The present invention concerns a system for establishing a " connection with a distress hawser between a rescuing ship

I 5 and a disabled sea-craft.

The purpose of the present invention is to establish a hawser connection between a disabled ship and a towing ship when the disabled ship is un-manned or not able to 10 assist in establishing the connection.

The solution which has formerly been used for establishing such a connection of hawsers has been to put a person down on the disabled craft for securing a hawser to the craft.

15 In many situations, however, it has not been possible to place a crew on the disabled ship, and it has not been possible to avoid a shipwreck. Recurring shipwrecks - often with great environmental consequences - have often been the result of the fact that it has not been possible

20 to establish a hawser from the rescuing ship to the dis¬ abled craft.

The solution to this problem is, according to the present invention, to provide any sea-craft with a launchable 25 rescue-line which is preferably operated from a distance, e.g. by a signal affecting a launching device.

In NO patent application No. 84.2402 is disclosed a device for manouvering an operating system inter alia on ships,

30 where the device comprises a radiotransmitter being equip¬ ped with a trigger mechanism and which may start the transmission of an operating signal. The device according to this prior art patent application further comprises a f radio receiver which may receive the signal being trans-

35 itted from the radio transmitter and transmit such a signal to a signal transformer, which again manouvers the manouvering device or devices on the craft. Such a device,

as disclosed herein, may be adjusted to the basic purpose of the present invention, namely sending a rescuing line, a hawser etc. from an un-manned sea-craft as indicated above.

For launching and establishing such a connection with a distress hawser, a mechanical launching device has been developed which is a harpoon/catapult-like device, e.g. a gun which may be activated through a radio signal as de- scribed above, or a similar catapult. Designs for cata¬ pulting mechanisms will be obvious for the person skilled in the art, and as a non-limiting example a launching device as the one disclosed in NO patent 17.540 may be mentioned. Other, per se known launching mechanisms, may also be used without departing from the idea behind the present invention, as long as it is possible to equip them with a remote control mechanism. Thus, it may be men¬ tioned that launching devices being based on mechanical launching (mechanical catapult) , explosive launching (cannon) , electrical or magnetical lanunching (electrical or magnetic catapult) , rocket launching (remote controlled rescue rocket) may all be operational launching devices, and it will be up to the person skilled in the art to design such devices to be able to withstand the stresses (shocks, sunlight, sea water, etc.) which are necessary for their correct function.

Further, a special kind of line has been developed which is able to withstand the relevant stresses and which at the same time has small dimensions in a coiled condition and which has such floating properties in water that it may easily be picked up by the rescuing craft. Such a line may inter alia be made of an aramid material ("Kevlar") or a corresponding synthetic fiber material with an especially high breaking strength, e.g. UHMWPE (Ultra High Molecular Weight PolyEthylene) , optionally supplied with floating pontoons or with gass blisters

incorporated in the line/hawser material. Other fiber types may, however, also be used, and the choice of such materials should be made by a person skilled in the art.

The hawser itself may in its turn be secured to one or more thin forerunners which are easy to spot (for example have a striking colour such as yellow, red or orange) and to pick up. It the case where the forerunner is light and thin it will be advantageous to have it secured to a projectile, which may be shot far enough (200 m or more) away from the ship and which subsequently may possibly loosen from the forerunner. Such projectiles are known to the person skilled in the art. The projectile may also be designed so that it may float in water, possibly by the use of self-ejecting floaters, in which case it is not necessary for the projectile to loosen from the rescuing line/forerunner. The rescuing line may in a distance (up to 30 m) from its securing point to the hull of the craft, comprise a length of synthetic fiber material, e.g. a nylon hawser, to give the inner part of the line flexibi¬ lity.

In a storage position the towing hawser will advantageous¬ ly be coiled on a drum like a spinning reel, and the inner section of the main hawser is to be securely mounted in the ship's permanent towing eye/puller. It will also be possible to store the hawser in a separate coil without any inner coiling reel or cylinder, optionally with a built-in countertwisting, so that no knots occur when launching, or it may also be coiled on a rotatable drum.

A sketch of a device according to the invention is shown on the enclosed figures 1 and 2, wherein a launching mechanism 1 is shown indicated as a cupola-shaped device 2 comprising an antenna (not shown) for receiving an emitted signal triggering the launching mechanism, and where the towing hawser 3,3' (and forerunner 4) lie in coiling reel-

like coils about at least one storage cylinder 5,6,7. It has also been indicated that the main hawser 8,9 is secu¬ red to the hull of the ship 10, e.g. in the anchor secu¬ ring point. The forerunner 4 is secured to a projectile 11 being placed for launching in the launching mechanism 1. The cupola-shaped device 2 in itself and/or the laun¬ ching mechanism 1 may of course also be rotatable in all directions, and such a positioning may also be performed by remote control.

Instead of a cupola-shaped device it may, as shown in fig. 5 - 7, alternatively be possible to place a towing hawser, optionally with a forerunner line, in a drum of well 12 under the bow deck and/or aft deck on the craft. Alterna- tively, the launching mechanism 13 may also be placed below the deck surface, and may in its entirety be placed under a removable lid or cover 14. In this embodiment the deck surface will be broken only when launching the rescu¬ ing line 15 where the lid 14 over the storage well 12 is blown away by remote control (see above) and where the launching device 13 is placed in the correct position also by remote control, and then launching the towing line 15 or the forerunner line 16.

The device according to the invention is also shown in the attached figures 3 and 4 showing a possible location on a ship. The device according to the invention is here shown as a cupola-shaped device, but if the embodiment is a drum containing the line(s) being sunk below the deck surface, then obviously no part of the device will be visible above the deck when the launching apparatus is not operative. If the launching mechanism is sunk as indicated above, then it may be mounted on a remote-controlled lifting device making it possible to elevate the launching device above the deck surface and place it in a correct position for launching projectiles with the forerunner/towing line. Such lifting devices are commercially available and the

choice of such will be obvious to the person skilled in the art.