Improved Means applicable for use in Navigating Vessels in Ice Covered Water.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Aug, 1897-Accepted, 11th Sept., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improved Means applicable for use in Navigating Vessels in Ice
Covered Water.
I, ROBERT RUNEBERG, of Bureau Vega, 57, Liteinij Perspective, St. Petersburg, in
the Empire of Russia, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to vessels principally intended for use in navigating
ice covered water; its object being to afford means for readily freeing the vessel in
the event of same becoming fixed in the ice.
In navigating ice covered water it often happens that the vessel becomes fixed in
the ice and is incapable of being noved. In most cases disengagement from the
ice may be effected by careening or inclining the vessel.
Fig. 1. of the accompanying drawings represents in transverse section a vessel
provided with means for careening according to my invention;
Fig. 2 being a plan of the four branch cock employed.
The vessel is furnished with water tanks A A, arranged on each side, and as far
out as convenient, the capacity of such tanks corresponding with the size of the
ship. These water tanks which may be built in the side of the ship or be fitted up
as separate cisterns or water compartiments are connected by means of a pipe or
Steam pipes C
pipes B and furnished with guage glasses a. and safety valves (1.
communicate with the upper part of each tank, the said pipes being provided with
pressure reducing valves for regulating the pressure of the steam from the boilers.
On the steam pipe C is a four branch cock D; the latter being operated from the
engine room or from the bridge, or both, and serving to admit steam into the tank
or tanks on either side of the ship. A valve E is provided for the purpose of
admitting sea water to the tanks.
The mode of operation is as follows:-
The
The valve E is maintained open until the tanks are about half full. This valve is
then closed and the steam admission to the tank or tanks on one side of the vessel
opened; whereby steam enters through the four branch cock D, causing the water
in this tank to be forced into the tank or tanks on the other side of the vessel.
air from the latter tank or tanks escapes to the atmosphere through another branch
in the four branch cock. Should this pressure displacement not prove sufficient to
effect the desired careening, and thus to free the vessel, the cock D is so turned as
to admit steam into the tank which, by the previous operation, has become filled
with water, the steam from the other tank escaping meanwhile into the atinosphere.
This has the effect of displacing the water on the opposite side of the vessel to that
last displaced. The above described displacements of the water may be effected in
a few seconds, according to the capacity of the pipes, and may be repeated as often
as may be until the liberation of the ship is effected. Seeing that the same water
is used repeatedly it will soon become heated and the loss by condensation is thus
not considerable.
The displacement of the water may be effected by any suitable arrangement. of
pump; and the tanks may be provided with manholes for inspection and cleaning.
When the water is no longer required in the tanks it is let out into the bilge

page_text: through a suitable valve and pumped from thence into the sea by the bilge
pump.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be perfor ned, I claim :—
1. The improved means for careening or inclining a vessel, arranged or operating
substantially as herein described, same comprising a tank or tanks disposed on either
side of the vessel and connected by means of a pipe or pipes, whereby, on the
displacement of the water in the tank or tanks on the one side, the vessel is caused
to heel over.
2. In a vessel intended for navigation in ice-covered water, the employment of a
water-tank or tanks, such as A A, disposed on each side of the vessel, a pipe or pipes,
such as B, for establishing communication between the said tank or tinks and a
four-branch cock, such as D, for admitting steam to, and allowing its escape from,
the tanks, substantially and for the purposes set forth.
Dated this 3rd day of August 1897.
For the Applicant,
G. G. M. HARDINGHAM,
191, Fleet Street, London, E.C., Chartered Patent Agent."