US3859681A - Vessels - Google Patents

Abstract

Emergency craft for patrol, search, rescue and firefighting operations having weather deck structures which fit into apertures in the deck and are removable to provide full access to components below the weather deck. These vessels can accomplish directional movements of forward, reverse, side and rotation about their centers of gravity. Most of these movements can be accomplished even though an engine has become inoperable.

Description

ilnited States Patent Mc Va'iy et a1.

[ VESSELS [76] Inventors: George W. Mc Vay, Mahone Bay,

Nova Scotia, Canada; Thomas A. Stansbury, 7237 S. Shore Dr., Chicago, 111. 60649 [22] Filed: May 5, 1972 [21] Appl. No.: 250,688

[52] US. Cl. 9/6, 9/1 R [51] Int. Cl B63b 3/00 [58] Field of Search 9/1 R, 6; 114/56, 65 R, 114/67, 71,189, 150, 151, 77 A;115/11, 12,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,257,151 2/1918 Tierney 46/95 1,452,026 4/1923 Caspary 114/189 3,076,426 2/1963 Alexander et a1.

[ Jan. 14, 1975 3,371,639 3/1968 Schillreff 114/77 A 3,438,073 4/1969 Brown 3,447,259 6/1969 Cagen.....

3,473,839 10/1969 Elble 9/1 R Primary Examiner-Trygve M. Blix Assistant ExaminerChar1es E. Frankfort Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Mason, Albright & Stansbury [57] ABSTRACT Emergency craft for patrol, search, rescue and firefighting operations having weather deck structures which fit into apertures in the deck and are removable to provide full access to components below the weather deck. These vessels can accomplish directional movements of forward, reverse, side and rotation about their centers of gravity. Most of these movements can be accomplished even though an engine has become inoperable.

8 Claims, 10 Drawing Figures PATENTEU JAN I SHEET 1 or 3 PATENTED JAN 1 4 [975 m ear 3 VESSELS The present invention relates to small vessels and more particularly to special purpose or emergency craft for patrol, search, rescue and firefighting operatrons.

An object of the invention is to provide a new and improved emergency vessel.

Another object is to provide a search and rescue vessel for search and rescue operations which is capable of operating in shallow water and at sea and also capable of being transported at high speed on a trailer behind an emergency vehicle.

An additional object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved military patrol boat specifically designed to be propelled by hydraulic jets.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a preferred embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a top elevational view of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a stern elevational view of the embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;

FIG. 4 is a partial cross sectional view taken along the lines 44 in FIG. 2;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged fragmentary view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view of a modified version of the invention;

FIG. 7 is a top elevational view of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a stern elevational view of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7;

FIG. 9 is a bottom view of the embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIGS. 6-8; and

FIG. 10 is an elevational view of the control console illustrated in FIG. 7 taken along the lines 10-10.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many different forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail, embodiments of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosures are to be considered as exempliflcations of the principles of the present invention and it is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiments illustrated. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.

Referring first to FIGS. 1-5 a search and rescue craft which is 22 feet in length is illustrated. It has a semi-V type hull l0 and a deck 11 secured to the hull at the gunnel 12. A rub rail 13 of resilient material such as hard rubber is secured to the gunnel 12, encircling the juncture of the deck and hull entirely around the craft. The hull 10 and the deck 11 form a blunt bow 14. The deck 11 has three apertures 15, 16 and 17 which receive a removable cockpit 18, a control station 19 and a hatch cover 20 respectively.

A series of projections 21-24 extend downwardly aperture 16, and another similar U-shaped section 32 is formed in the edge of the deck 11 around the aperture 17. Referring specifically to FIG. 4 the control station has a downward pointing shaped edge 33 formed on its outer portions. The edge 3.3 enters the U-shaped section 31 when the control station 19 is mounted onto the deck 11. Small conduits 34 and 36 connect the upward facing U-shaped section 31 to the exterior of the hull 10 to drain water flowing onto the deck 11 and the removable control station 19. Thus water or other lfuid that runs into the U-shaped section 31 is conducted overboard without running into the bilge of the vessel. The cockpit l8 and the deck section 20 have similarly downward pointing edges (not shown) which fit into the U-shaped sections 30 and 32 respectively. Similar drain tubes or conduits to conduits 33 and 34 join the U-shaped sections 30 and 32 to the outside of the hull 10 so that rainwater or sea water flowing into these U- shaped sections are also drained overboard rather than running down into the bilge. Bolts (not shown) are mounted through the U-shaped sections to secure the removable structures to the deck 11.

The hull 10 has two hydraulic jet turbines 36 and 37 mounted in the stern of the hull 10. These are connected by drive shafts 38 and 39 to two gasoline internal combustion engines 40 and 41. The hydraulic jet turbines are axial flow pumps of the type more fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,124. However, any of the hydraulic jet turbines contained in the co-pending application filed, May I2, 1972 Ser. No. 252,901 may be substituted for the hydraulic jet turbines 36 and 37 shown in the drawings. It is only necessary to modify the controls for hydraulic jet turbines as indicated in the co-pending application. Side thrust bow steering jet nozzles 42 and 43 are installed in the bow of the hull 10 and are connected by conduits 44 and 45 to a diverter valve 46 which is in turn connected by a conduit 47 to a hydraulic jet turbine 37. The operation of the bow nozzles 42 and 43 and a diverter valve 46 are more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,661.

Referring again to FIGS. 2 and 4 the control station consists of the control console 50 which has mounted thereon a steering wheel 51, a bow steering control handle 52, engines throttle controls 53 and 54, engine instrument panels 55 and 56, combustible fume detector control panel 57, and search lights 58 and 59. Forward-neutral- reverse levers 60 and 61 are mounted on opposite sides of the console 50. The steering wheel 51 is connected to rotate the rudder (or steering mechanism) in both hydraulic jet turbines 36 and 37. Rotation of the rudder blade also rotates the reversing nozzle as is more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,124. The connecting linkage between the steering wheel 51 and the rudder blades in the hydraulic jet turbine or propulsion pumps may be of any conventional design well known to those skilled in the art. The bow steering control lever 52 is connected by a pushpull control cable to the diverter valve 46 so that a leftward movement of the lever 52 will open the diverter valve nozzle to bow thruster 43 and a rightward movement of the arm will open the butterfly valve to bow thrust valve 42. Thus to move the bow to the right the control lever is moved to the right and to move the bow To the left the lever is moved to the left. The forwardneutral-reverse lever 60 controls the valve mechanism for the starboard hydraulic jet turbine 36 and the forward-neutral-reverse lever 61 controls the valve mechanism on port hydraulic jet turbine 37. As is more fully described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,124 the main propulsion openings of the hydraulic jet turbines receive water when the control levers are in the forward position. Reversing nozzles on the jet receive water when the control levers 60 and 61 are in the reverse position and no water passes to either the main propulsion opening or the reversing nozzle when the appropriate control lever is in the neutral or shutoff position. A seat may be provided for the operator to sit at the console 50 so that he can easily reach the aforementioned controls. From the control console either sitting or standing a single operator can see everything that is occurring in the cockpit ahead of him, can turn and observe the deck behind him, can look over the bow of the boat, look alongside both sides of the boat and also look over the stern. In other words, a single operator operating the boat at the control station can have a thorough view of everything about him both on the boat and in the water. The present arrangement gives maximum visibility and maximum control of the craft since by use of the described propulsion system the op erator may utilize'both hydraulic jet turbines to propel the boat forward at high speed, may use the starboard hydraulic jet turbine 36 to propel the boat while utilizing the port hydraulic jet turbine 37 to charge the diverter valve 46 with water under pressure and then utilizing the bow steering nozzles 42 and 43 to steer the boat, he may use the reversing jet on hydraulic jet turbine 36 in conjunction with the bow steering jets to turn the boat without any advance when it is dead in the water or he may cause the boat to move sideways.

The search lights 58 and 59 are placed on top of the console 50 in order that they may more thoroughly cover the area surrounding the boat from this superior vantage point. Thus in approaching a downed aircraft or a stricken vessel the operator may bring the blunt bow 14 of the search and rescue craft up to the stricken craft so that personnel can walk aboard over the bow and into the cockpit 18. If the stricken craft hasa large number of personnel aboard, these may be transferred to life rafts carried on the deck section 20. Suitable rafts would be of the twenty or forty man variety and by this method as many as eighty persons could be placed in such rafts. The rafts would merely be inflated and placed alongside the stern until filled with personnel coming over the bow into the cockpit and then down into the life rafts. The life rafts could then be pulled clear of the stricken craft and the rescue vessel utilized to carry the more seriously injured personnel ashore and then return to tow the rafts to shore or transfer the remaining personnel to the boat and bring them ashore by a series of shuttle runs. Steps 70, 71 and 72 facilitate stepping between the deck 11 and the deck of the cockpit 18.

Referring now to FIGS. 610, a 36 foot overall patrol boat has a hull 80, a weather deck 81, a cabin structure 82 rising above the level of the weather deck 81, a control station generally indicated at 83, turrets 84, 85 and 86, and an afterdeck section 87. For military patrol boats the turrets are utilized to mount such weapons such as dual fifty caliber machine guns by placing a machine gun mounting ring around the edge of the turret. For fire fighting deck pipes may be mounted in these turrets. The forward turret 84 and the stern turret 86 have fields of view of at least 280 and the top turret 85 has a field of view of a full 360. Therefore the fields of view of all three turrets extend to both sides of the craft and forward and aft to approximately 40 on the bow and 40 on the quarter. In these latter areas at least two turrets have a clear field of view at all times.

The hull 80 is of the semi V type but differs from the conventional semi V by having two inverted U-shaped channels 91 and 92 formed in the bottom of the hull 80 and running parallel to a center line 90 of the hull 80. These U-shaped channels are approximately a foot in width and terminate near the stern. As the boat planes a small amount of air is entrapped in the channels 91 and 92 which tends to reduce the boundary layer friction and therefore reduces the overall hull drag of the craft.

The patrol craft is propelled by three hydraulic jet turbines 93, 94 and 95 which are driven by diesel internal combustion engines 96, 97 and 98 respectively by interconnecting drive shafts 101, 102 and 103. The hydraulic jet turbines 9395 are of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,124. The hydraulic jet turbines 93-95 have intake openings 104-106 respectively through which they receive the propulsion water. The aperture 104 is directly aft of the U-shaped channel 91 and aperture 106 is directly aft of U-shaped channel 92. Aperture is centered directly on the center line 90 as illustrated in FIG. 9.

The control station 83 has a control console 110 on which is mounted a main steering wheel 111 and two auxiliary steering wheels 112 and 113. The main steering wheel 111 is connected through a suitable control system to the steering rudders of hydraulic jet turbine units 93-95. Under most operations, the control wheel 111 controls all three hydraulic jet rudders causing them to act in synchronism to obtain identical angles to the center line of their respective units. However whenever it is desirable to control the outboard hydraulic units separately from the center one the main service systems may be disengaged and auxiliary control systems responsive to auxiliary wheel 112 and 113 may be used to control the rudders of the hydraulic jet turbines 93 and 95 respectively. Controls 114 and 115 are mounted on the console 110 to disengage the rudders of jets 93 and 95 respectively from the main service system controlled by the wheel 111. The control systems may be of any conventional electrical or hydraulic type well known to those skilled in the art. Thus the wheel 111 normally controls all three rudders but at any time it is desired to operate the rudder of either outboard jet unit separately from the main service system such action may be immediately accomplished.

Forward-neutral-reverse control levers 116-118 are mounted on the left hand side of the console 110 to control the forward-neutral-reverse butterfly valves in the hydraulic jet turbines 93-95 respectively. The operation and construction of the forward-neutral-reverse butterfly valves are more fully described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,185,124. Throttle controls 119-121 for the three diesel internal combustion engines 96-98 are provided at the right hand side of the console 110. These control levers and the interconnecting control means may be of any type well known to those skilled in the art. The center hydraulic jet turbine 94 is connected to a conduit which is in turn connected to a diverter valve 126 near the bow. The diverter valve 126 is of the type described in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,661 has its two outputs 127 and 128 connected to port side thrust nozzle 129 and starboard side thrust nozzle 130 by a pair of conduits 131 and 132 respectively. A bow steering control lever 133 is mounted on the control console above the main steering wheel 111 to selectively open either the right or left butterfly valve in the diverter valve means 5 and rescue craft.

TABLE I Motion Engines Fwd-Neut-Rev Throttles Steering Desired Operating Levers Control 1 Forward All All-Fwd Set Main High Speed Together 2) Reverse All All-Rev Set Main Max. Together 3) Stop All All-Neut All ldle' Main 4) Forward All S-Fwd Separate Main &

Slow P-Neut C as required Bow for how pressure 5) Reverse All S-Rev Separate Main &

, Slow P-Neut C as required Bow for how pressure 6) Forward One Forward Only Main High Speed 7) Rev-High Speed One Rev Only Main 8) Forward- Port Shift between Only Main &

Low Speed Only Fwd & Neut Bow 9) Forward- Starboard Forward Only Main Low Speed Only I0) Rev-Slow Port Shift Between Only Main &

Speeds Only Neut & Rev Bow 1 l) Rev-Slow Starboard Rev Only Main Speed Only 12) Side All P-Neut Separate Main &

(to P) Bow l3) Side Port Only Shift between As Required Main &

Neut & Rev Only Bow 14) Side Starboard (No Bow Component Available) Only 15) Rotational All P & S Neut P, 5 closed Bow OR P and/or S Rev P and/or S Main OR P-Neut Separate Main & Bow S-Rev l6) Rotational Port P-Neut As required Bow Only OR P-Rcv As required Main l7) Rotational Starboard S'Rcv As required Main 126 in order to force the bow to the left when the lever Only 133 is moved to the left and to force the bow to the right when the lever 133 is moved to the right.

As shown in Table I the search and rescue craft has 55 As shown in Table ll the patrol boat has many modes of operation either with all its engines operating or with the loss of one or two engines. The following Table summarizes the various combinations of operations which may be accomplished by the 36 foot patrol boat.

TABLE II (onlinued Motion Engines Fwd-Neut-Rev Throttles Steering Desired Operating Levers Control Slow C-Neut C as required & Bow

for how pressure 6) Forward Two All-Fwd Set Main High Speed Together 7) Forward Two P-Fwd Separate Mzlin Slow ()uthd (P & S) S-Rev (or opposite) S-Aux 8) Forward Slow One P-Fwd Separate Main &

Outbd (-Neut Bow 8L center (P & C)

9) Rev Two All-Rev Together Main Max Outbd (P & S)

10) Rev- One Outbd. AllRev Together Main Max. & center (P 84 C) l l Rev- Two Outbd P-Rev Separate Main &

Slow (P & S) S-Rev S-Aux l2) Rev-Max One Outbd P-Rev Separate Main 8 & center C-Neut Bow (P & C)

13) Forward- One Forward Only Main High speed 14) Rev- One Rev Only Main High speed 15) Forward- Center Shift between As Required Main Low speed Only Fed & Neut & Bow

lo) Forward- One Shift between As Required Main Low Speed Outhdi Fwd & Rev

I7) Rev- Center Shift between As required Main &

Slow Speeds Only Neut & Rev Bow IX) Rev- One Rev As required Main Slow Speed Outbd.

19) Side All P-Neut P-Closed Main &

(to P) C-Neut C & S Separate Bow S-Rev 20) Side One P-Rev Separate Main &

(to P) Outbd & C-Neut center (P & C)

21 Side Two Outbd (No Bow Component Available) (P & S)

22) Side One Shift between As Required Main &

center Neut & Rev Bow 23) Side One (No Bow Component Available) Outbd 24) Rotational All C-Neut C Bow P&S Neut P&S Closed OR P and/or C P and/or C Main and/or S Rev. and/or S OR C-Neut Separate Main & Bow P and/or S Rev.

25) Rotational 2 Outbd. P and/or S Together Main (P 8L S) 26) Rotational I Outbd. & C-Neut C as required Bow center (P & C) P-Neut P-Closed OR C-Neut Separate Main & Bow P-Rev.

27) Rotational l Outbd. (P) P-Rev As required Main 28) Rotational Center C-Neut As required Bow Only OR C-Rev. As required Main As can be seen from the Table the craft can accom- PllSll directional movements of forward-reverse-side and rotational about its center of gravity or an axis close thereto except for a side motion when the only pump connected to the bow thrusters is disabled. While the above table does not contain all of the possible combinations of the controls it does illustrate how the controls may best be utilized for each type of situation. Since the compensation for the loss of an outboard engine is the same for either engine the loss of a starboard engine was illustrated in the above Table. Thus it may be seen that the rescue craft illustrated in FIG. 1-5 is much more versatile than prior craft and the patrol craft illustrated in FIGS. 6l0 is still more versatile.

Both the search and rescue craft illustrated in FIGS.

1-5 and the 36 foot patrol craft illustrated in FIGS. 6-10 can be equipped with a fire fighting capability which is supplied by the hydraulic jet turbines which are not being utilized with the respective diverter valves for bow steering. On the 22 foot search and rescue boat a mount 140 supports a deck pipe 141 which is connected by a conduit 142 to the Venturi section of hydraulic jet turbine 36. On the 36 foot patrol boat mounts 150 and 151 support deck pipes 152 and 153 respectively. Deck pipe 152 is connected to the Venturi section ofjet turbine 93 by a conduit 154 and deck pipe 153 is connected to jet turbine 95 by a conduit 155.

We claim:

1. A vessel comprising,

a hull for the purpose of navigation having a gunnel,

a weather deck rigidly mounted on said hull and extending inwardly from said gunnel to at least one aperture occupying a substantial portion of the available horizontal weather deck area,

machinery and vessel operation systems mounted in said hull below said weather deck,

a weather deck structure having an integral deck capable of supporting personnel mounted in one said aperture whenever the vessel is underway, said weather deck structure enclosing said machinery and vessel operation systems in said hull,

means for operationally controlling the vessel mounted on said weather deck structure, and

means for securing said weather deck structure in said one aperture whenever said vessel is underway and for facilitating the removal of said weather deck structure to permit increased access to said machinery and vessel operation systems.

2. A vessel as specified in claim 1, wherein said weather deck has a multiplicity of apertures occupying a substantial portion of the available horizontal weather deck area,

said weather deck structure for operationally controlling the vessel is mounted in one of said apertures,

another weather deck structure is mounted in each of the other said apertures whenever the vessel is underway,

each said another weather deck structure has an integral deck capable of supporting personnel and encloses said machinery and vessel operation systems in said hull, and

each said another weather deck structure is removably mounted to said weather deck by means for securing each said another weather deck structure in one of said apertures whenever said vessel is underway and for facilitating the removal of each said another weather deck structure to permit increased access to said machinery and vessel operation systerns.

3. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another whether deck structures is a cabin.

4. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another weather deck structures is a fiat deck section.

5. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another weather deck structures is a cockpit section.

6. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another weather deck structures is a cockpit section, a second said structure is a control station for operationally controlling the vessel, and a third said structure is flat deck section.

7. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein Said weather deck structure is connected to said weather deck by interlocking mounting means.

8. A vessel as specified in claim 7, wherein said interlocking means comprises,

an upward facing U-shaped section formed in the edge of said deck which surrounds an aperture in said deck,

a downward pointing shaped edge formed on the outer portions of said weather deck structure which enters said upward facing U-shaped section when mounted on the vessel, and

means for securing said weather deck structure to said weather deck to maintain said downward pointing shaped edge in said U-shaped section when the vessel is at sea.

Claims (8)

1. A vessel comprising, a hull for the purpose of navigation having a gunnel, a weather deck rigidly mounted on said hull and extending inwardly from said gunnel to at least one aperture occupying a substantial portion of the available horizontal weather deck area, machinery and vessel operation systems mounted in said hull below said weather deck, a weather deck structure having an integral deck capable of supporting personnel mounted in one said aperture whenever the vessel is underway, said weather deck structure enclosing said machinery and vessel operation systems in said hull, means for operationally controlling the vessel mounted on said weather deck structure, and means for securing said weather deck structure in said one Aperture whenever said vessel is underway and for facilitating the removal of said weather deck structure to permit increased access to said machinery and vessel operation systems.

2. A vessel as specified in claim 1, wherein said weather deck has a multiplicity of apertures occupying a substantial portion of the available horizontal weather deck area, said weather deck structure for operationally controlling the vessel is mounted in one of said apertures, another weather deck structure is mounted in each of the other said apertures whenever the vessel is underway, each said another weather deck structure has an integral deck capable of supporting personnel and encloses said machinery and vessel operation systems in said hull, and each said another weather deck structure is removably mounted to said weather deck by means for securing each said another weather deck structure in one of said apertures whenever said vessel is underway and for facilitating the removal of each said another weather deck structure to permit increased access to said machinery and vessel operation systems.

3. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another whether deck structures is a cabin.

4. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another weather deck structures is a flat deck section.

5. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another weather deck structures is a cockpit section.

6. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein one of said another weather deck structures is a cockpit section, a second said structure is a control station for operationally controlling the vessel, and a third said structure is flat deck section.

7. A vessel as specified in claim 2, wherein said weather deck structure is connected to said weather deck by interlocking mounting means.

8. A vessel as specified in claim 7, wherein said interlocking means comprises, an upward facing U-shaped section formed in the edge of said deck which surrounds an aperture in said deck, a downward pointing shaped edge formed on the outer portions of said weather deck structure which enters said upward facing U-shaped section when mounted on the vessel, and means for securing said weather deck structure to said weather deck to maintain said downward pointing shaped edge in said U-shaped section when the vessel is at sea.

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