My Original 1992 patent application & response

Here is my original patent application and the response from the UK patent office that turned up prior art.

C'est la vie - in 1992 the only reasonable way to search on an invention was to file it and use the patent office to do the search. As it happens, the UK patent office was linked into the European one. Thus the results return some Europeans as well as Brits as patentees. These days (2009) the patent systems of the world are linked. Google finds hits (listed below) that pre-date even the ones cited in my application. I've corresponded with Gooden a couple of times, who felt that maritime applications may still happen. His patent times out soon I think.