Rowing levers?

[dancrane]

I just saw the last three-quarters of a 1957 film called 'Abandon Ship', or under the UK title, 'Seven Waves Away'.

Ship sinks, captain of the overcrowded lifeboat has to pick who to throw overboard.

Far more interesting was the number of times the survivors were told "Row, row for your lives!" or similar, but at no point were any oars visible.

Instead, a couple of chaps were shunting levers, attached to the floor of the boat, back and forth. The photo isn't great but you can see the levers...

What sort of propulsion was that?
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[Boathook]

Linked to a crank turning a propeller?

 

[dancrane]

Sure, that makes sense, but whoever saw or heard of such a thing? Not me, not ever. Perhaps it didn't work as well as in the designer's mind. It could only have been more cost and bother to fit, service and maintain, than oars...so it disappeared and was never seen or heard of again?

 

[Gsailor]

Interesting.

If the levers went through the hull a seal would be needed - not a good idea for an emergency vessel as seals deteriorate. A well (like an outboard well) that extended higher than the waterline would work - difficult to see in the photo.

Intriguing.

I wonder if the vessel is in a museum somewhere?

 

[penfold]

Appears to be just that; the Fleming patent hand-propelled lifeboat. Patent here. Earlier patent here.

Linked to a crank turning a propeller?

 

[dancrane]

Well found, thanks!

I wouldn't have thought a propeller that is no bigger than a motor might have turned, could rotate fast enough, driven by manual cranking.

But this system doesn't seem to be as obscure as I was supposing.

"The invention is particularly concerned with ships' lifeboats which are used under conditions of panic at sea, and when a large number of the occupants of the boat are liable to be unskilled persons. It has been proved that when the boats have 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."

 

[Gsailor]

Well found indeed.

What a great vessel too. Love the thinking behind it.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I can understand the thinking behind the design, but I'd be a bit concerned about the viability of such a complex and exposed piece of machinery in a boat which a) will probably be maintained on an intermittent and low-priority basis, b) appears to be exposed to the elements and c) looks pretty heavy!

I note that CHIRP fairly frequently features cases where emergency gear fails because its maintenance was on a "when someone thinks about it" basis! And that's often low-tech things like shackles and release gear being gummed up with paint or corroded in hard-to-see places.

 

[Kelpie]

I'd have thought it would be much simpler to just have a shaft running the length of the boat, with pedals. You'd sit facing inboard. Probably need a gearbox at the stern to increase rpm at the prop.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I'd have thought it would be much simpler to just have a shaft running the length of the boat, with pedals. You'd sit facing inboard. Probably need a gearbox at the stern to increase rpm at the prop.

No need for a gearbox if the propeller is designed for low revs. That's why Seagull outboards were so successful for so long - they used a prop designed to give lots of thrust at low revs, which limited the speed available but was ideal for displacement hulls.

 

[Arcady]

I recall having races as a school kid in the manually propelled lifeboats of the educational cruise ship ‘Nevassa’ in the early 1970’s. It was exactly this mechanism. It seemed robust, heavy and pretty slow, but a sure-fire way to burn off all that teenage energy!

 

[MisterBaxter]

I guess in most situations the lifeboat just needs to get a little way away from the sinking (and possibly burning) ship then wait for rescue, so it doesn't need to be set up for long voyages.

 

[fisherman]

The losses in the transmission must be considerable, but maybe not as bad as people who can't row efficiently.

Rowing is a paricular skill which is easily acquired, but some folk never get it. If you watch a good gig crew you see no splash from the oars, they drop the blade into the water 'dead', and then pull. Monty Halls in his Irish TV adventures did some rowing, as he did when filming in Cadgwith. Fit, lots of upper body strength, broken pins. He would pull too early, drive the oar down into the water lifting the oar up in the pins and snapping the pin off.

 

[bikedaft]

It's also quite hard to row in waves, which not a lot of rowers do.

Fascinating find - thanks. Love the line drawings.

 

[penfold]

The losses in the transmission must be considerable, but maybe not as bad as people who can't row efficiently.

Rowing is a paricular skill which is easily acquired, but some folk never get it. If you watch a good gig crew you see no splash from the oars, they drop the blade into the water 'dead', and then pull. Monty Halls in his Irish TV adventures did some rowing, as he did when filming in Cadgwith. Fit, lots of upper body strength, broken pins. He would pull too early, drive the oar down into the water lifting the oar up in the pins and snapping the pin off.

Having done rowing open lifeboats as part of my survival training(yes folks, the MCA still mandate this in 2023) it's hard enough with a full set of more or less sentient individuals on a boating lake, doing it at sea with a full SOLAS-approved load of 32 in a boat would be near on impossible even in nice weather, if it's lumpy forget it. I'd make a beeline for something with an engine.

 

[dancrane]

Good points.

I found it much harder than I expected to row my Osprey, which isn't heavy like a lifeboat. Even with 8ft oars, the least headwind was very discouraging. I was thereafter amazed by how effortlessly the hull made progress upwind under sail, knowing how much resistance it presented to propulsion by rowing.

Waves moving across the boat's path made rowing especially hard too.
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[Dellquay13]

Manual powered propeller propulsion is still around, one example here

Free Wheeling Hand Operated Outboard | Boatworld UK

 

[AntarcticPilot]

Manual powered propeller propulsion is still around, one example here

Free Wheeling Hand Operated Outboard | Boatworld UK

That must be SO inefficient compared with rowing! You can only use the muscles of the arms; rowing uses at least all the upper body, and sliding seats enable the use of the whole body! Even a decent stretch bar will improve efficiency by allowing the use of the legs to brace the upper body.

 

[Biggles Wader]

I was on a ship with a manually propelled lifeboat on one side and one with a small engine on the other. Both were meticulously maintained with weekly boat drills at sea where they were swung out and lowered to embarkation deck level and the engine started and tested. There was a portable emergency radio kept in the sparky shack. About once or twice a year the boat emergency rations were taken out and checked and hi vis orange paintwork was done. If we were stuck at an anchorage we would use the motor lifeboat to go visiting other ships or the beach. We took our lifeboats and our leisure activities very seriously back in the 1970s!

 

[srm]

And that's often low-tech things like shackles and release gear being gummed up with paint or corroded in hard-to-see places.

Reminds me of a tale I used to tell when running MN sea survival courses, to explain the need for regular drills.

It was my second trip on a survey ship, as "the lowest form of life aboard" according to the company personnel officer. The ship had a new captain. While the seismic crew (including myself) were having trouble tracking down and repairing intermittent cable faults the ship was stopped on a calm sea, so a lifeboat drill was ordered. It took around an hour to lower one lifeboat so the keel was just clear off the water. It was only after the engineer brought a couple of sledge hammers to break the paint seals that anything would start to move.

Later that summer we had to launch a lifeboat to help recover the seismic cable when it got trapped in shallow water during a turn at the end of a run. The lifeboat was launched without fuss.

On another ship (I was hydrographic survey team leader by then with a different company) in similar circumstances we were all standing in life jackets watching the chief engineer failing to start the auxiliary fire pump situated in a locker at main deck level. After a while I asked the captain if my team could get back to work.

The pump did started first go at the next drill.