METHODS FOR IMPROVING THE SAILING AND NAVIGATING OF CERTAIN SHIPS AND VESSELS
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, We, HENRY
PENNECK and ROBERT DUNKIN, of the Town of Penzance, in the County of
Cornwall, 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 Nineteenth day of
February, in the forty-second year of His reign, did give and grant unto
us, the said Henry Penneck and Robert Dunkin, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that'
we, the said Henry Penneck and Robert Dunkin, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of
Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's
Colonies, Plantations, Territories, and Dominions abroad, our "METHODS FOR
IMPROVING THE SAILING AND NAVIGATING OF CERTAIN SHIPS AND VESSELS;" in
which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging us, the said
Henry Penneck and Robert Dunkin, by an instrument in writing under our
hands and seals, to cause a particular description of the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery of England aforesaid within six
calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, relation being thereunto had, doth appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Henry Penneck and Robert Dunkin, do hereby declare that our methods for
improving the sailing and navigating of certain ships and vessels are as follow,
that is to say:-
First, we improve the square sails, by which term we intend any quadrilateral
sail whose head is extended by a yard across the vessel, the weather-leech on
one tack becoming the leeleech on the other, such as the mainsails and top-
sails of ships, and sails of similar form and use in ships and other vessels, by
whatever names they may be distinguished, by forming the leeches of such
convexity or other proper figure that their bolt ropes shall not be tighter than
necessary to preserve the sail and to allow it to produce the effect to be
described. To the said leeches we affix a number of rings or thimbles made
of metal or other fit material. To each yard arm, near the earing, we fix a
rope, called a leech rope, which is led down through the said rings or thimbles
and through a ring or block fixed at each clue, and from thence to places con-
venient to the seamen; when the sail is close hauled, we draw the windward
leech rope tight, thereby contracting the leech, which, being fixed by the bow-
line bridles, forms a weather-leech, somewhat like that of a lugsail; at the
same time we slacken the leeward leech rope, which prevents or lessens the
bag formed to leeward, common in square sails. When it is desirable to make
the sail bag, we haul both leech ropes tight. The leeches may, if necessary, be
strengthened by lines sewed within their bolt ropes, or regulated by leech lines.
The other parts of the sail are made in the common way it has lifts, braces,
bowlines, and other tackle and reefs as usual.
Secondly, we have two improved fore-and-aft sails, Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1 nearly represents the mainsail and foresail of a cutter in one. The
mainsail part may be extended by a gaff, and is used with or without a boom;
when close hauleil, the greater part of this sail hangs to leeward of the mast,
and the tack is brought up to the windward side, and in tacking, changed to
the opposite side, by hauling it back round the mast over rollers, during which
the weight of the fore part is supported by brails fixed to the foot rope. This
sail requires bowlines, and may be reduced by brailing the fore part to a reef
band sewed on the sail in the sweep required, which may then be attached to
the mast, and the tack fixed below, as usual. We use it chiefly on the niizen
masts of ships, or in whatever situations or vessels it may be found useful.
Fig. 2 is a compound sail, and has a yard similar to a lugger's yard, and hung
like it to the after part, and to the mast is fixed à sail somewhat like a
schooner's foresail, or after part of a lugsail (a), and to the fore part is fixed
a sail somewhat like the weather part of a lugsail (b), whose tack is tightened

page_text: by the weight of (a), which is supported whilst the tack of (b) is conveyed
across the vessel by a rope to the weather-yardarm, terminating in a tackle at
the foot of the mast or otherwise. (b) requires bowlines. Its sheet is fixed
near the mast. This sail is managed without dipping, and is used chiefly as
a working -sail on lugsail vessels, being more manageable than their great
sails; and we apply and use the said rings or thimbles with the leech-ropes,
and also our method of hauling the weather-leech round the mast, without
shifting the gaff or yard, with all other sails, which may be improved by the
same; in which cases the necessary adilitions, tackle, and apparatus may be
easily applied, and the afore-mentioned sails made by persons of competent
skill, who shall have examined our foregoing description and annexed Figures.
Thirdly, in vessels of such size and form as it may be practicable and safe,
to make the head sails act to more advantage in certain directions of sailing
and in light winds, we make the bowsprit (a) Figure 3, its heel having checks
like a cutter's gaff, turn on the foremast (b) as its centre, on which it is
confined between two saddles; it may rest on the bow, on rollers, which
traverse with it on the gunwale or other plane; it is fixed to the stem by two
metallick hoops encircling the bowsprit, served with rope (c), one of which
takes on a knee within the bow (d), and the other takes on a similar one
without it, and both are confined on or off by pins or otherwise. The bowsprit
is hauled down by the tackle () and bobstay (f) to admit these hoops' being
driven on, and then wedged, our knight-heads (9), (and, if necessary, our
timber-heads on the gunwale are removeable,) either turning on centres or
otherwise; an iron bend (h) is laid over the bowsprit near the heel and bolted
to the deck; our catheads (i) and davits () have stays, the latter turn on
centres alongside and are kept out by bolts or otherwise; both are of sufficient
length to permit the rope (1), which passes over sheaves in their ends, to clear
the stem under the bowsprit, and also the shrouds when led backwards to the
davits, from which it is passed to the capstan, over which it takes some turns;
it has tackles to tighten it occasionally. The ropes (m) are spliced into the
ropes (7) a little before the catheads, and led through blocks fixed on each
side the bowsprit to the tackles (?), where the ropes (0) spliced into the ropes
(m) a little without where they are spliced to (1) also terminate. Near the
surface of the water round the bow is firmly fixed by bolts and knees a strong
groove (p), whose sweep is a segment of a circle; several rollers are placed
within it at convenient distances, and also the slide (7), which may have friction
wheels (to which the bobstay is fastened, which afterwards is divided into two
parts; they pass through blocks under the forestay, and are led in close to the
bowsprit, to which they are confined on each side; one terminates in a tackle;

page_text: the other is led back between two sheaves abrest the foremast, from thence
through a block, then, turning forward between two similar sheaves, terminates
in the same tackle; the block is fixed to the rope (2) to be carried to a capstan
to tighten the bobstay; it may either be retained when disengaged from the
capstan by being fixed to a flat iron, which slides in an iron groove (s) bolted
to the deck, both having holes through which a bolt is passed, or by any other
sufficient method. Check ropes (t) fixed to the bowsprit and passed through
blocks on the catheads are led on deck, by which the bowsprit may be
prevented returning too quickly to the stem, it being quite necessary to lead
it back by the capstan. The upper ends of the foremast and foretopmast-
stays terminate in blocks near their mast heads, that work on collars over the
parts on which the stays are usually placed, which should plumb the part on
which the bowsprit turns, to prevent the stays being lengthened or shortened
when it is moved. The mainstay divides in two parts; one passes to the stem
on each side the bowsprit, and is secured by tackles; to each end of the
slide (1) is fastened a rope (u), which is led back over the rollers in the groove
and through blocks to the deck; on each side the stem is a bolt (w), which
intersects the slide and prevents it shifting. To move the bowsprit, we secure
preventer stays from the foremast and masts above it to some convenient
projection on the bow to leeward of the bowsprit, which is then hauled down
strongly by the tackle (e) and unwedged; when the gammoning hoops,
tackle (e), the bend (h), the knight-head, timber-heads on the gunwale, and
bolt to windward, are all removed, the bobstay may be a little slackened, the
sheets of the bowsprit sails cast off, and if necessary some of them lowered;
we then, by turning the capstan in the proper direction, draw the bowsprit by
the rope () to the angle required, The bobstay is always kept directly under
it by drawing the windward rope (u); guys fixed to convenient places retain
it, and a timber head may be fixed for the same purpose. To take it back to
the stem, remove the timber head, case off the guys, turn the capstan the
reverse way, draw the leeward rope (u) and windward check rope sufficiently
to allow the capstan to lead; when brought to the stem the machinery before
described must be refixed. Having mentioned only the word tackles, we wish
it to be understood that double, treble, or greater powers are to be applied
wherever required.
Lastly, our transparent or luminous compass, whose inner box, or rather
ring, as it has no bottom, is balanced round its lower circumference, across
which are fixed wires that support the pedestal. The card is painted on both
sides; its letters and points, as well as a point for the ship's head, are rendered
transparent. A mirror is placed below it, which turns on a hinge.
By night

page_text: the lamp light is admitted either below or above the card, according as we wish
to steer by the simple or reflected transparency. In the former case the mirror
is turned to throw the light on the card and the eye is admitted above; in the
latter, the mirror is turned to meet the eye, which is admitted below. The
light is admitted or excluded by the proper application of shutters, and
by raising or lowering the lamp. It may likewise be used as a common
compass.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry Penneck and Robert Dunkin,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Third day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and two.