CERTAIN IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENTS RESPECTING THE FORM, CON- STRUCTION, AND MANNER OF BUILDING AND FITTING OUT SHIPS AND VESSELS FOR THE PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION, AND ESPECIALLY FOR COUNTERACTING OR DIMINISHING THE DANGER OF THAT MOST MISCHIEVOUS INVENTION FOR DESTROYING SHIPS AND VESSELS, KNOWN BY THE NAME OR APPELLATION OF SUBMARINE BOMBS, CARCASSES, OR EXPLO- SIONS
Year: 1807

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
EARL STANHOPE, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of
February, in the forty-seventh year of His reign, givo and grant unto me,
the said Charles Earl Stanhope, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the. said
Charles Earl Stanhope, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exer-
cise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my
Discovery of "CERTAIN IMPORTANT IMPROVEMENTS RESPECTING THE FORM, CON-
STRUCTION, AND MANNER OF BUILDING AND FITTING OUT SHIPS AND VESSELS FOR THE
PURPOSES OF NAVIGATION, AND ESPECIALLY FOR COUNTERACTING OR DIMINISHING THE
DANGER OF THAT MOST MISCHIEVOUS INVENTION FOR DESTROYING SHIPS AND VESSELS,
KNOWN BY THE NAME OR APPELLATION OF SUBMARINE BOMBS, CARCASSES, OR EXPLO-
SIONS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, tho
said Charles Earl Stanhope, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the

page_text: said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything therein-before con-
tained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Earl Stanhope, do hereby declare that the following written descrip-
tion and Drawings hereunto annexed contain a particular description of my
said Discovery or Invention (that is to say) :-
In the first place, the object of my said Invention is to construct ships and
vessels which, as far as it is in the nature of things possible, shall unite the
maximum of advantages with the minimum of disadvantages, and especially with
respect to the following amongst other important properties; vizt, that ships
and vessels constructed agreeably to my said Invention shall be capable of
sailing very fast on every point on which ships in general usually sail, and
shall likewise (when properly rigged) be capable of sailing very near the wind,
and of weathering most admirably; that ships and vessels constructed agreeably
to my said Invention shall ride very casy at anchor, shall be uncommonly
lively in a rough sea and also in a head sea, and shall be what is technically
called excellent sea boats; that ships and vessels constructed agreeably to my
said Invention shall have the valuable property of drawing much less water
than is usual for such ships or vessels as are of the same number of tous
respectively, and as are at the same time good sea boats. It is a very import-
ant fact that the resistance of water increases gradually and regularly as the
depth of the water increases, although in a less rapid ratio, so that the minimum
of resistance to the progressive motion of ships and vessels cannot be obtained
except upon the principle of their being so constructed as not to descend into
that part of the fluid where the unalterable law respecting fluids would render
the resistance so much more considerable than at a more moderate depth. To
construct ships and vessels of a small draught of water with the maximum of
advantages is a high and important problem which never has been solved, to
the best of my knowledge or belief, by any other person, but which I have
endeavoured to solve, and, I trust, successfully; when the draught of water is
unnecessarily great, it is highly disadvantageous in an immense variety of
respects.
The object of my said Invention is also that ships and vessels constructed
agreeably thereto shall have the excellent property of making less lee way
than other ships or vessels of the same draught of water, and shall have the
lateral resistance to the lee way more mechanically and more advantageously
applied than in any other ships or vessels of any draught of water whatsoever,
and shall, moreover, have the advantage of not being made to heel by means
of such lateral resistance, as in certain situations is the case when keels are

page_text: used, which, from their nature, are always unscientifically placed too much
below the center of gravity of the ship or vessel; that ships and vessels con-
structed agreeably to my said Invention shall, notwithstanding their compara-
tively small draught of water, have sufficient stability to carry proper sȧil, and
that they shall roll and pitch less than ships and vessels of the common
construction; that ships and vessels constructed agreeably to my said Inven-
tion shall be capable of keeping a true and steady course, and shall be capable
of being at pleasure turned readily and rapidly out of their course by means of
the rudder or by means of the gills herein-after mentioned to be used for that
purpose, and shall also be capable of coming about well in stays; and that
ships and vessels constructed agreeably to my said Invention (if properly
rigged). shall, when sailing near the wind, be capable of having their long
axis kept in or nearer to the intended course than has ever yet been accom-
plished by any other method whatsoever.
And, secondly, the Figures hereunto annexed, from 1 to 7, both inclusive,
together with the explanation thereof herein given, contain a full description
of one ship or vessel to be constructed agreeably to my said Invention, in order
that I
may be the better enabled to explain herein-after the nature of my said
Invention generally, and the manner in which it is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents a hull of a ship or vessel constructed agreeably to my
said Invention, supposed to be viewed from below; Figure 2 is a side view of
the hull of the same ship or vessel, and is that representation which is
commonly called the sheer draught; Figure 3 is a midship section of the
boundary of the hull of the same ship or vessel; Figure 4 is a perspective front
view of the hull of the same ship or vessel; Figure 5 is a perspective stern
view of the hull of the same ship or vessel. In. Figures 1; 2, 4, 5, and 8, the
corresponding colours represent corresponding perpendicular distances from the
lowest part of the ship or vessel, and the corresponding letters in the different
Figures represent corresponding. parts. Figures 6 and 7 represent re-
spectively an oblique section of the hull of the same ship or vessel from
U to v V, in Figure 1. The difference between Figures 6 and 7 is this,-
in Figure 6 the gills herein-after mentioned, invented by me, are repre-
sented, at W, w, down or open, whereas in Figure 7. those same gills are
represented at W, w, up or shut. In this latter case the outward surface of the
gills is exactly flush or level with the outside of the ship or vessel, as their
thickness may be let into the plank. A gill is the reverse of a rudder; a rudder,
whether of the common sort or of the equipollent species, is a thick instrument
(generally of wood) that works on an axis which is vertical, or nearly vertical;
whereas a gill is a thin plate of stiff metal (that need not exceed three eigths
of an inch in thickness), and that works on an axis which is horizontal or

page_text: nearly so. A gill might also be made of wood, or of any other strong substance,
but metal is far preferable to wood. For that purpose that common sort of cast
metal, which by many of the founders is called "strong metal," and which is
composed of ten parts of pure copper and of one part of grain tin, when cast
flat, clean, and perfect, will (amongst others) be very excellent for casting
gills, as various experiments made by me with that metal for these last twenty
years fully convince me. The gills may also be made of wrought metal, or of
wrought metal combined with cast, or of a combination of metals, or of any
combination of strong substances. It will be proper to make the lower edge
and also the fore and aft edges of the gills sharp, in order to diminish their
resistance through the water when down or open. In Figures 1 and 2 a
great number of gills are represented at the lead end of the ship or vessel,
between bande in those two Figures respectively, as the gills would be seen in
perspective if shut or up. Gills, similarly or otherwise situated, may be placed
on the opposite side of the same ship or vessel at the head end, and on both sides
at the stern end also. I can apply to a ship or vessel (in the same ship-planes,
or in any other fewer or more ship-planes,) one set or tier of gills only, or two
or more, as circumstances may require; and I can open or shut any one or
more of the gills as I find it expedient. I applied a small number of gills to a
small vessel of mine both at the head and stern, many years ago,
with great
success; but I herein describe the true scientific method of producing a most
admirable combined effect, which I believe to be without a parallel in the
history of navigation. The head gills are of the most importance; but the
stern gills, particularly when acting in proper combination with the head gills,
are likewise highly useful. Head gills or stern gills, or head and stern gills
conjointly, may be used either with the rudder or without it, and also as
substitutes for the rudder in case it should ever happen to be lost or rendered
unserviceable. The head gills in particular are admirably calculated to assist
a ship or vessel to weather well, and to put her head about rapidly in critical
situations where no time can safely be lost. The larboard head gills may also
be made to act in conjunction with the larboard stern gills for putting a ship
or vessel about; and the starboard head gills may likewise be made to act in
conjunction with the starboard stern gills to produce a similar effect. The
gills may moreover be used cross fashion, that is to say, the larboard head
gills may be used in conjunction with the starboard stern gills, and the star-
board head gills may be used in conjunction with the larboard stern gills. A
parallel motion sideways may be given to the ship or vessel by either of thoso
two last-mentioned methods, by which means a ship or vessel may be made to
weather incomparably, and in certain confined situations might be saved, when
otherwise she might perhaps be wrecked. By means of the very advan-

page_text: tageous parallel motion mentioned above a ship or vessel constructed agreeably
to my said Invention instead of making lee way might, on the contrary, be
made to go up towards the wind, and to make wind way, if I may be allowed
that expression. In certain cases when the ship or vessel might otherwise
become quite ungovernable from the loss of a part of her masts and rigging, or
other cause, I can use the gills in proper combination in order to assist in pre-
venting her from sheering in that very dangerous manner, which, without such
beneficial assistance, she might do; and this might preserve the ship or vessel from
destruction, when otherwise she might be lost, especially if she were to be in such
distress on some dangerous lee shore.
square, or of any other proper size.
hinges, or of external or internal pivots at its upper side, by which it is to be
connected to the side of the ship or vessel. One advantageous mode of opening
and of shutting the gills is as follows:-The line W, u, in Figures 6 and 7 respec-
tively, represents the side view of a bar which I term the gill bar, which is
screwed or rivetted to the inside of the gill W, w, or is cast with it, which gill
bar W, u, is moved from the inside of the ship or vessel. In order to prevent
the water of the sea from getting into the ship or vessel through the apperture
in the plank through which the gill bar passes, there is fixed in the inside of
the ship or vessel at each gill a water-tight vessel of wood, or of any proper
metal (such as copper), within which the gill bar is made to move or act whilst
it is performing the operation of opening or of shutting the particular gill con-
nected therewith, in the manner above explained. The above-mentioned
water-tight vessel is only about four inches wide, inside measure, in the fore and
aft direction of the ship or vessel. It may be flanched on to the inside of the
plank through which the gill bar passes by means of flanches placed fore and
aft upon the said water-tight vessel. Every other gill may be opened or shut
in a similar manner. The dotted lines in Figures 6 and 7 respectively repre-
sent the said water-tight vessel. I have different methods of moving the gill
bar from the outside of the water-tight vessel within which that gill bar is
inclosed; but one of the best ways is by means of an horizontal stuffing
box in the side of the said water-tight vessel, through which stuffing box an
axis should pass. The communication between the hand or other moving
power and the gill bar may then be made by levers connected with the said
axis, or by racks, or by any other well-known method or other ways howsoever.
I can also use vertical or sloping stuffing boxes; or I can use stuffing boxes
with pulling or pushing bars; or I can even use long pipes, open at their
upper end, without any stuffing boxes; but the above-mentioned method by
means of stuffing boxes is the method that I should prefer. In Figures
Each gill may be made about two feet
Each gill should have a pair of strong

page_text: 6 and 7 respectively one very simple and equipollent method of performing
the said operation is represented. In those two Figures 2 is the axis abovo
mentioned. The line, k, represents a lever fixed thereon on the outside of
the above-mentioned water-tight vessel. A catch or catches; or other con-
venient fastening, may be applied to that lever or otherwise, in order to keep
cach gill either open or shut, as occasion may require: The line, a, repre-
sents another lover fixed on the said axis in the inside of the same water-tight
vessel. This last-mentioned lever a, a, communicates with the gill bar by
means of a bar x, u, which has a joint at each end of it. Levers or other
communications might be led from the gills to the pilot or other officer on the
upper deck or elsewhere, or a man or lad may be stationed near the different
sets of gills. The word of command may be given to the gill attendant or gill
attendants through speaking tubes or otherwise from any part of the ship or
vessel. The gills invented by me, and described above, are not indispensable
parts or appendages of a ship or vessel constructed agreeably to my said
Invention, but they may be most advantageously and most usefully applied or
fitted thereto.
>
I
And, thirdly, the nature of my said Invention consists in a new form aud
'construction of ships and vessels, and in a new and scientific combination of
proper horizontal and vertical ship lines as described above, or founded on the
*same principles.
And my said Invention consists also in a new method of rendering a ship or
vessel (when properly rigged) capable of sailing uncommonly near the wind, and
of weathering in a manner superior to any other ever yet practiced. And this I
propose to accomplish by means similar to those above described, or to some
of them, and to be used to the extent necessary to produce the very desirable
effect above mentioned. And the proper mode of accomplishing this grand
object last mentioned is by means of the very extensive head and stern ship
planes contrived by me, and placed, with respect to the other parts of the ship
or vessel, in a proper situation and direction, as described above. And it is.
a circumstance peculiarly fortunate, that the very form and construction which
I have invented, and which I have discovered to be the most advantageous for
ships and vessels, supposing that the gills invented by me be used, is likewise
the exact form and construction which is the most scientific and the very best
for ships and vessels, exclusive of the use of gills.
And all such ships and vessels as shall be constructed agreeably to my said
Invention I shall term "Stanhope Weatherers," in order to distinguish them
from all ships and vessels built upon any other principles of naval architecture
whatsoever, as ships and vessels constructed agreeably to the principles of my

page_text: said Invention may be of an immense variety of sizes, from a boat to a ship of
the greatest burthen, and may also in some cases, perhaps, require to be made
deeper in their hold, or to be otherwise varied in the relative dimensions of their
respective parts, in order to answer some particular purpose or purposes in
the best manner possible. I can vary the dimensions specified above both
absolutely and relatively; I can increase or vary the length of the midship
body; and I can likewise vary the horizontal and the vertical ship lines,
and the number, direction, and inclination of the gills, without departing
from the true principles of my said Invention; but a great or violent
deviation from the specific species of ship lines delineated in the Figures
above mentioned will not be desirable. It will be advantageous to have
a deck at each height where a gunwale is represented in Figures 2, 3, 4,
and 5; but I can incline the part wale-reared or omit it entirely. By con-
tinuing the oblique sides of the ship or vessel higher up, or otherwise, I can so
increase the breadth of her deck as to bring her within the statute dimensions of
one foot in breadth for every three feet and a half in length; I can also add
various upper works when required; I can also make all the decks exactly.
level by comparatively raising the middle of the deck or decks; or I can omit
the sheer of the aft part only of the ship or vessel by keeping the upper lines
represented in Figure 5 as low as the corresponding lines represented in the
midship section, Figure 8, or otherwise howsoever. I can also introduce some
convex, or even some hollow horizontal ship lines; I can either use a common
rudder, or the equipollent rudder, which was above seventeen years ago
invented by me, and executed soon after with success; or I can even use the
gills instead of any rudder whatever. And I can likewise apply a keel or
keels to a Stanhope weatherer, especially if she shall be of a small size, although
generally speaking, I disapprove of any keel for the reasons assigned above;
and I can likewise make sundry other alterations and variations without at all
departing from the true principles of my said Invention.
And, fourthly, the manner in which my said Invention is to be performed is
as follows; but I declare generally, and once for all, that as to the mere
manner herein-after mentioned of executing the work (even where such
manner is new and contrived by me), I claim no exclusive privilege relative
to such mode or manner of executing the work. I can build the ship or vessel
in any one of the most approved methods, heretofore practised, or in any other
sufficient manner, by means of which the proper scientific form can be
obtained. I can, as usual, build her with planks placed on the inside of the
ribs or timbers, as well as with planks placed on the outside of them; or I
can. build her without the common inside planking by proportionably

page_text: increasing the thickness of the planks which are on the outside of the ribs
or timbers. This latter method is the ancient method, and in my opinion it
ought again to be revived. It is very far preferable to that prejudicial modern
mode of ship building by means of double planking, by which the ribs or
timbers are excluded from the fresh air, and become thereby much more
liable to decay. The following most important fact is reported by the Com-
missioners of the Land Revenue in their Eleventh Report, viz, that "The
"medium duration of the ships which compose the present navy, taken one
"with another, is only about cleven years and three quarters." This fact does,
in my opinion, clearly prove the absurdity of the present practice. Besides, a
given quantity of plank in thick stuff, placed wholly on the outside of the
ribs, will be considerably stronger than the same quantity of plank in two
thinner planks, part placed on the outside of the ribs and the remaining part
placed on the inside of them. Besides, by reviving the ancient method of
single planking, much expence of sawing and of treenailing, and of other labour,
would be saved. Besides, it is evident that outside planks of thick stuff, six
inches thick, for example, would not require that the ribs or timbers should be
placed so near to each other as in the case of the outside planks of a ship or
vessel being only from three to four inches in thickness; so that the ancient
method of thick planking being revived would, on a moderate computation, save
upwards of one third of the ribs of a ship or vessel of any given size, and yet add
very considerably to her strength. Besides, that ancient method has also the
great advantage of being much more safe with respect to accidents from fire,
inasmuch as the outside planks, when in contact with the water, cannot burn;
but this is not the case with respect to planks placed on the inside of the ribs,
and surrounded by air. Besides, ships or vessels, by being only single
planked, would be much less likely to be infested with vermin, and would be
more healthy for the crew. Besides, ships or vessels, by being only single
planked, would be much less liable to those tremendous dangers to which,
from their being built on the modern construction, they are evidently exposed,
by reason of their timbers becoming frequently unperceived in a state of decay.
Now it is evident that there is no form of ships or vessels whatsoever which
can be equally advantageous as that of the Stanhope weatherers above
described in respect to the obtainment of the various advantages last men-
tioned. Besides, the form of the said weatherers is peculiarly well calculated
to assist the introduction of an improved mode of coppering ships and vessels.
It is obvious that ships and vessels of the common form (or of any form
approaching thereto), with curved vertical ship lines combined with curved
horizontal ship lines, cannot have sheets of copper, or of any other proper

page_text: metal, applied to their bottoms in the intimate manner which is necessary for
perfection. I myself did, above sixteen years ago, make the following observa-
tion. I was then visiting a yard of one of the ablest ship builders in this
country. There was a vessel on the stocks; his men had nearly finished
coppering her bottom. I asked and obtained his permission to drive the end of
my walking stick into the copper sheathing. The stick entered into the thin
copper sheet with nearly the same ease that it would have entered into a thick
sheet of strong brown paper, and by driving my stick on forcibly in an oblique
horizontal direction I ripped the sheets of copper for several feet in length
with great ease. A Stanhope weatherer is capable of being coppered in a very
superior style, as herein-after mentioned. About the year 1777 I invented an
excellent composition (but to which I do not wish to claim any exclusive privi-
lege), which composition I have frequently applied to various useful purposes.
It is composed of three measures of pounded chalk, very dry, or dry brickdust,
and of one measure of thick (but not ropey) vegetable tar, first well mixt,
and then boiled together to the consistency of beeswax. About the year 1794
I caused the deck of the Kent, an ambi-navigator vessel of my invention
(which was about one hundred and eleven feet in length) to be covered with
that chalk-tar composition; and I should recommend it or the said brick-tar
composition to be used for the decks of the weatherers invented by me. In
the year 1790, and since that period, I have used that same sort of composi-
tion for covering the bottoms of some small vessels in various ways, and for
applying sheathing. I should also recommend that the said composition, or
some other proper substitute, be used in the following manner for coppering
the bottom of a Stanhope weatherer:-Supposing that copper sheathing be
used, a thin coat of the composition, about the thickness of a shilling, should
in dry weather be laid hot with a hot thick trowel on the planks. to be
sheathed, but no brown paper should be applied, as is too often most absurdly
practised. A similar thin coat should be laid hot on that side of the copper
which is intended to be next to the planks, the sheets of copper having first
been made moderately and regularly hot; a thick coat, about one quarter of
an inch thick, should then be trowelled on over the first coat which was laid
upon the planks. The hot sheets of copper should then be rapidly applied,
and should be made to bed as flat and as firmly as possibly by means of flat
wooden mallets. The brick-tar composition is that which I should prefer for
that purpose.
The sheets of copper should be lapped over each other about
two inches, and they should be nailed through the said lap as usual; this
should be done whilst the composition is still hot. I should also recommend
that wrought-iron knees, such as have long since been applied in building the

page_text: ships of the East India Company, should be used for holding together the
timbers of a Stanhope weatherer.
Another great advantage of a ship or vessel constructed agreeably to my said
Invention is, that the planks or thick stuff, when properly treenailed or
bolted and caulked, or rabbited, will not have the same. degree of pernicious
tendency to start from the ribs, or to spring a butt, as is the case with respect
to ships and vessels of the common construction. That fatal accident has
been supposed to have been the cause of the loss of many ships and their
crews. By an analytical experiment which I made in the year 1790 on a vessel
(about fifty feet in length) before and after she was planked, it was clearly
proved that the principal strength of ships and vessels results not near so
much from the ribs and timbers as from the planks thereof. I do not
approve of building ships and vessels with horizontal timbers in lieu of ribs,
nor of building them with horizontal timbers and slight ribs, as some persons
have proposed. I approve of stout ribs, but there need not be so great a
number of ribs of equal strength in the case of single as in the case of double
planking being used. The treenails should not (as is too much the usual
practice) be driven quite perpendicular to the surface of the plank; but the
outside end of each treenail should be made to incline a little towards the
outside edge of the plank to which it is the nearest, or else the treenails
should be inclined in some other direction, but, they never should be at right
angles to the face of the plank. In caulking decks in the usual manner one
great inconvenience sometimes happens,-the power of the caulking irons is
often superior to the power of the nails or spikes of the deck planks. This
tends to drive the planks outwards, and it has likewise the pernicious tendency
to drive outwards also the very sides of the ship or vessel. In order to
prevent this great evil, it would be well to have two planks, cach of them one
inch thicker than the rest, and to let them an inch into the deck beams towards
the two extremities, but not quite at the two extremities of the deck; even
more than two such thick planks might be used with advantage. To every
deck a like method may be applied. A great many years ago I made use of
a plan founded on the same principle for another strong purpose, and it
answered most admirably. Thick stuff, one inch thicker than the other
planks of the bottom and sides respectively, might with peculiar advantage be
similarly applied both to the bottom and to the sides of Stanhope weatherers,
and this last-mentioned method I should recommend to be adopted.
Another great advantage attending my new plan for a ship or vessel is that
it will save almost all the moulds, as very few will ever be required. In any
case, when a Stanhope weatherer shall be of considerable length, the strongest

page_text: it
way to build her would be to place a stout-tabled bulkhead, ten or twelve
inches thick, in the center of the ship or vessel, right fore and aft. The bulk-
head may be tabled in the usual way of tabling, or (which is still better) in
Mr. Marmaduke Stalkartt's mode of tabling, which is as follows:-Instead of
putting the beams together by dividing the tabling in the middle of each beam
the beams should be tabled together in dovetails, and taken through from side
to side. No kersey or flannel should be put in the scarfs, for that practice, by
retaining the moisture, tends to rot the beams, as the most experienced ship
builders well know. The said tabled bulkhead may be of oak, or, to save
oak timber, it may be of elm, or other wood fit for the purpose. It ought to
extend from the bottom timbers and planks of the ship or vessel to the height
at least of the first deck above the load water line. It ought also to extend
from the stern cabin to the raking stem. This bulkhead is not necessary; but
it would be very beneficial. It may be tabled in any other mode of tabling, or
may be applied, though with much less advantage, even without any tabling
at all. That center plank of the bottom which is right under this bulkhead
ought to be at least three inches thicker than the other planks or other thick
stuff of that flat bottom. It ought on the outside of the ship or vessel to be
either quite flush with the rest, or nearly so; but in the inside of the ship or
vessel it should be sunk one inch deep into the thwart horizontal floor timbers
of the flat bottom; and those thwart horizontal floor timbers ought also to be
sunk into it full two inches deep, by means of a broad notch cut in such thick
plank at each such floor timber. A similar plan to this might with great
propriety be adopted with respect to the other thickest planks to be applied, as
above mentioned, to the horizontal part of the bottom of a Stanhope
weatherer. If such tabled bulkhead as is mentioned above were to be properly
caulked, and were to be strongly joined to a sufficient number of thick or
thin thwart bulkheads, properly caulked also, and strongly connected to the
two sides of the ship or vessel, great additional strength and uncommon
security would be obtained thereby. This incomparable method of executing
the work might save thousands of lives and millions of property; for if the
bottom of this ship or vessel were to be essentially injured in any one particular
place (by which sort of injury any common ship or vessel would infallibly be
sunk), one only perhaps of the small rooms, cabins, or chambers formed by
5 means of the bulkheads above mentioned would fill with water, but the
remaining chambers would prevent the ship or vessel from sinking, and would
save the lives of the crew. If the ship or vessel has:ports, thwart bulkheads under
the lower ports, or under most of them, would be advantageous. The common
mode of caulking ships and vessels is highly improper. The oakum, unless it'
o be for caulking the decks or thwart bulkheads, should never be of that sort

page_text: which is made of old cables or junk, but it should all be of that sort which is
made from new hemp if intended for caulking either the bottom or the sides of
a ship or vessel, or the fore and aft tabled bulkhead. Neither should it be
driven only a little way into the joints between the planks or thick stuff, as
that practice tends to deprive the planks or thick stuff of a great part of their
mutual support, upon which mutual support, however, the chief strength of a
ship or vessel depends. Particular attention should also be paid to the shape of
the caulking irons, for if the sides of those irons be much out of parallel they
tend to cripple the planks or thick stuff in the act of caulking them. If it
shall be thought proper in building a ship or vessel constructed agreeably to
my said Invention to apply to it my improved equipollent rudder, the best way
will be to form the stern of the ship or vessel in the manner represented in
Figures 1, 2, 5, and 8 respectively, and to make the rudder and its appen-
dages of the form represented by o, O, T, t, Y, X, Y, Z, r, t, in Figure 8, where
Z, y, represents a chain, of two or more links, connected to the ship or
vessel at Z, and connected at y to two broad flat united bars, which are to be
so made as to clip the rudder from y to Y, which rudder has one notch at y,
and another notch at Y, in order to keep those united bars in their proper
place. The use of this chain Z, y, is to prevent ropes from getting between
the rudder and the ship or vessel. Those united bars may be shipped upon
the rudder after it is actually in its place, which is a great convenience
attending this improved construction invented by me. A Stanhope weatherer
is particularly well calculated to counteract or to diminish the danger of sub-
marine explosions on account of her various and remarkable combined
properties above mentioned, arising (amongst other things) from her form, her
small draught of water, her general and also local strength, and her various
rooms, cabins, or chambers. I have likewise co-operating methods to produce
the same effect, from long spars placed on the deck, and inclined both
forwards and outwards. I can, morcover, outrig her prow at several yards
before the stem by means of ropes, metal bars, common chains, or chains with
long links, two of which should be placed vertically before the prow, two more
of which should extend vertically or obliquely several feet beyond the line of
her sides, and one other of which should extend horizontally three or four feet
below her bottom. These contrivances I call Protectors, as they may tend to
afford protection against that most mischievous invention for destroying ships
and vessels known by the name of submarine bombs, carcasses, or explosions.
I can place protectors with buoys on or near the cable when a ship or vessel
rides at anchor, in order to protect the cable as well as the ship or vessel
itself.
There are other machines of my Invention, by means of which one single

page_text: ship can sweep many square miles of water in a short time, in order to
counteract and explode the trigger carcasses. I term these last-mentioned:
counteracting machines Straddlers, because they are so constructed as to.
accompany a ship or vessel on her voyage, following her, and yet sheering or
straddling sideways at the same time. A straddler consists of a long thin.
horizontal board or edge, sunk to any required depth below the surface of the:
water, and kept in that position by means of metal ballast fastened to its lower
edge. The board so ballasted is prevented from sinking by means of two
large corks, which swim on the surface of the water. One of those corks is
connected by means of a line to one end of the board on edge above mentioned;
the other cork is similarly connected to its other end. The board has head
and stern rudders, fixable at any proper angle which may be found by
experience to be the most advantageous, by which means the board on edge
(which is as many feet under water as may be required), when towed after a
ship or vessel will straddle very wide sideways. Two such straddlers may be
used. I distinguish them by the names of the starboard straddler and the
larboard one. They are both towed from one and the same iron bar, placed
at the stern end of the ship or vessel. Those two tow-lines, at the end next to
the ship or vessel, ought to be kept as low under water as the boards on edge.
Those two tow-lines are duly ballasted by small leads, and they are kept at an
even depth below water by means of thin lines tied at one of their ends to
those leads respectively, and tied at the other end to corks which float on the
surface of the water. The two tow-lines leading from that bar to those two
opposite straddlers respectively would then sweep the whole space between
them as the ship or vessel proceeds on her voyage. This might afford
protection to other ships or vessels which might follow after. But I claim
no exclusive right to the use either of the protectors or of the straddlers, or of
any of the species of them invented by me, as I particularly wish that all
captains or other commanders may at all times be allowed to secure their
respective ships or vessels, and all other ships or vessels which may happen to
be in company, against that most mischievous invention called submarine
bombs, carcasses, or explosions, by using for that purpose those two preservative
contrivances of mine last described, or either of them, at their free will' and
pleasure, and as circumstances may be found to require.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Earl Stanhope, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seven.
STANHOPE. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1807, the aforesaid Charles Earl Stanhope came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Ninth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seven.