in the old days of sail and steam

[wardd]

in the old days of sail and steam combo they had a method of raising the prop and storing it in the vessel to reduce drag while under sail, how was this done?

[jehardiman]

There were two types of methods that I know of. The first, used by large ships circa 1850, was to have the propeller mounted on a yoke frame (similar to a clutch fork) that held the prop in a brearing which would allow the prop to be slipped off the propeller shaft and retracted into the counter. The second method, used by smaller vessels much later (circa 1880?) where the propeller shaft was not constrained by the deadwood, was to have a universal joint at the stern tube and the same frame & bearing at the prop end which could then be pulled up. IIRC, Chapelle has a drawing of this in one of his books.

If you do some research in the Conferdate commerce raiders, that might turn up some drawings, as most of those vessels build in England (Alabama, Florida, Shenandoah) had demountable screws.