Camel

A machine for lifting ships over a bank or shoal, originally invented by the celebrated De Witt, for the purpose of conveying large vessels from Amsterdam over the Pampus. They were introduced into Russia by Peter the Great, who obtained the model when he worked in Holland as a common shipwright, and are now used at St. Petersburgh for lifting ships of war built there over the bar of the harbor. A camel is composed of two separate parts, whose outsides are perpendicular, and insides concave, shaped so as to embrace the hull of a ship on both sides. Each part has a small cabin, with sixteen pumps and ten plugs, and contains twenty men. They are braced to the underpart of the ship by means of cables, and entirely enclose its sides and bottom. Being then towed to the bar, the plugs are opened and the water admitted until the camel sinks with the ship, and runs aground. Then, the water being pumped out, the camel rises, lifts up the vessel, and the whole is towed over the bar. This machine can raise the ship eleven feet, or, in other words, make it draw eleven feet less water.