IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LOWERING SHIPS BOATS
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Robert Augustus Glover at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 15th December 1876.
FREDERICK ROBERT AUGUSTUS GLOVER, of Bury Street, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, Clerk in Orders. "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR LOWERING
SHIPS BOATS."
The object of my Invention is to supply ships' boats with a simple form of
lowering and disengaging gear, which may be worked either from the deck of the
ship or in the boat itself, or it may be rendered self-acting. Various attempts have
from time to time been made to construct lowering gear which will disengage
simultaneously at both ends of the boat, but hitherto this kind of apparatus has not
been found to act satisfactorily, and is in general considered far too complicated in
construction.
By my Invention the hooks and chains whereby the boat is suspended are those
in general use for such purposes, and they are received in spring clips, one of which
is secured at each end of the boat. When the suspending hooks are placed in the
clips the latter are closed, and are maintained in that position by means of bars or
struts, which abut against the moveable part of the clip. I prefer for this purpose
to make use of ordinary boat-hooks, which will of course be useful in navigating the
boat. The butt ends of the boat-hook shafts will bear against the spring clip, and
prevent it from opening so long as the opposite or hooked ends of the boat-hook
are held down in a horizontal position. For this purpose these hooked ends are
received between a pair of staples or other suitable fitting provided with a movable
cross pin, which while in place will prevent the boat-hooks from rising out of their
place, but when the cross pin is withdrawn the hooked ends of the boat-hooks will
fly up, and the butt ends by drawing back from the clips will allow the latter to
open and release the hooks by which the boat is suspended.
I prefer to use the ordinary boat-hooks or oars, short spars, bars, or other tackle,
which form part of the boat's gear, or may be useful in manoeuvring her, but if
desired a jointed bar may be used for the purpose.
Instead of the spring clips being attached to the boat, as above described, they, or
equivalent devices, such as self-acting grabs, may be attached to the suspending
chains, and made to lay hold of rings or other fastenings fixed at each end of the
boat.

page_text: As another modification, a self-acting grab may be attached to the end of one of
the suspending chains for the purpose of catching hold of a ring fixed at one end of
the boat, and one of the self-acting clips first described may be fixed at the other
end of the boat to receive the hook of the other suspending chain. The spring clip
will be kept closed by the butt end of a pole or bar connected by its opposite end
to the self-acting grab, so that when the latter is released this action will at the
same time lift up the pole or bar, and by drawing it away from the spring clip at
the opposite end of the boat will allow the clip to open and release the suspending
hook. The disengaging tackle at both ends of the boat will thereby be operated
simultaneously.