give it a spring, and prevent any bad consequences from sudden jirk, a
tackle is fixed to it nearly over the fore hatchway, with a weight applied to
the fold. This weight will draw down the bight of the stay when it slacks
by the ship pitching, and ease it up taught when she sends off. The weight
may be kept steady in a small trunk fixed (pro tempore) at the boat's bow.
The chains for the cables are to be made of short twisted links. The first,
fifteen fathoms from the anchor inwards, to be about one half heavier than
the cable for which it is to be substituted, and from that distance to 25
fathoms diminish about one eighth in the weight, and from 25 to be about
one heavier than the cable to the end. They are to be constructed with
swivels and shifting shackles at the rings of the anchors, and at 25 fathoms
distance, with shifting shackles, by means of which ships will be enabled to
clear hawse when moored either with whole or half cables, and also to slip
when occasion may require. The chain for hawsers to be made of similar
links, and will require to be one half heavier than the hawser for which it is
to be substituted, but they need not taper like the cables, but may be of equal
weight and strength throughout; they must also have shifting shackles at
intermediate distances. The combings of the hatchways, the windlass or
bitts, and hawseholes, must be plated with iron.
In witness whereof, I have set my hand and seal, at North Shields in
the County of Northumberland, this Sixteenth day of June, in the
year One thousand eight hundred and eight.
In the presence of
GEO. TAYLOR, &
H. CHATRIS.
SAM BROWN. (L.B.)

page_text: By means of one more single block at the mast head, a communication
may be given to 8 shrouds, the same as the first 4; and if there is an odd
shroud it may be set up by itself, either with a tackle or dead eye;
and to prevent its snapping from sudden jirk, a spring is fixed at the mast
head, to which it is to be hooked. (The spring is described in the Drawing.)
The metallic rod rigging may be made a conductor by continuing a small rod
from the chains, let in flush with the ship's sides, and carried down to the
water edge. To prevent it from rust, give it a coat of the anti-corrosion, a
cheap composition, found of great use on board of His Majesty's ships; it is
also to be covered with parcelling or served with spun yarn.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Third day of August, in the year
above mentioned, the aforesaid Samuel Brown came before our Lord the
King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all
and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also. the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the same Third day of August, in the year above written.