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#1
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Scott Vernon wrote:
My wife watched Titanic the other night, I sat down for the 'crash' scene. When they spotted the ice cube, they yelled 'hard to starboard, but it looked to me like they turned the wheel to port. Then the order 'hard to port' was given and , to me, they turned to 'the right'. Anybody else notice this? Should I quit drinking? Yes, it was quite a little controversy and some people will still argue about it. It used to be common for the watch officer or pilot to give helm orders in terms of a tiller... ie, to turn starboard, they'd order the helmsman "put the helm to port." and vice versa. That way, it was up to the helmsman to know how his helm worked, not the officer. A pilot could step aboard any ship using a tiller, wheel, whipstaff, shin-cracker, or whatever, and bring her safely in. Somewhere around World War 1, people noticed that no ships had tillers any more. So they changed the standard terms. the Royal Navy held on to "reverse helm orders" until the early 1930s, most everybody else changed about 10 ~ 15 years sooner. So, when 2nd Officer Murdoch received the report of an iceberg right ahead (and the odds are good he saw it himself about the same time), he ordered the boatswain's mate of the watch (who survived BTW, a man named Hitchins) to put the helm "hard a-starboard" in order to put the ship to port. Then as the ship started swinging, Murdoch ordered the helm put the other way in order to swing the stern out away from the iceberg. They almost made it. Regards Doug King |
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#2
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It used to be common for the watch officer or pilot to give helm orders
in terms of a tiller... ie, to turn starboard, they'd order the helmsman "put the helm to port." and vice versa. Good god. WRONG!!!! Titanic's wheel worked counter to today's wheels. Tiller logic prevailed for quite a few years, even with wheels on large ships. The wheel on Titanic had to be turned to PORT for a starboard course. RB |
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#3
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Bobsprit wrote:
Good god. WRONG!!!! Titanic's wheel worked counter to today's wheels. No, it did not. You are misinformed. ... Tiller logic prevailed for quite a few years, even with wheels on large ships. The wheel on Titanic had to be turned to PORT for a starboard course. That's a misconception. Does the USS Constitution wheel work backwards? How about all theose skipjacks from the 1890s and early 1900s? For that matter, the diagrams of the Titanic's steering system (provided by Brown & Co, Marine Engineering & Hydraulics) are still on file at Harlan & Wolff's, the shipbuilder. Several writers from Darcy Lever, Esq ('Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor, 1819') to Allan Villiers have documented how ships wheels worked. Not one case of a "tiller rigged" wheel is known to have existed. If you get a copy of Joshua Slocum's "Voyage Alone Around The World" he includes a diagram of his steering rig. Guess which way the wheel turned... DSK |
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#4
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"DSK" wrote If you get a copy of Joshua Slocum's "Voyage Alone Around The World" he includes a diagram of his steering rig. Guess which way the wheel turned... Clockwise? |
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#7
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"Nav" wrote ... For example, the order "port 20" did not mean turn the ship to port 20 degrees. What did it mean? SV |
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#8
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#9
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Joe wrote:
Bull Feathers! When the conning officer says hard to Starboard...He wants the ship to turn hard to starboard. That is true now, and has been since some time around 1910 in the U.S. There is no wheeled ship in the world that ever set op the helm ass backwards. That would be confusing and dangerious. This is an issue of some contention among old time boat enthusiasts. I've heard a lot of people, inclduing a few that knew a lot about maritime history, say that backwards steering used to be fairly common. However I don't think it was ever "the standard" and I don't think that it's the reason for "reverse helm orders." For one thing, there are too many boats & ships surviving from that time period with their steering intact. For example, Edson has been in business for a long time and they never made any "reverse" or "tiller-order" steering mechanisms. OTOH who knows wether some crusty old geezers rigged their wheels to steer like a tiller because they liked it that way. DSK |
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#10
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On an old cornish working boat I sailed you had the wheel behind you.
Even on that boat the wheel turned the head normally. Cheers DSK wrote: Joe wrote: Bull Feathers! When the conning officer says hard to Starboard...He wants the ship to turn hard to starboard. That is true now, and has been since some time around 1910 in the U.S. There is no wheeled ship in the world that ever set op the helm ass backwards. That would be confusing and dangerious. This is an issue of some contention among old time boat enthusiasts. I've heard a lot of people, inclduing a few that knew a lot about maritime history, say that backwards steering used to be fairly common. However I don't think it was ever "the standard" and I don't think that it's the reason for "reverse helm orders." For one thing, there are too many boats & ships surviving from that time period with their steering intact. For example, Edson has been in business for a long time and they never made any "reverse" or "tiller-order" steering mechanisms. OTOH who knows wether some crusty old geezers rigged their wheels to steer like a tiller because they liked it that way. DSK |
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