US1398541A - Ship-salvaging apparatus - Google Patents

Description

H.D.DEAM. SHIP SALVAGING APPARATUS. APPLICATION FILED DEC-I2, I918.

1,398,5 1 I. Patented N0v.'.29, 1921.

2 SHEETS--SHEET H. D. DEAM.

SHIP SALVAGING APPARATUS.

APPLICATION FILED 056.12, 1918.

1,398,541 Patented Nov. 29, 1921.

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HENRY n. BEAM, or BENTON HARBOR, Mronrea'n, ASSIGNOR OE-VONE-I-IALF TO FRED J. PETROVICS, or CHICAGO, IL INOIS.

SHIP-SALVAGILNG APPARATUS.

Specification of Letters Eatent.

Patented Nov. 29, 1921.

Application filed December 12, 1918; Serial No. 266,374;

This invention relates to the salvaging of boats, and particularly to the salvaging of boats which are sunk in deep water, or which are otherwise difficult ofaccess, or which, for any reason are diflicult to elevate to the surface of the water. The object of the invention is to provide suitable apparatus for this purpose, and particularly to provide means for elevating the boats without injury either to the boats themselves or'to the apgaratus. 1 f the accompanying drawings Figure 1 1s a diagram indicating the general arrangement of the elevating barges, which 1 use in carrying out my invention. Fig. 2 is an enlarged plan view of one of the barges showing more or less diagrammatically the ar-' rangement of the details. Fig. 3 shows enlarged and still more in detail the arrangement of one of the elevating units used on the barge. Fig. 4: is an enlarged view of the power system of the barge. Fig. 5 is a sectional view of one ofthe steam engines of the system including the reversing mechanism. And Fig. 6 is a diagrammatic View of the apparatus in operation elevating a boat.

Great difficulty has been encountered in raising sunken boats, especially large boats sunk in deep water, due to the fact that in raising such boats, it is necessary to" attach,

thereto a large numberof elevating means such as cables passing around the hull of the boat or attached to various grappling means connected with the'hull; and very serious strains are put upon the boat, sometimes resulting in injury to the extent of breaking the boat'in two; also abnormal strains often occur on certain of the cables or grappling means, causing them to break loose; and this throws additional strains on the re mainder of the elevating means, which sometimes results in theboat breaking entirely away and sinking again to the bottom.

To overcome these and other difficulties I provide various means. In the first place the general system which is used in elevating the boats comprises a large number of comparatively small barges rather than afew large barges, so that not only suficient buoyancy ma be obtained by the number of V bargesus'ed, ut also the strain on the various elevating cables may be more easily dis tributed and made uniform it being apparent that the total strain upon each of the small barges is necessarily limited to a much narrower range than would be the case if but a small number of large barges were used. In this instance, toillustrate my invention, I have shown in Fig. 1 six barges 32 in use;

but itis to be understood that a much larger number of barges could be arranged for, each being somewhat similar to the ones described herein. 1 f Each of the barges 32, is equipped with suitable apparatus for the work, such as.v

would be apparent to anybody skilled in the art; and each is also provided with a plurality of hoisting units-10, Fig. 3, comprising steam engines 11 operating a winding drum 12 through suitable gearing, including a worm 13 and a wormwheel 14:, at a very slow rate. Adjacent each of these units is ahoisting shaft 15 extending through the bottom of the boat and upward to near the upper deck. The purpose of the shafts 15 1S to allow the operators to-more conveniently manipulate the lifting cables and to .throw'the downward pull on-the barges on the center thereof to avoid any tendency to tip over the barges.

'Any suitable block and tackle system may be used; I prefer a cable 16, with one end fixed to the sheave frame 17,and thence passing upwardly over "the sheave 18, r0 tatably mounted over the upper end of the shaft, and thence down-around the movable sheave 19, and thence upwardly over another sheave rotatably mounted over the upper end of the shaft, and thence to the drum 1%.

In use, a cable 20, Fig. '6, fixedto a hook-21, T

or other suitable means connect-edto the hull ice of the sunken boat 23, passes upwardly and Other blocks and tackles iio The system as hereinabove described is similar to the system more fully described in Patent No. 1,312,473, granted to me Aug. '5, 1919. V

The power system which I prefer comprises a steam power plant in each barge consisting of a boiler 25 for generatlng steam and a plurality of engines 11, two engines being provided for each of the operating units. In order to equalize the power applied to, and the loads on the various elevating units I provide similar engines having the same power capacity and speed, and connect the engines in parallel to the same steam main 27; so all of the engines wlll have equal steam pressure, irrespective of any variations in pressure in the steam mam. And for similar reasons the steam pressure is maintained as nearly uniform in all of the mains of the various barges. In order to more fully control the various elevating units employed one of the barges is selected as the controlling barge,'and signal rece ving stations are provided in each barge, and each station is connected, by means of cables 30, with the signaling station 31 of the controlling barge. It being understood that any of the barges may be used for the controlling 1 barge. By this arrangement the chief operator located at the signahng statlon 31 1s 7 able to direct operations on each of the other barges, so that all of the elevating means in the various barges will be operated in unison to bring about the one common result, the proper manipulation of the sunken boat.

The various units in each barge are operated simultaneously by an assistant operator thereon by means of a general steam control valve 35. This control valve is so arranged as to start or stop, simultaneously all of the engines in the barge. The engines are all reversible and each elevating unit comprises two engine cylinders with their piston rods connected to the same shaft at 90 from each other, so as toneutralize dead centers. By this arrangement the engines may be all operated. simultaneously from one point by operating the master steam control valve, and, when desired, operating the following described reversible mechanism. 7

Any suitable means may be provided for reversing the engines, I prefer a link reversing mechanism for each elevating unit, each mechanism to be operated by a rotatableshaft 40, which extends lengthwise of the barge and passes to a position near the master control valve, so as to be operated by the engineer in charge at the same time that the control valve is operated. The shaft has an arm 41 by which it may be operated by the. engineer, and arms 42 are fixed to the shaft at suitable points thereon to operate the reversing mechanism of the different engines. The mechanism which I prefer for reversing each engine, comprises a linlr 43, which is of the nature of a floating lever, having a movable fulcrum 44 fixed to an arm 45 pivoted, by a fixed pivot 46, to the framework of the engine, and connected, by means of a-link 47, to the operating arm 42 fixed to the shaft 40. As the shaft 40 is rotated in the proper direction the fulcrum 44 is shifted from one end of the slot 48 to the other. Pivoted to the lever 43 is a connecting rod 49, which is arranged to operate the slide valve 50; and also pivoted to one end of the lever 43 is an eccentric rod 51, which is suitably connected to the eccentric 52 of the engine shaft 53.

A consideration of this mechanism will show that, when the fulcrum 44 is raised, as shown in Fig. 5, the link 43 will act as a second class lever, and the'reciprocating movement of the rod 49 will be substantially one-half as much as the reciprocating movement of the rod 51. lVhen the fulcrum 44 is shifted to the lower end of the slot 48, to the position indicated by the dotted line 54, the link 43 will act as a first-class lever, and, the reciprocating movement of the rod 49 will remain substantially one-half as great as the reciprocating movement ofthe rod 51. On the other'hand whenthe fulcrum is in the raised position the movement of the two rodswill be in the same direction, but when the fulcrum is in the lower position the movement of the rods will be in opposite directions; so that when it is desired to reverse the engines it is necessary 7 gines, it being understood that all of the engines inthe barge are reversible by'rotating theshaft 40, the lever 43 is connected to the valve 50 by means of a rotary spindle 55 passing through the stufling box 56 in the hood 57 ofthe steam chest 58 of the engine. By means of this rotating spindlethe force required to operate the slide valve is materially reduced, as the friction in the stuffing box to be overcome for a given movement of the valve 50 is much less with the rotating spindle than it'would be with'an ordinary reciprocating rod.

The connection between the-rod 49 and the valve 50 includes an arm 60 fixed to the spindle 55 outside of the hood 57 and is connected to the slide valve by means of the link 62. By the use of an arm 61 materially longer than the arm 60, the movement of the valve 50 is materially greater than the movement of the connecting rod 49, and the relative movement of these members can be adjusted by adjusting the relative lengths of the arms 60 and 61, so as to.

arrange for any desired eccentric, or for any length of lever arms of the floating lever a3. In this connection it is to be understood that the lever arms may be any desired relative lengths provided only that the relative movements of the rods 49 and 51 remain unchanged when the fulcrum is shifted from one end of the slotto the other. In order to prevent displacement of the lever 4.3 any suitable means may be used. I prefer for a the purpose the support 63, pivoted to the frame of the engine 64 coaxially with the fulcrum when raised, and also pivoted to the lower end of the lever 43. And I prefer to have the engines rotating the shaft in the direction to elevate when the fulcrum is raised, and hence is coaxial with the upper pivot of the support 6. 7

It will be seen that, bythe use of a plurality of barges and a plurality of elevating systems in each barge, as hereinabove set forth, substantially simultaneous control is 7 provided for all of the elevating means, and

substantially uniform force may be applied to the elevating cables.

In operation, the boat is grappled in any suitable manner, such as is fully described in my said copending application. The method set forth in said copending application is then carried out substantially in the manner set forth; that is the boat is very slowly, carefully and uniformly pulled free from the ground. Stronger grappling means, if necessary, are then provided; and the boat is then lifted more rapidly, uniform tension being maintained on the various cables so as to avoid undue straining of the boat or breakingof any of the elevating elements. The boat, if more or less inverted, is turned right side up whenv suspended by the apparatus. This is accomplished by raising one side by driving forwardly the engines of the set of barges controlling that side, and, if necessary, by lowering the other side by reversing the engines of the barges controlling that side. By the various means described, complete control of the boat is obtained during all of these operations, so that the danger of injuring the boat or the elevating means is eliminated, it being well understood that the raising of large boats, especially when inverted and along distance under the surface of the water, is an extremely difficult operation, and very frequently results in complete failure or especially serious injury to the boat itself, or to the elevating means.

I claim as my lnventlonz 1. in a boat salvaging system, a plurality of elevatlng barges, a plurality of elevating one of said barges to each of the other barges,

a plurality of devices adapted to be connected to a sunken vessel, an elevating drum operatively connected with each of said engines to be rotated continuously as the engine is operated, and cables respectively connecting said devices with said drum, whereby said devices when connected to a sunken vessel may be pulled upwardly continuously and with uniform forces. v

2. In a boat salvaging system, a plurality of elevating barges, a plurality of elevating engines in each barge, all of the engines in all of. the barges being substantially similar, means for supplying a uniform amount of steam at substantially the same pressure to.

allof the engines in any one of the barges, means for simultaneously signaling from one of said barges to each of the other barges,

in one of said barges, said reversing means comprising a rotatable rod passing from the means for supplying the steamto each of said engines, with rotating means fixed thereto adjacent said steamsupplying means, said rod being operatively connectedto each ofsaid engines.

3. In a boat salvaging system a plurality of elevating barges, a plurality of similar elevating" engines in each of said barges,

means for passing steam in substantially uniform amounts and'pressures to each of the engines in said barges, devices adapted to be connected with a sunken vessel, a cable connected with each of said devices, and operating means connecting said cables with said engines for producing a continuous force on said cables as said engines operate, the magnitude ef all of the forces being substantially the same.

in testimony whereor, I hereunto set my hand.

. 'HENRY D.

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