HOLCROFT'S PATENT PORTABLE SAFETY BOAT OR PONTOON. Fig. 1. Ꮓ VOL. XXXVI. Mechanics' Magazine, MUSEUM, REGISTER, JOURNAL, AND GAZETTE. No. 977.] SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1842. [Price 3d. HOLCROFT'S PATENT PORTABLE SAFETY BOAT OR PONTOON.* To a people so eminently and essentially maritime as the English nation, an invention which gives additional safety to mariners and others, who are led by the necessities or the vicissitudes of life to traverse the ocean, cannot fail to be regarded with deep interest by the whole community. The vast increase that has taken place of late years in the numbers of those who daily seek that occupation and subsistence in the cultivation of land in the colonies which are denied to them on their own soil, renders it a matter of the highest importance to ensure to them during their passage to the distant shores of Australia or the Canadas, a greater degree of safety than now unfortunately has been found to exist; so that in case of any sudden disaster at sea, and whilst distant from any human aid, the mariners may be able to command within their own vessel the means for ensuring an escape from the horrors of a death by drowning, or the still more horrible one of destruction by fire. The instances, far too numerous to particularise, which are on record of the loss of human life at sea, arising from the destruction of ships by fire or water, offer one melancholy reflection to the observer-namely, that the majority of these fatal occurrences have been the result of an insufficiency of boats, wherein the crew and passengers could seek a temporary refuge; and it has hitherto been found totally impossible to remedy this evil, inasmuch as the bulkiness and unaccommodating form of the boats at present in use render it a matter of difficulty to find safe stowage even for the scanty and limited number that are at present to be found on board of merchant and passenger ships. The consequence of this inadequate supply of boats has been, in most cases where the number of passengers and crew has exceeded that which the boats could contain, to occasion the most awful and desperate struggles for priority in obtaining a place in the boats; which has in some cases ended in the swamping of the boats, from the multitudes that rushed into them in the hope of escaping death: or else in a • Patent dated October 28, 1841; Specification enrolled April 28, 1842. catastrophe still more frightful to contemplate, namely, the violent ejection or murder of the weakest, in order to lighten the overburdened barque-as was seen not very long ago in the case of the American ship William Brown, the crew of which saved themselves in this horrible manner at the expense of the lives of those whom they were bound to protect and to save, even to their own detriment. It needs, therefore, no very elaborate exordium to prove that at the present the principal reliance for the safety of those who go down to the deep in ships," is more in the protection which a gracious and ever-merciful Providence is always ready to afford his creatures, and in the goodness of the ship, and skilfulness in the mariners, than in any hopes of escape by means of the boats which are carried on board emigrant and merchant vessels. The invention, therefore, of a boat which should combine portability, capacity, lightness of draft, capability of being contained in a small compass, and unconquerable buoyancy, and which to those essential qualities should add that of being economical in its construction, both in materials and labour,-has long been a desideratum. Many persons have obtained patents for inventions within the last fifty years, purporting to be boats for the preservation of life in shipwrecks and storms; and the four quarters of the globe have furnished those who have engaged in the endeavour to construct such a boat, with models of various degrees of merit but hitherto, notwithstanding the numerous efforts that have been made, nothing which can really claim to be successful has as yet been achieved. The Greenlander, the Esquimaux, in common with the fisherman of the Coromandel coast, have furnished their leathern skiffs, or their fibre-sown massoula boat, as models; and the results, as exhibited in the life-boats of Captains Manby, Basil Hall, and many others, have been so far good that they have replaced the clumsy fabrics that were formerly in use for the purposes to which they are applied. Still there remains to be overcome the hitherto insuperable difficulty of furnishing a cheap, safe, light and portable boat, which shall serve the purposes of the mariner HOLCROFT'S PATENT PORTABLE SAFETY BOAT OR PONTOON. whilst engaged on distant voyages, and be equally at the service of the freshwater sailor, or finally be adapted to the important services so often required by our troops in the passage of torrents and rivers during a march through an unknown or hostile country. The invention which is now offered to the public will, it is hoped, supply the lamentable deficiency which is above shown to exist; and, as the number of those who seek for food and employment in distant colonies is, owing to the constant and progressive increase in the population, yearly multiplying in numbers, Fig. 2. 339 it becomes a matter of the highest importance to provide additional means for their safe passage across the ocean, or, at all events, for their temporary safety, in case of accident to the vessel which conveys them. The great difficulty in the way of providing an adequate number of boats for the safety of crew and passengers, has hitherto been, as already intimated, the unwieldiness and bulkiness of the boats at present in use. There can, according to the present mode of constructing them, be no more boats carried in every merchantman than can accommodate from forty to sixty persons; and even this number would be with difficulty contained in them, not to speak of the room required for water and provisions. The number of passengers and crew on board of emigrant ships is frequently double that above mentioned; and hence, in cases of shipwreck, foundering, or other casualties incidental to sea-voyages, there is always a prospect of those horrible struggles for preservation amongst the unhappy sufferers which have been before referred to. The boat in question is of French in vention, but has been patented in this country as well as in France. It is constructed upon the principle of a skeleton frame, easily put together, and as easily disconnected and folded in a small compass. The skeleton is constructed so as to fold easily and commodiously into onesixth of the space which it occupies when it is expanded and put to its proper use as a boat; and it is covered over with two folds of canvass of the best and strongest quality, which, after having been previously prepared with dissolved 340 HOLCROFT'S PATENT PORTABLE SAFETY BOAT OR PONTOON. caoutchouc, are glued one to the other, on the inner side of each, by a solution of the same material, so as to form an impenetrable and durable covering, wholly impervious to water, and more capable of resisting a sudden shock from breakers or sunken rocks, than either oak or the strongest deal planks would be. Το provide for the permanent and unconquerable buoyancy of the safety-boat, it is provided with air-cells, or cases partitioned off, and each rendered independent of the other, so that in case of an accidental fissure being made in any one of these cells, the remainder, being uninjured, enable the boat to preserve its buoyancy. The strength of the canvass can be increased at pleasure, according to the size of the boat, or the mode in which it is to be employed, so as to give this material a degree of strength equal to that of sheet iron; while its pliability adds greatly to the safety of the boat, by enabling it to sustain the shock of an accidental encounter with a rock or other hard body, by which an ordinary boat would be staved and swamped. The interior of the boat may, moreover, be strengthened to any degree required by the employment of thin sheets of iron or planks of wood, disposed so as to form a commodious bulwark and footing along the sides and bottom. Having thus sketched, in a cursory manner, the advantages and facilities which at the first aspect of the invention are suggested to the mind, it may be advisable to examine what has actually been achieved by the employment of boats constructed upon this principle, of the materials indicated, in the kingdom of France; and as these facts are on record as having taken place under the immediate cognisance of the Minister of Commerce, the Duke of Orleans, and various other persons of the highest rank and of the first intelligence in France, they, perhaps, will serve in some degree as an apology for what might be said of the capacities of this patent boat. In the Journal des Débáts of April 21, 1841, we find the following description of one of these boats: "We have recently spoken of the new patent boats, which take to pieces, and are readily constructed, and which were lately exhibited in minature on the Seine. "A trial of far greater importance was made, of their powers of conveying merchandise, in the presence of the Minister of Commerce yesterday, which was also witnessed by a vast number of spectators. The first large sized boat of this description reached Paris from Auxerre after a passage of unusual rapidity, and equal freedom from accidents of every description. Notwithstanding many severe concussions to which the boat was purposely subjected during the passage,- -notwithstanding, also, the lack of water, which delayed the passage of other boats on the river; and many other drawbacks, as well studied as accidental, not the slightest injury was sustained by the boat, which preserved its form, as well as the solidity of its frame, most perfectly; nor was there the smallest leakage to be perceived. When it is stated that the boat was of the following dimensions, it will at once be perceived that the principle upon which it is proposed to construct them has been subjected to the severest test which could be devised, and that it has endured it with success :-The length of the boat was 32 metres, 25 centimetres; the breadth was 5 metres, 10 centimetres. The cargo, brought from Auxerre, (in the centre of Burgundy,) consisted of 17 decasteres of new wood, weighing 89,862 kilos, (80 tons, 5 cwt.;) 4,000 metres of wood in planks, weighing 1,8000 kilos, (16 tons, 1 cwt. ;) and several hogsheads of wine, weighing 2,138 kilos, (2 tons,) making altogether 110,000 kilos (98 tons, 6 cwt.) of cargo, which was safely delivered at the Quai d'Orsay. As soon as the cargo was discharged, the boat was taken to pieces, (which was effected in three or four minutes' time,) and being placed on two carts, the materials were conveyed to Auxerre, to be again put together, and floated down the stream with another cargo. This experiment, therefore, amply testifies to the strength and powers of resistance of the materials of which these boats are constructed; and as their facility of setting up and taking to pieces depends wholly upon their size, it will be found that five minutes, upon an average, will suffice to ship or unship a boat large enough to carry with ease and safety from twenty to forty persons." In a mere preliminary sketch such as this, it is unnecessary to expatiate upon the numberless ways in which this invention may be turned to account. It offers to those who are fond of aquatic pleasures a safe and inexpensive means of pursuing their amusements: a folding boat, constructed upon the principle herein described, may be carried by one man to the water's edge, expanded and fitted out in a few minutes' time, and HOLCROFT'S PATENT PORTABLE SAFETY BOAT OR PONTOON. launched upon its native element with a facility equal to that of expanding an umbrella. The various uses to which this invention may be turned, need only be hinted at to render them obvious to the dullest imagination. Pontoon boats, whaling skiffs, wherries, punts, and all the various kinds of boats, whether used for pleasure, commercial or warlike purposes, or in Polar voyages of discovery (where a portable and easily stowed boat would be an invaluable aid) can be alike constructed upon the principle, and formed from the materials used in these boats. The means of providing safety for his crew and passengers, however numerous they may be, are here provided for every mariner in command of a vessel; and whether she be a majestic ship of 120guns, or a mere chaloupe, the same means are equally available; whilst the stowage-room required for any number of boats will be greatly less than that reIndequired for the boats now in use. pendently, likewise, of this consideration, which in itself is of no mean weight, is another of almost equal importance, namely, the the cost of each boat would not amount to more than that of the fabrics now in use; and when to these two features is added a third, of far higher importance than all the rest put together, namely, that the patent boat is incomparably superior in point of safety to every other invention that has yet been laid before the public,-it is conceived that the invention has claims to the attention of the Government of this maritime nation which no other novelty in the way of the useful arts has ever yet possessed. H. Description of the Engravings. (From the Patentee's Specification.) Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an exploring party provided with one of the boats, the details of the construction of which are shown in figs. 2, 3 and 4. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section; fig. 3 a plan; and fig. 4 a cross section of the boat or pontoon. A B is the keelson, C C C are ribs which spring from the keelson to which they are secured by the swivel joints H and 1'. DE is a gunnel, to which the ribs are made fast at top, and which is jointed at I I, just beyond the last rib at each end. G G G are side-pieces, which bind the ribs laterally together, being nailed, or otherwise secured to them, about half way between the keelson 341 and gunnel. I J M are the stem and sternpieces, which are secured to the keelson by nuts, M M, and connected to the nearest ribs by the links K L, K L, which links turn on joints at K K, and are attached by hooks and eyes to the ribs at L L. O O are girders, by which one half of the ribs (that is to say every other rib) is connected transversely at top; they are linked to the tops of the ribs by swivel joints, and are jointed at the middle, but to support them at the middle joints when extended, each rod has a short under-stay O', which is secured at one end to one-half of the rod, while the other is made fast by a ring P, which slides on the other half of the rod, and is just large enough to come over the under stay, when brought forward to the centre of the rod. RR are the rollocks for the oars. The parts before described constitute the framework of the boat or pontoon, and may either be of wood, or cane, or metal, or any other strong but light substance which will answer the purpose, excepting only that the joints, links, and rings, should, in every case, be of metal. When the framework of the boat has been thus put together, it is covered up to the edges of the gunnel with any of the approved sorts of waterproof canvas, or with thin sheets of metal, protected from oxydation (as far as may be) by suitable coatings, which covering is to be nailed, or otherwise secured to the gunnel. To the stem and stern and sides of the boat, floaters V V V, are also attached, consisting of hollow air and water-tight cases, made either of metal, or of some other impervious material, or consisting of cases filled with cork-shavings, or other substance of the like small specific gravity, or consisting of large pieces of solid cork; and these floaters, when consisting of cases filled in either of the modes aforesaid, are divided into compartments, two, three, four, or more, so that in the event of one compartment being damaged so as to let in air or water, the injury may not extend to the other compartments, and the boat still remain insubmergible. When the boat is not required for use, it can be folded up so as to carry on the shoulder, or under the arm, like an umbrella. For this purpose the nuts M M, which secure the stem and stern pieces to the keelson, are to be first unscrewed, and then the eyes L L, by which they are connected with the nearest ribs, unhooked, after which the links K Lare to be turned in their joints K K, till they are in a line with the keelson; the stem and stern ends of the gunnel doubled down at the joints I I, till they are in the position indicated by the dotted lines J J, fig. 2; and the cutwaters JJ brought round into the position indica |