A METHOD OF CAUSING SHIPS, VESSELS, BARGES, BOATS, AND CRAFT OF ALL SIZES WHICH NAVIGATE EITHER SEAS, RIVERS, OR CANALS TO BE BUILT AT PRICES CONSIDERABLY BELOW WHAT ARE GIVEN FOR THEM AS BUILT IN THE PRESENT MODES, AND FOR RENDERING THE RUDDER THEREOF IN SOME CASES MORE EFFECTUAL
Year: 1797

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MILTON, of the City of Bath, Master of Arts, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-third day of December, in the thirty-eighth year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said William Milton, His especial
licence that I, the said William Milton, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A
METHOD OF CAUSING SHIPS, VESSELS, BARGES, BOATS, AND CRAFT OF ALL SIZES
WHICH NAVIGATE EITHER SEAS, RIVERS, OR CANALS TO BE BUILT AT PRICES
CONSIDERABLY BELOW WHAT ARE GIVEN FOR THEM AS BUILT IN THE PRESENT
MODES, AND FOR RENDERING THE RUDDER THEREOF IN SOME CASES MORE
EFFECTUAL;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said William Milton, by an instrument in writing 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 inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month 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, I, the said
William Milton, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in the

page_text: Drawings hereunto annexed, and in the following description thereof (that is
to say):-
Whatever be designed to be the midship or greatest vertical section (parallel
to the beam) of the vessel or boat, (either that of a frigate, merchantman, full
built vessel, or barge whose sides make any angle with its flat bottom,) let this
section nearly similar to itself, but with its sides a little approaching each other,
(as is now the case,) be continued as far aft as the requisite breadth of the
cabin in the vessel or stern sheets in the boat, will permit; from thence aft,
direct the final water fairly to the rudder, by a narrowing wedge-like body,
which call the fish tail. The outside surface of this fish tail may either consist
of vertical sides, plain or curved, of any convenient angle, with its top and
bottom flat or rounded; or it may be moulded somewhat as the after end of
ships and boats now are, below, but should terminate at its after end in a line
vertical, or nearly so, for the purpose of carrying the rudder, when that rudder
is to be placed at the extremity of the tail; but where reliance can be had on
deep water, a different rudder or rudders (hereafter to be described) may be
worked somewhere through the fish tail less aft than its extremity. This fish
tail (all but the angle. at H, and some braces or cross pieces 3 and 4, seen in
Figures 1 and 2), whether it be boxed up so as to carry goods or not, is to be
so placed as always (except in the pitchings of the ship) to be under water, or
very nearly. so, as also the whole of the rudder (except its head), when the ship
or.boat is properly laden. This fish tail may be either solid or hollow, built on
to the vessel or boat before or after launching, or (by means of a process or
projection S, Figure 1 and Figure 2, built out a little way beyond the vertical
section A, B, or beyond G, P, in Fig. 3, the section of which process should
be within the verge of the section A, B, Fig. 1 and 2, or within G, P, Fig. 3,
either with or without dovetail sides E and F, Fig. 3, with or without such a
hinge and pin as is seen at P, Fig. 3, for the purpose of planking on or other-
wise securing the fish tail; or by many other various means, as by scarfing on
the body of the vessel or boat, or overlapping some of the planks, the fish tail
may be so fixed to the vessel or boat as to endure the violence of the sea, and
yet in a harbour where vessels are afloat, may be taken off for examining and
cleaning and again put on with so little labour and time as to make the possi-
bility of so doing a very desirable thing. Or this fish tail may be open at top
with a flap or flaps, Figure 2, in the side M, and the bottom N opening out-
_wards, for the ready_and_harmless escape of any wave which may break in upon
it this flap or flaps to be so disposed by being abaft their hinges, or other
center of motion, as that the ship's way, or their own buoyancy, shall imme

page_text: diately after every stroke of the wave restore them to their places in the surface
of the tail, and the upper part of the sides of the tail (a plank or two down) may
be made to remove in severe wether, and to be replaced in fair. These fish tails,
whether boxed up or open, solid or hollow, may be of different forms, materials,
and surface, and may be fixed in a great variety of ways to a vessel or boat,
according to the judgment of the builder or choice of those who bespeak them.
It may be best to give them nearly the gravity of the water, and this may be
adjusted by securing in them either weights or buoyant bodies. A fixture like
the fish tail may be applied to the head of the vessel or boat nearly up to the
water mark also, in order to facilitate her entrance through the water, and that
with all the varieties which may attend the fish tail, mentioned above. The
principle of the Invention, then, thus far, consists in making a vessel or boat
which shall be of easier construction and simpler figure, sail as well in all
relations to the wind, and endure as completely every voilence of the sea as
the more complex and curved forms hitherto in use now do, and that by means
of. terminating the body of the vessel or boat by the submerged head or tail,
one or both, above described. These appendages may be affixed to the head
or stern of any vessels or boats already built which are found to be but in-
different sailers. If in such a cut is made at any place of the sharp part of the
body, and the fulness from thence with a little tapering continued to the
extremity of the body of the vessel or boat, and to that the head or tail be
added (the tail particularly), not only better sailing may be produced, but also
much added room for stowage; but if the tail or head be merely affixed to
such vessel or boat without any such preparative cut, no added room will be
produced, and the benefit of the operation will be confined to her better sailing
and steering. And it may be observed, that this fish tail may for an expence
(comparatively small) be altered in its angle or otherwise, till at last the tail
shall be so suited to the preceding body as to produce the best effect of sailing
possible for her, 'and by these means a fleet of merchantmen may be brought
to a more equal rate of sailing with each other than it is presumed can be done
by any correction upon their hulls now in use. Canal or river barges may be
made. of a parallelopiped form, nearly to fit the parallelopiped part of the lock,
and the head and fish tail (open at top) may be adapted, with hinges or other-
wise, to the two flat ends of such barges, in frames or flaps, whose bottom and
two sides,(together with the rudder at one end) shall be lapped up or ex-
panded with convenient readiness; as they enter or go out of a lock, this
will enable any lock to transmit a barge of greater capacity than at present.
In addition to the present security by caulking, the following method may be
used: Let one edge of every plank towards the middle of that edge have a

page_text: grove of convenient depth ploughed in it; let this grove be filled with hemp
loosely twisted, charged with any unctuous or tarry matter, and then be laid
against the ungroved edge or side of the next plank, and so on, or both edges
of each plank may have such a grove to be filled as above:
The rudder or rudders alluded to above, with the modes of rendering them
in some cases more effectual, remain now to be described. Through some part
W of the fish tail G, X, P, (Fig. 3,) let a cavity or cavities be'made across its
way with converging sides, but as wide fore and aft down through its depth as
that the axis C, D, of a rudder may be turned in it and moved from side to
side. R, C, shews the rudder, and D, S, its thiller. At Z, Fig. 4, is a section
N, A, M, of such cavity, with a rudder 'axis P, A, seen in the middle of it,
prevented. from slipping down by the shoulders fixed on it, seen at P, and
which traverse along the arch N, P, M, as the rudder axis is moved from
L to S. T, Y, is the upper, and R, K, the lower surface of the fish tail and
G, F, the area of the rudder, seen here as thrown across or parallel to the
section of the cavity. The sides L and S of this cavity may be inclined to each
other in an angle of about thirty degrees, or more, whereby, whenever the
vessel heels fifteen degrees, or any less quantity, the plane of the rudder by any
purchase, as Q, Q, on each side of its axis, may be kept in or near a vertical
situation, which on long tacks would be useful. At the bottom of this inclined
cavity A is to be inserted firmly a strong metal piece H, Fig. 5, provided with
gudgeons 1 and 2, being the center of motion of the rudder axis from L to S,
and also with a hole H (a similar hole being at E, Fig 4), for the motion of
the rudder axis in steering. In the area of the fish tail more such rudders than
one may be applied, as at A and B, Fig. 3. This rudder machinery, seen in
Fig. 3 and 4, excepting the purchase, Q, Q, is to be fitted in a frame with sides
a little conical, of greater ravius aft than any horizontal section of the rudder.
Down through the tail there is to be made a hollow (expressed by the dots in
Figures 3 and 4), adapted to receive this frame, which may be kept down in
its place by any fastenings or buttons on the upper surface of the tail, as at
N, R, and M, Fig. 3, and, when there is occasion, this frame with the rudder
in it may be lifted up till the lower surface of the rudder be brought above
the lower surface (R, K, Fig. 4) of the tail, and then a common rudder, as seen
in Fig. 1, may be used at the end of the fish tail.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Milton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this-Nineteenth-day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand seven hundred and ninety-eight.
WILLIAM MILTON. (L.S.).

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Nineteenth day of
January, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Milton came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion 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 Nineteenth day of January, in the year above written.