A COMBINED GUNBOAT AND DREDGER
Year: 1884

page_text: We, WILLIAM SIMONS and ANDRew Brown, both of the town and county of
Renfrew, North Britain, Shipbuilders and Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of our invention for "A COMBINED GUNBOAT AND DREDGER" to be as
follows:
Our combined Gunboat and Dredger consists essentially of a vessel of suitable
form and dimensions which we fit with dredging apparatus of any of the usual
descriptions, for the purpose of enabling the said vessel to remove shoals, cut
channels, or perform other similar work for which such drodging apparatus is
ordinarily employed, and we also fit the said vessel with one or more guns, after
the manner of a gunboat-The said gun or guns may consist of bow, stern, or
broadside guns, either with or without turrets-The said gun or guns, of whatever
description may be arranged to be loaded and trained by hand, or may be worked
by the medium of hydraulic or other suitable apparatus, or from the engine which
is employed to drive the dredging machinery.
If desired we may also fit our said vessel with any of the usual forms of
machine guns.
We may also fit our improved vessel with one or more screw or other propellors.
The advantages of a vessel constructed according to our invention, are obviously
very great, as being provided with means of offence and defence, it could, when
provided with means for self-propulsion, cut through a shoal, bar, or other obstacle,
to get near an enemy's position in order to make a more effectual attack; or it
could be employed to remove an obstruction to permit the passage of other vessels,
and could repel attacks while so engaged; or it could be used as an ordinary
gunboat, or dredger, especially.in Colonial Ports, or in various other ways.
A vessel constructed according to our invention, may be made either as a Hopper
Dredger or fixed dredger.
Our invention can be applied to any existing gunboat or dredger by making the
necessary modifications and additions.
Dated this Fourth day of December 1884.

page_text: We WILLIAM SIMONS and ANDREW BROWN both of the town and County of
Benfrew, North Britain, Shipbuilders and Engineers do hereby declare the naturo
of our invention for "A COMBINED GUNBOAT AND DREDGER
"and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
"the following statement :-
.
Our combined gunboat and dredger consists essentially of a vessel of suitable
form and dimensions, which we fit with dredging apparatus, of any of the usual
descriptions, for the purpose of enabling the said vessel to remove shoals, cụt
channels, or perform other similar work for which such dredging apparatus is
ordinarily employed, and we also fit the said vessel with one or more guns to
enable it to act as and fulfil the duties of a gunboat when so required.
The said gun or guns, with which our said vessel is fitted, may be either bow,
stern, or broadside guns, or the said vessel may be fitted with a combination of any
or all such descriptions of guns.
The guns may be placed in revolving turrets, or may merely be mounted to
traverse on pivots or racers on an upper or lower deck and if on an upper deck
may be provided with any suitable form of shield desired.
The said gun or guns, of whatever description, may be arranged to be loaded
and trained by hand, or by the medium of hydraulic or other suitable apparatus, or
by means of mechanism driven by the engine which is employed to work the
dredging machinery.
If desired we may also fit our said improved vessel with any desired form of
machine gun.
A vessel constructed according to our invention, may be made either as a hopper
dredger or a fixed dredger, and may be fitted with one or more screw or other
propellers.
In order more clearly to explain the nature of our invention, we will now
proceed to explain by reference to the accompanying sheet of drawings, one mode
of carrying out our said invention in practice.
Figure 1, is a side elevation and Figure 2, is a plan, of a vessel constructed
according to our invention, as a self-propelling hopper dredger and gunboat.
The same letters refer to the same parts in each figure.
A is the hull provided with twin screws B for self-propulsion (only one of the
said screws is shewn in the drawing).
The bucket-ladder of the dredging apparatus is not shewn in the drawing, but
is indicated by the dotted centre line C. It is supported at one end by the standards
and frame D, and the free end is raised and lowered from the standards E.
F is the channel through the centre of the vessel down which the bucket ladder
is lowered so that the end of the said ladder can project below the bottom of the
vessel to the required depth when the said vessel has to perform dredging operations.
The engines which drive the dredging apparatus and the screw propellors are
situated at H.

page_text: Two breech loading rifled guns J, are mounted on each side of the deck near
the bows. These guns as shewn are arranged to traverse around a pivot K, so that
they can be pointed fore and aft, or broad side, or at any intermediate angle
contained within the dotted circle L, so that a shot can be fired by one or other of
the said guns in any direction and the vessel thus becomes a very efficient gun-
boat We do not confine ourselves to the precise design of the vessel and dredging
apparatus, nor to the number nature or position of the guns shewn in this drawing,
and we may, if desired, in addition to such dredging apparatus and guns, provide
our improved vessel with torpedo launching apparatus to increase the scope of its
offensive and defensive powers.
Our invention can be applied to an existing gunboat or dredger by making the
necessary alterations therein and adding the required apparatus thereto.
The advantages of a vessel constructed according to our invention are obviously
very great, as being provided with means of offence & defence, it could (when
provided with means for self propulsion) cut through a shoal, bar, or other obstacle
to get near an enemy's position, in order to make a more efficient attack, or it
could be employed to remove an obstruction to permit the passage of other vessels
and could repel attacks while so engaged, or it could be used as an ordinary
gun-boat or dredger (especially in Colonial ports) or in various other ways.
We do not claim the use by itself of a vessel fitted with dredging apparatus
only, nor of a vessel fitted with guns only, as vessels so fitted are well known and
in constant use; but having now particularly described & ascertained the nature of
our said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare
that what we claim is
1. A vessel fitted with dredging apparatus and guns, constructed and arranged
so that the said vessel will serve the purposes of a dredger and a gunboat, sub-
stantially as herein set forth.
2. A vessel fitted with dredging apparatus and guns and torpedo apparatus
constructed and arranged so that the said vessel will serve the purposes of a
dredger, a gunboat and a torpedo boat, substantially as herein set forth.
3. The combination with a hopper dredger or fixed dredger, either with or
without means of self propulsion, of guns, or guns and torpedo. apparatus, so that
the said dredger may also serve as a gunboat substantially as herein set forth.
4. The combination with a gun-boat of suitable dredging apparatus, so that the
said gun-boat may also serve as a dredger, substantially as herein set forth.
Dated this Fourth day of September 1885.