Fleming Patent Ship's Boat for 32 Persons
The American brothers Ivan and Frank Fleming invented propulsion gear for ships' boats, and other small craft capable of being propelled by hand-propelling gear only.
This text below is based on an American patent improvement 1941.
The original patent was from around 1930.
The invention was particularly concerned with ships' lifeboats which were used under conditions of panic at sea, and when a large number of the occupants of the boat were liable to be unskilled persons. When the boats had to be launched in a maritime disaster the occupants are mostly panic-stricken and quite incapable of handling oars with the expertness required to manipulate the boat on high seas; this condition of being unable to contribute to their own safety lowers the resistance of the occupants to shock from exposure with frequently fatal results. The hand-propelling gear of the known type referred to has the great advantage that the occupants of the boat can be set by a single person in command to reciprocating the hand levers as the boat is lowered so that the propeller is rotating when the boat reaches the water and a quick get-away at this danger point is obtained. After the initial successful launching and get-away, conditions of fatigue are likely to prevail through working the levers and one of the objects of the present invention is to obviate such conditions by employing a prime mover such as a compression ignition engine as a supplementary to the hand-propelling gear.
Photo: Amsterdam City Archive
Fleming Patent Ship's Boat for 32 Persons
The American brothers Ivan and Frank Fleming invented propulsion gear for ships' boats, and other small craft capable of being propelled by hand-propelling gear only.
This text below is based on an American patent improvement 1941.
The original patent was from around 1930.
The invention was particularly concerned with ships' lifeboats which were used under conditions of panic at sea, and when a large number of the occupants of the boat were liable to be unskilled persons. When the boats had to be launched in a maritime disaster the occupants are mostly panic-stricken and quite incapable of handling oars with the expertness required to manipulate the boat on high seas; this condition of being unable to contribute to their own safety lowers the resistance of the occupants to shock from exposure with frequently fatal results. The hand-propelling gear of the known type referred to has the great advantage that the occupants of the boat can be set by a single person in command to reciprocating the hand levers as the boat is lowered so that the propeller is rotating when the boat reaches the water and a quick get-away at this danger point is obtained. After the initial successful launching and get-away, conditions of fatigue are likely to prevail through working the levers and one of the objects of the present invention is to obviate such conditions by employing a prime mover such as a compression ignition engine as a supplementary to the hand-propelling gear.
Photo: Amsterdam City Archive