Port or Stb Helm Question

[jamesjermain]

Yes, as a rule, but if a big course change was needed, the Captain would ask for 'Port 10' or 'Port 5', then, as the heading neared that required he was say 'Steer XXX'.
The reason for this is that, told to make a course correction of say 90 degrees, your average helmsman would spin the wheel to full lock, the ship whould heel alarmingly, spilling the skippers coffee and knocking passengers off their feet. 'What me Sir' would be the cry in the merchant navy. In the RN it would be: 'Yes Sir, three weeks loss of priviledges SIr, reduced to Able Seaman Sir. Sorry SIr. Left, Right,Left, Right.'

JJ

 

[Joe_Cole]

I always seem to end up saying "No, the other way"!

Joe Cole

 

[Guest]

Simon, I noticed that too, but did you also notice that the boat still went left. Which begs 2 further questions,
1, Did some Scottish mechanic pipe it up wrong in the first place?
2, Was the wheel there just for something to turn when in fact there was a stoker down below with a tiller and he got mixed up with "port your helm"<s>

 

[Guest]

Nice one JJ

 

[Guest]

KCA. I'm glad you dont know where the thread is going. I feel somewhat justified in asking the question now. Just goes to show that we may have what can be called a general concensus, but definately not unanimous! BTW I happen to agree with you about rudder angle.

 

[peterb]

In many old ships the steering system was so arranged that turning the top of the wheel to port made the ship tun to starboard. The command "Port your helm" then was an instruction to turn to starboard. It may be that this system was used to prevent confusion with tiller-steered boats.

Later ships used the present system, in which the ship turns in the same direction as the top of the wheel. Clearly this gave much scope for confusion. Because of this, in the 1948 revision of Colregs a new clause (32) was introduced:

Rule 32 All orders to helmsmen shall be given in the following sense: right rudder or
starboard to mean “put the vessel's rudder to starboard”; left rudder or port to mean “put the vessel’s rudder to port.”

In 1912, when the Titanic sank, the old system was still in use.

To return to the problem of moored boats - I wonder if the position of the rudder will be helpful? The rudder can only have effect while the water is flowing past it, so at the moment of tide change there will be no effect. But there will still be a wind effect, and I think this is more likely to control the direction of rotation. You might even find that some vessels (those with very powerful rudders) turn in the direction of rudder control, while others (wind-controlled) might turn the other way. Perhaps it would be better if the rudders were just left central, so that all the boats were wind-controlled and hence would turn in the same direction?

 

[Guest]

Peter,The reasons for putting on some port helm are that we are in a tidal river, all moorings run up and down the tidal flow line and by setting the rudders the effect is to swing all boats the same way. It also creates more room between stem and stern. If rudders are left midships then there is a tendency for the boat to weave in the tide especially if there is a small amount off cross wind. However you are perfectly correct in saying that when the tidal influence is zero then the wind pushes them all over the place according to the amount of topsides they have. but once we get some tide back all boats seem to jump back into line (so to speak)