GB819795A - Improvements in or relating to life-saving apparatus for submarine craft - Google Patents

Abstract

819,795. Submarines' escape dinghies. R.F.D. CO. Ltd., JONES, W. G. A., and BOWMER, K. C. April 22, 1958 [Jan. 29, 1957], No. 3136/57. Classes 113 and 115. [Also in Group XXI] Life saving apparatus for submarine craft comprises an inflatable dinghy 11 in a buoyant container 10, a free flooding cylindrical housing 12 built into the superstructure 13 on the pressure hull 14 of the craft, a cover 15 for retaining the container in the housing means controlled from inside the pressure hull for releasing said retaining cover to permit the container to float to the surface when the craft is submerged, means for inflating the dinghy and means for releasing it from the container. A dinghy mooring line 26 is stowed in the space around a hollow cone 25 in the housing, is anchored on the hull at 28 and may contain a telephone cable which is led into the hull at 29. To release the apparatus compressed air from a reservoir 81 is introduced into a cylinder 87 to raise a ram 75. This lifts the container 10 to force open the cover 15. As the container floats upwards a cap 76 moves out of contact with the ram 75 so that a spring 74 rotates linkage 69-64-66 about pivot 65 thereby moving a block 67 clear of collars 58, 68 on a rod 55 connected to a piston 61 in a cylinder 57 open to the sea through a passage 62. When the container approaches the surface, the reduced pressure acting on the piston 61 enables a spring 59 to move the rod 55 to the right, thus rotating a lever 51 to actuate the operating head 46 of a gas cylinder 45 to release gas into the dinghy. The inflated dinghy forces apart the two hemispheres 10a, 10b of the container, from which it releases itself. It is attached by a painter 63 to the hemisphere 10b which is secured to the mooring line 26 and acts as a marker buoy (see Group XXI).