Patent ID: 7644677

Claim:
A marine safety ladder comprising: a main ladder made up of beams and rungs provided at a plurality of locations spaced a suitable distance apart in a lengthwise direction of the beams; guide rails of approximately the same length as the main ladder and disposed parallel to the beams of the main ladder; top connecting members connecting and fixing respective top ends of the main ladder and the guide rails; bottom connecting members that connecting and fixing the respective bottom ends of the main ladder and the guide rails; a sliding member that is slidable along the guide rails; an auxiliary ladder extensable in the sliding direction from the top end of the sliding member; sliding function members respectively, rotatably connected at one end thereof to the sliding member; a bottom latch element capable of detachably engaging the bottom end of the main ladder or the members in the vicinity thereof; sliding member latch elements connected to the sliding member and capable of detachably engaging the top end of the main ladder or the members in a vicinity thereof; a top hinge member rotatably supporting top connecting members; a middle hinge member rotatably supporting the other ends of the sliding function members; and a bottom hinge member rotatably supporting the bottom latch element; wherein the top hinge member is connected and fixed to one end of an underside of a deck of a floating pier or of a transom step of a boat in a width direction thereof, the middle hinge member at a middle thereof, and the bottom hinge member to an other end thereof, and the main ladder and the guide rails are rotatable about the top hinge member via the top connecting members, and with the bottom latch element being engaged with the bottom end of the main ladder or the members in the vicinity thereof, the sliding member is located at bottom ends of the guide rails, and all parts of the ladder are stowed within the width of the deck of the floating pier.