GB128184A - Improvements in Apparatus for Raising Sunken Ships. - Google Patents

Abstract

128,184. Rawlins, H. E. June 13, 1918, [Convention date]. Sunken ships, raising.-For locating a sunken ship H, Fig. 2, two vessels B, with a cable 3<1> dragging between them, steam along parallel courses until the cable is arrested by the submerged hull H. The ends of the cable can then be buoyed. To raise the ship, lifting cables 3, Fig. 1, are dragged by the vessels B under the bow and stern of the ship, the ends of the cables being carried up to lifting gear on pontoons 1 carrying a superstructure 2. A sleeve 7, Fig. 3, is placed over each lifting cable, each sleeve having mounted therein a cam-shaped lever 10. The levers of the two sleeves on one side of the ship are connected by a cable 12 somewhat shorter than the hull H, the levers of the two sleeves on the other side of the hull being similarly connected. The sleeves are lowered along the lifting cables by cables 9. When the lifting cables are raised, the cam-shaped levers are operated by the connecting cables 12 and grip the lifting-cables, preventing these from slipping away from the hull H during raising. The Specification as open to inspection under Sect. 91 (3) (a) states that, in locating the sunken ship, after the cable is arrested by the ship, the two vessels B continue to steam in the same direction and are thereby caused to swing together to the positions b, when they will be separated by a distance equal to one dimension, e.g. the length, of the submerged vessel. The two vessels B are then turned through 90 degrees and the process repeated, the vessels ultimately reaching positions c, separated by a distance equal to the breadth of the ship. The position of the ship can then be buoyed. This subject-matter does not appear in the Specification as accepted,