Nav wrote:


DSK wrote:



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.


Doug, apparently he did not reverse the order. See:

http://www.encyclopedia-titanica.org...an_collins.pdf

It would seem that reversing the engines to full power would have been a
mistake that would have reduced rudder effectiveness.

Cheers


Coupla points:

1. When he shifted the rudder, from (new world) hard port to hard stbd,
the ship would continue to swing to port for a time before starting to
swing to stbd. It's a matter of timing and conjecture as to whether his
was right or wrong.

2. Putting the engines astern on a ship that is running full speed, is
not the fastest of processes, so he probably still had good steering
power ... i.e., doubt they got the engines stopped and started astern
prior to collision.