Whaleback hatch covers

[sh71382]

There were no handles per say, in the original design for the hatch covers on the whaleback, they had threaded bolts instead of clamps that secured the hatch, and the crew would remove those bolts, and in the holes would place a small roller, the hatch would be set on the rollers using pry bars and muscle. Then rolled off the opening to the side of the deck, or more regularly inbetween the openings. If you search google patents, you can find and read about this design and system patented by McDougall very early on. However this design was troublesome, especially if a hatch got bent or damaged even slightly, it made water tight integrity very tough to achieve, as well as the threads on the bolt, and in the hole were constantly getting damaged due to dirt, improper securing and the like and soon got replaced with more typical hatch designs, especially on the ones that Pittsburgh Steamship Company got in the early years.

[Ray]

Looking at the picture of the whaleback Joseph L. Colby in the new Historical Perspectives photo made me wonder how hatchcovers were opened on whalebacks. The covers appear to be flush with the deck and there is nothing that is obvious to grab or hook onto. Where there some sort of handles on the hatchcovers that are just too small to show in this picture or was there some other method for opening hatchcovers on these boats?