16 century marine and machine link

This link was posted in another forum and shows ancient tugboats, piledrivers, pumps, cranes etc. ( click on the image on the right on the first page and then click on the 'structures' at the bottom of the second page) Sam
http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Besson/besson.htm
Here's where it came from...
http://www.sil.si.edu/

 

Those Renaissance guys were incredible

Look at this boat. It is a cat on one side, a monohull on the other.

I am trying to understand the Latin inscription, I think it talks about a new form of propulsion (that one should interest Guillermo).
Tomorrow I will try to make some sense of it.

 

I suppose you saw the english label of the plate, "Lever driven ship with bifurcated hull". The right hand image is a sternview, the left image is the driver, how it works I don't have a clue. I think this is a discription of the plate...Prop. LX Declaratio 60 figura
http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Besson/SIL4-2-_1Page32.html