IMPROVEMENTS IN FLOATING ANCHORS TO ENABLE DISABLED STEAMERS AND OTHER VESSELS TO RIDE OUT HEAVY GALES AND FOR OTHER LIKE USES."
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Munton Bullivant of 72 Mark Lane in the City
of London for an invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FLOATING ANCHORS TO
ENABLE DISABLED STEAMERS AND OTHER VESSELS TO RIDE OUT HEAVY GALES
AND FOR OTHER LIKE USES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Munton Bullivant
at the Office of the Cominissioners of Patents on the 10th March 1882.
WILLIAM MUNTON BULLIVANT of 72 Mark Lane in the City of London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FLOATING ANCHORS TO ENABLE DISABLED STEAMERS AND
OTHER VESSELS TO RIDE OUT HEAVY GALES AND FOR OTHER LIKE USES."
This Invention has for its object improvements in floating anchors to enable
disabled steamers and other vessels to ride out heavy gales and for other like
uses.
The apparatus which I have designed for this purpose is an improvement on that
referred to in a Provisional Specification which I filed on the 20th day of January
1875 No 223.
The apparatus of my original design has not come into use owing to defects which
it is the object of my present invention to overcome.
In place of a raft of planks set on edge I now employ a hollow watertight float
of rectangular form of which the dimensions may conveniently be say 12 feet long,
21/, feet wide and one foot deep; its floatation should be more than sufficient to
sustain all the gear. At the front of this float near either end there is an eye bolt
and short lengths of wire rope pass from these eye bolts to a ring to which a cable
is attached the cable is made fast on board the ship. In order to increase the
resistance of the float to being drawn through the water broadside on, a falling flap
is hinged in front and this when the float is on the water stands vertically pro-
jecting down from the front edge of the float. The resistance of the apparatus to
movement through the water is further increased by attaching behind the float and

page_text: one in rear of the other, several frames made of bar iron or steel covered loosely
with woven fabric so as to form very shallow and wide mouthed bags. The frame
of each bag is rectangular and of the same measurement as the surface of the float
it is stiffened by a cross bar of steel or iron in the middle of the frame it has also
eyes upon it at the corners and midway along the sides. From the eyes upon the
frame of the front bag short lengths of wire rope pass to three eye bolts fixed in
the back of the float. The bags in rear are attached to the front bag also by short
lengths of wire rope connecting the eyes on the frames of the several bags.
For stowage the bag frames lie one on the other and the whole come flat against
the surface of the float so that comparatively small space is occupied by the
apparatus when out of use.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said William Munton Bullivant in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th September 1882.
WILLIAM MUNTON BULLIVANT of 72 Mark Lane in the City of London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FLOATING ANCHORS TO ENABLE DISABLED STEAMERS AND
OTHER VESSELS TO RIDE OUT HEAVY GALES AND FOR OTHER LIKE USES
"
This Invention has for its object improvements in floating anchors to enable
disabled steamers and other vessels to ride out heavy gales and for other like
uses.
The apparatus which I have designed for this purpose is an improvement on that
referred to in a Provisional Specification which I filed on the 20th day of January
1875 No 223.
The apparatus of my original design has not come into use owing to defects which
it is the object of my present invention to overcome.
In place of a raft of planks set on edge I now employ a hollow water tight float
of rectangular form of which the dimensions may conveniently be say 12 feet long,
21%, feet wide and one foot deep; its floatation should be more than sufficient to
sustain all the gear.
At the front of this float near either end there is an eye bolt
and short lengths of wire rope pass from these eye bolts to a ring to which a cable
is attached the cable is made fast on board the ship. In order to increase the
resistance of the float to being drawn through the water broadside on a falling
flap is hinged in front and this when the float is on the water stands vertically
projecting down from the front edge of the float. The resistance of the apparatus
to movement through the water is further increased by attaching behind the float
and one in rear of the other several frames made of bar iron or steel covered
loosely with woven fabric so as to form very shallow and wide mouthed bags. The
frame of each bag is rectangular and of the same measurement as the surface of
the float it is stiffened by a cross bar of steel or iron in the middle of the frame;
it has also eyes upon it at the corners and midway along the sides. From the
eyes upon the frame of the front bag short lengths of wire rope pass to three eye
bolts fixed in the back of the float. The bags in rear are attached to the front
bag also by short lengths of wire rope connecting the eyes on the frames of the
several bags.
For stowage the bag frames lie one on the other and the whole come flat against
the surface of the float so that comparatively small space is occupied by the
apparatus when out of use.
My sea anchor is represented in the Drawing annexed.
a is the raft or float.
The raft or float may be made of well seasoned wood well caulked or of iron, or
of steel. It is constructed with floating power sufficient to support the bags b. b.
with their expanding bars and steel wire rope pendants and the weight of steel
wire towing Lawser which would be brought upon it.
At the front of the raft eye bolts are placed to receive the steel wire towing
span c. and a strongly hinged flap a¹ one foot in depth is also dropped in a vertical
direction in front of the raft to give additional resisting force in dragging.
The bags b. b. are attached by means of shackles and steel wire pendants d. d. to
eye bolts at the back of the raft and connected to each other by short steel wire
pendants e. e and shackles. These bags are extended by means of a bar iron rim
Bay of about half inch section at the mouth of each bag stiffened with a cross bar
of iron at the centre of each.

page_text: The sea anchor when stowed occupies a very limited space. The bags lash close
to the raft, and the whole may be secured to the bulwarks on the outside of the
bow of a vessel. In this position the sea anchor is always ready for immediate
use.
The sea anchor can be supplied with varied resisting areas to meet the require-
ments of any class of vessel. By this means a disabled vessel in a heavy gale is
enabled to lay out ahead a sea anchor which exercises the same power in holding
her head to sea as a powerful tug would do.
There are a variety of purposes for which it may be used on board vessels to
advantage.
In case of engines breaking down or a rudder being disabled it can in two
minutes be attached to a steel wire hawser and thrown overboard where it remains
stationary to hold the vessel head to sea and wind and prevent her falling off in
the trough of the sea.
In case of a heavy laden cargo steamer of low power and speed finding it
dangerous to continue her course in heavy weather with following seas she may
ride to such an anchor in perfect safety.
In case of such a steamer heavily laden lying a course head to a heavy sea and
wind she makes scarcely any head way and by continually beating against the sea
often sweeps her decks and does other damage. If the sea anchor is thrown out
she will ride to that without straining, and by banking her fires prevents great
waste of coal.
A disabled steamer riding to a sea anchor by means of a flexible wire hawser
can easily be taken in tow in any weather by another vessel picking up the sea
anchor, and all danger of damage by close contact of vessels entirely avoided.
If the rudder is disabled it may be placed astern without the bags or drogues
and with a span across the deck to each quarter worked with tackles be made to
form a temporary rudder.
In case of a vessel foundering a life raft capable of carrying from 15 to 20
persons may be instantly constructed by disconnecting the bags or drogues and
connecting two rafts or floats by means of spars across each end secured to the eye
bolts used for the towing span and drogues. In cases where only one sea anchor
raft is carried the single raft would be sufficient to save several lives.
A sea anchor thrown out ahead of any disabled vessel in danger of being driven
on a lee shore would check the disaster for a much longer period if not prevent it
entirely.
Should a vessel get on a lee shore the raft without the bags or drogues with a
steel wire hawser attached to it would form immediately a safe communication
between the vessel and the shore.
What I claim is my improved floating anchor consisting of the hollow water
tight float or raft a. with bags b attached thereto substantially as described.
In witness whereof I the said William Munton Bullivant have hereunto set
my hand and seal this 29th day of August in, the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
W. M. BULLIVANT. (L.S.)