IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING SUBMERGED SHIPS.
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Chism, of 29, Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING SUBMERGED SHIPS."....
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Chism at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th January 1878.
EDWARD CHISM, of 29, Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland.
SUBMERGED SHIPS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING
This Invention has for its object improvements in raising submerged ships.
For this purpose I proceed as follows:-I first dredge away as much of the sand
then anchor and buoy the end
or shingle as possible from the sides of the ship.
of a light chain cable across the bows of the ship, and pay out this cable as closely
as possible all round the ship, and again across the bows on the opposite side, and
I anchor and buoy the other end of the cable, after having drawn it as tightly as
will secure contact with the ship. On this chain, at intervals apart, a series of rings
are fixed, through each of which a light rope is passed.
When the chain is payed out with these ropes through the rings, and when the
chain is in place, strong steel wire pendants are drawn through the rings by means
of the light ropes, and one end of each is buoyed at the surface over the gunwale of
the ship, the other end of each pendant is carried outwards from the ship to a
distance, and is there buoyed; I then buoy the end of a stout hempen rope at a
distance right ahead of the ship, and I pay it out around the ship several times, .
taking care to draw it close in to the ship. Over the hempen rope a coil of many
turns of a strong steel wire rope is similarly laid, and over this again another coil
of hempen rope.
The use of the hempen cable in the first and last layers is not for strength, but as
a basis and a binder to the steel wire rope, and also to give a safer bight to the
mandant or loon roses in lifting.

page_text: Where necessary guiding apparatus may be attached to the vessel from which the
coil ropes are laid to guide the ropes to their places around the submerged
ship. The pendant ropes having thus been securely attached to the submerged
ship, the requisite lifting power is applied by any well-known and convenient
means.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edward Chisin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th July
1878.
EDWARD CHISM, of 29, Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland.
SUBMERGED SHIPS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING
My said Invention has for its object improvements in the method of raising
sunken ships or other submerged bodies by means herein-after described which I
propose to name the coil system.
To carry out these improvements I proceed as follows:-I dredge away (where
necessary) as much of the sand or shingle from the sides of the ship as may be
requisite to permit the cables composing the coil herein-after described, to be drawn
close under the bilge. I then anchor a double-tailed end of a light chain cable
across and a certain distance behind the bows of the ship on one side, and pay out
this chain cable as closely as possible all round the ship and again across the bows
to the opposite side, where I anchor same with a single end.
Both the double-tailed end first anchored and the single end last laid down
should have proper shackles easily disengaged and capable of easy juncture with the
ends of the strands or cables forming the coil. This chain I prefer to call the guide
chain. On this guide chain before being lowered into position, a series of rings are
fixed at intervals apart, through each of which a light rope is passed, the ends of
each rope being kept apart and secured to a barge or pontoon moored right over the
sunken ship, or in cases where masts or spars interfere, by means of a line
buoyed or otherwise secured as nearly as possible over the gunwale of the
submerged vessel. The guide chain having being laid in position thus, steel wire ropes
of suitable strength, called lifting ropes, or wire pendants, are passed through the
rings of the guide chain by means of the light ropes, and one end of these
lifting ropes or wire pendants is buoyed at the surface over the sunken ship as
in the case of the ends of pioneer lighter ropes whose duty is now ended, while
the other end of each lifting rope or wire pendant is carried outwards and upwards
to a distance from the submerged vessel and is there buoyed.
.
I would here observe that I propose to employ near the bows of the ship stronger
lifting ropes or wire pendants than those used along the sides.
Having completed the preparations as above described, I proceed to place the coil
around the sunken ship, and commence by joining the end of a strong hempen rope
properly prepared for easy juncture to one of the tails of the double end of the guide
chain first anchored. This hempen rope is now paid out around the ship several
:

page_text: times, taking care to draw it as closely as possible towards the bilge of the ship
when the paying out tug is rounding the bows and stern, and to insure its proper
position, overlying the guide chain and across the lifting ropes or wire pendants.
When the required number of rounds of this hempen rope is laid a stout steel
wire rope forming a continuous joint with the hempen rope is now paid out.
This
wire rope must be of calculated strength and sufficient for the strain required in
each operation of lifting; the number of rounds of the ship to be taken with this
portion of the coil will also be determined by the circumstances of each case. Again
the hempen rope is continued as before for several rounds to complete the coil, the
end of the last round of the hempen rope paid out is now securely joined to the end
of the guide chain last anchored. The divers now detaching both anchors the coil
is complete, and forms an unbroken continuous line from end to end encircling the
submerged ship.
To ensure the proper sinking of the strands forming the coil as they are being
paid out around the vessel, 1 propose attaching to the tug or boat paying out same
an apparatus called the sinker, in form of an elongated conical bullet of metal of
suitable weight through which the strands of the coil are caused to pass, as herein-
after described in reference to the Drawings attached to this Specification.
When the coil is complete in the manner above described, the ends of the lifting
ropes or wire pendants are now available for the application of any of the well-known
methods employed in lifting and floating sunken ships.
The object of employing hempen rope principally in the formation of the coil, is
not because of its strength, but for the purpose of giving a softer and safer bight
underneath to the lifting ropes, and serving by its upper layers to bind the middle
portion of the coil-the steel wire rope-which constitutes the great element of
strength in the truss thus formed under and around the strongest part of the frame
of the ship.
The chief advantages claimed for this Invention are,―
First. To reduce the employment of divers to the minimuin.
Secondly. To gain a thorough and equally dispersed hold or grip of the whole
bulk of the submerged ship.
Thirdly. To avoid the effects of undue strain on one or more lifting ropes, which
by the methods hitherto usually employed, owing to the few and uncertain holds or
grips taken rigidly and unequally from the sunken ship, to the raising or floating
power, tends to snap such unequal and uncertain holds or grips.
The coil above described will be found to yield sufficiently to any unequal strain
on any given lifting rope or number of lifting ropes until the entire coil is brought
into play, and bears equally on all parts of the ship during the operation of lifting.
In order that my said Invention may be more readily understood and carried into
effect, I will proceed to describe the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
Fig. 1 represents plan of the sunken portion of a submerged ship, showing the
guide chain lying in position.
A shows the double-tailed end, and B the single end; b, b, b, are the rings fixed
on the guide chain through which the lifting ropes pass.
Fig. 2 is an elevation of a sunken ship also showing the guide chain lying in
position at the bottom of the water and close to the bilge of the ship with the
pioneer ropes passing through the rings, the ends of these ropes being attached to
the lighter or pontoon on the surface of the water, which should be moored as nearly
as possible over the sunken ship or other submerged body. These are the ropes
which serve to draw the lifting ropes or steel pendants subsequently through
the rings in manner shown in Fig. 3, which is a transverse sectional view
showing the lifting rope or steel pendant through the rings; one end of these
lifting ropes is secured to the lighter overhead, while the other end may be
allowed to lie at the bottom of the water and be connected by means of a
hempen rope to a lighter or pontoon at a distance from the field of operation.
When the coil is completed as herein-before described, and as illustrated in Fig. 4,
3329

page_text: this free end of the lifting rope or wire pendant is hauled up and joined with
its first secured end to the lifting or floating power.
Fig. 4 is an elevation of a submerged ship showing the method of paying
out the strands which form the coil as already described. The commencement of
this coil is joined to one of the tails of the double end of the guide chain (Fig. 1)
freed from the anchor for this purpose, and is carried round and round the sunken
ship by the lighter from which it, is paid out, moving in a circuitous manner over
the sunken vessel, and tightening or "tucking" in the coil as it rounds the stem and
stern of the submerged ship.
C represents the apparatus which I propose to use in order to guide and sink the
strands forming the coil to their proper position around the sunken vessel as they
are paid out. It consists simply of a conical shaped cylinder or bullet through
which the strands pass, and is connected to the lighter at the surface by a light
chain, as shown.
Fig. 5 is a detailed sectional view of the guide chain with ring attached, and lifting
rope or wire pendant passing through same.
Fig. 6 is a detailed view of the double-tailed end of the guide chain, as seen at A,
Fig. 1.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
working the same, I would have it understood that what I consider to be new and
useful, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is, the method of raising and floating sunken ships or
other submerged bodies in the manner substantially as herein described, and illus-
trated by the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward Chism, have hereunto this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this 9th day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
EDWARD CHISM. (ra)

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edward Chism, of 29, Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland, for
the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING SUBMERGED SHIPS."
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward Chism at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th January 1878.
EDWARD CHISM, of 29, Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland. "IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING
SUBMERGED SHIPS."
This Invention has for its object improvements in raising submerged ships.
For this purpose I proceed as follows:-I first dredge away as much of the sand
or shingle as possible from the sides of the ship. I then anchor and buoy the end
of a light chain cable across the bows of the ship, and pay out this cable as closely
as possible all round the ship, and again across the bows on the opposite side, and
I anchor and buoy the other end of the cable, after having drawn it as tightly as
will secure contact with the ship. On this chain, at intervals apart, a series of rings
are fixed, through each of which a light rope is passed.
When the chain is payed out with these ropes through the rings, and when the
chain is in place, strong steel wire pendants are drawn through the rings by means
of the light ropes, and one end of each is buoyed at the surface over the gunwale of
the ship, the other end of each pendant is carried outwards from the ship to a
distance, and is there buoyed; I then buoy the end of a stout hempen rope at a
distance right ahead of the ship, and I pay it out around the ship several times,
taking care to draw it close in to the ship. Over the hempen rope a coil of many
turns of a strong steel wire rope is similarly laid, and over this again another coil
of hempen rope.
The use of the hempen cable in the first and last layers is not for strength, but as
a basis and a binder to the steel wire rope, and also to give a safer bight to the
pendant or loop ropes in lifting.
J

page_text: Where necessary guiding apparatus may be attached to the vessel from which the
coil ropes are laid to guide the ropes to their places around the submerged
ship. The pendant ropes having thus been securely attached to the submerged
ship, the requisite lifting power is applied by any well-known and convenient
means.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edward Chism in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th July
1878.
EDWARD CHISM, of 29, Castle Street, Sligo, Ireland.
SUBMERGED SHIPS."
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAISING
My said Invention has for its object improvements in the method of raising
sunken ships or other submerged bodies by means herein-after described which I
propose to name the coil system.
To carry out these improvements I proceed as follows:-1 dredge away (where
necessary) as much of the sand or shingle from the sides of the ship as may be
requisite to permit the cables composing the coil herein-after described, to be drawn
close under the bilge. I then anchor a double-tailed end of a light chain cable
across and a certain distance behind the bows of the ship on one side, and pay out
this chain cable as closely as possible all round the ship and again across the bows
to the opposite side, where I anchor same with a single end.
Both the double-tailed end first anchored and the single end last laid down
should have proper shackles easily disengaged and capable of easy juncture with the
ends of the strands or cables forming the coil. This chain 1 prefer to call the guide
chain. On this guide chain before being lowered into position, a series of rings are
fixed at intervals apart, through each of which a light rope is passed, the ends of
each rope being kept apart and secured to a barge or pontoon moored right over the
sunken ship, or in cases where masts or spars interfere, by means of a line
buoyed or otherwise secured as nearly as possible over the gunwale of the
submerged vessel. The guide chain having being laid in position thus, steel wire ropes
of suitable strength, called lifting ropes, or wire pendants, are passed through the
rings of the guide chain by means of the light ropes, and one end of these
lifting ropes or wire pendants is buoyed at the surface over the sunken ship as
in the case of the ends of pioneer lighter ropes whose duty is now ended, while
the other end of each lifting rope or wire pendant is carried outwards and upwards
to a distance from the submerged vessel and is there buoyed.
I would here observe that I propose to employ near the bows of the ship stronger
lifting ropes or wire pendants than those used along the sides.
Having completed the preparations as above described, I proceed to place the coil
around the sunken ship, and commence by joining the end of a strong hempen rope
properly prepared for easy juncture to one of the tails of the double end of the guide
chain first anchored. This hempen rope is now paid out around the ship several

page_text: times, taking care to draw it as closely as possible towards the bilge of the ship
when the paying out tug is rounding the bows and stern, and to insure its proper
position, overlying the guide chain and across the lifting ropes or wire pendants.
When the required number of rounds of this hempen rope is laid a stout steel
wire rope forming a continuous joint with the hempen rope is now paid out. This
wire rope must be of calculated strength and sufficient for the strain required in
each operation of lifting; the number of rounds of the ship to be taken with this
portion of the coil will also be determined by the circumstances of each case. Again
the hempen rope is continued as before for several rounds to complete the coil, the
end of the last round of the hempen rope paid out is now securely joined to the end
of the guide chain last anchored. The divers now detaching both anchors the coil
is complete, and forms an unbroken continuous line from end to end encircling the
submerged ship.
To ensure the proper sinking of the strands forming the coil as they are being
paid out around the vessel, propose attaching to the tug or boat paying out same
an apparatus called the sinker, in form of an elongated conical bullet of metal of
suitable weight through which the strands of the coil are caused to pass, as herein-
after described in reference to the Drawings attached to this Specification.
When the coil is complete in the manner above described, the ends of the lifting
ropes or wire pendants are now available for the application of any of the well-known
methods employed in lifting and floating sunken ships.
The object of employing hempen rope principally in the formation of the coil, is
not because of its strength, but for the purpose of giving a softer and safer bight
underneath to the lifting ropes, and serving by its upper layers to bind the middle
portion of the coil-the steel wire rope-which constitutes the great element of
strength in the truss thus formed under and around the strongest part of the frame
of the ship.
The chief advantages claimed for this Invention are,―
First. To reduce the employment of divers to the minimum.
Secondly. To gain a thorough and equally dispersed hold or grip of the whole
bulk of the submerged ship.
Thirdly. To avoid the effects of undue strain on one or more lifting ropes, which
by the methods hitherto usually employed, owing to the few and uncertain holds or
grips taken rigidly and unequally from the sunken. ship, to the raising or floating
power, tends to snap such unequal and uncertain holds or grips.
The coil above described will be found to yield sufficiently to any unequal strain
on any given lifting rope or number of lifting ropes until the entire coil is brought
into play, and bears equally on all parts of the ship during the operation of lifting.
In order that my said Invention may be more readily understood and carried into
effect, I will proceed to describe the accompanying Sheet of Drawings..
Fig. 1 represents plan of the sunken portion of a submerged ship, showing the
guide chain lying in position.
A shows the double-tailed end, and B the single end; b, b, b, are the rings fixed
on the guide chain through which the lifting ropes pass.
Fig. 2 is an elevation of a sunken ship also showing the guide chain lying in
position at the bottom of the water and close to the bilge of the ship with the
pioneer ropes passing through the rings, the ends of these ropes being attached to
the lighter or pontoon on the surface of the water, which should be moored as nearly
as possible over the sunken ship or other submerged body. These are the ropes
which serve to draw the lifting ropes or steel pendants subsequently through
the rings in manner shown in Fig. 3, which is a transverse sectional view
showing the lifting rope or steel pendant through the rings; one end of these
lifting ropes is secured to the lighter overhead, while the other end may be
allowed to lie at the bottom of the water and be connected by means of a
hempen rope to a lighter or pontoon at a distance from the field of operation.
When the coil is completed as herein-before described, and as illustrated in Fig. 4,

page_text: this free end of the lifting rope or wire pendant is hauled up and joined with
its first secured end to the lifting or floating power.
Fig. 4 is an elevation of a submerged ship showing the method of paying
out the strands which form the coil as already described. The commencement of
this coil is joined to one of the tails of the double end of the guide chain (Fig. 1)
freed from the anchor for this purpose, and is carried round and round the sunken
ship by the lighter from which it is paid out, moving in a circuitous manner over
the sunken vessel, and tightening or "tucking" in the coil as it rounds the stem and
stern of the submerged ship.
C represents the apparatus which I propose to use in order to guide and sink the
strands forming the coil to their proper position around the sunken vessel as they
are paid out. It consists simply of a conical shaped cylinder or bullet through
which the strands pass, and is connected to the lighter at the surface by a light
chain, as shown.
Fig. 5 is a detailed sectional view of the guide chain with ring attached, and lifting
rope or wire pendant passing through same.
Fig. 6 is a detailed view of the double-tailed end of the guide chain, as seen at A,
Fig. 1.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
working the same, I would have it understood that what I consider to be new and
useful, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is, the method of raising and floating sunken ships or
other submerged bodies in the manner substantially as herein described, and illus-
trated by the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, J, the said Edward Chism, have hereunto this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this 9th day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
EDWARD CHISM. (L.S.)