By M. RITTER (KNIGHT) VON SZABEL, late Austrian Naval Officer, of
Vienna.
This innovation consists essentially in an arrangement by which two
distinct vessels, on being revolved round their longitudinal axis to
an angle of 90°, can be combined into one single duplex vessel, or, to
put it in different words, a larger vessel is arranged so that it can
be parted into two halves (called "semi-barges"), which can be used
and navigated with equal facility as two distinct vessels, as if
combined into one. By the combination of the two semi-barges into one
duplex barge the draught of the vessel is nearly doubled, the ratio
existing between the draught of a loaded semi-vessel and the equally
loaded duplex vessels being 5:8 (up to 8.5)
The advantage of the invention consists: