AN IM- PROVEMENT OF THE RUDDER AND STEERAGE OF A SHIP OR VESSEL
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ANDREW
TIMBRELL, of the Old South Sea House, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-second day of December, in the first year of His reign, give and
grant unto the said Andrew Timbrell, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His
especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Andrew Timbrell, my exors, admňors, and assigns, during the term of years
therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in
all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN IM-
PROVEMENT OF THE RUDDER AND STEERAGE OF A SHIP OR VESSEL;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said Andrew
Timbrell, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same,
relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Andrew Timbrell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof (that is to say):-
My Invention doth consist in a flap or shutter applied to each side of the stern-
post or other afterpart of a vessel, in such manner as to fall over against the
rudder and cover the spaces between the forepart of the rudder and the after-
part of the sternpost (occasioned by the pentles and gudgeons on which rudder
is hung), for the purpose of preventing the action of the water against the fore-
part of the rudder when the vessel is moving forward.
Fig. 1 represents the patent shutter or flap S, S, applied to a vessel.
A, A, is a copper bolt to which the shutter is fastened by means of the braces
and rivetts c, c, c, c, c, c. At the upper end of the bolt is a ring R, for the
purpose of shipping and unshipping the shutter. x, x, x, x, x, are pentles
fastened to the bolt, and on which the shutter hangs and traverses. B is a
socket in which the lower end of the bolt turns.
with gudgeons to receive the pentles on the bolt.
way the shutter falls back against the braces of the rudder G, G, G, G, G, G,
on the sternpost. The shutter may be kept from rising by a key in the upper
pentle, or any other convenient mode.
e, e, e, e, e, are small braces
When the vessel has stern
Fig. 2 is a representation of the shutter detached from the sternpost.
Fig. 3 is a representation of the bolt.
The Drawing annexed represents the bolt, pentles, braces, flaps, or shutters,
as made of copper. Now, any other suitable material or materials may be
used in the manufactory of my Invention, and in lieu of bolts, pentles, and
braces, the flaps or shutters may be attached to the sternpost by round hinges,
through which a bolt or rod of any suitable material may pass and act in a
socket, as the bolt before described. But these flaps or shutters so applied on
each side of the sternpost or other afterpart of a vessel for such purpose as
aforesaid, being entirely new and never before used in these kingdoms, to the
best of my knowledge and belief, I am desirous to maintain this [my exclusive
right and privilege to the same.
In witness whereof, I, the said Andrew Timbrell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.
ANDREW (L.S.) TIMBRELL.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-first day of May, in the
year of our Lord 1821, the aforesaid Andrew Timbrell 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 stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-one.