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17th October 2018, 05:22 PM
#1
Ships' Wooden Bridge Fronts
Many cargo vessels and tankers built as late as the 1940s had wooden fronts to their bridges, even though the rest of their superstructures were steel. Why was this so? Was the wooden front at these late dates merely a design feature, an echo of past practice, perhaps, or were there practical reasons? All comments are welcome.
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17th October 2018, 05:48 PM
#2
Re: Ships' Wooden Bridge Fronts
Having shed many pints of sweat and numerous layers of skin off my hands and fingers, I am firmly convinced, as a past Cadet, that wooden bridge fronts together with teak handrails, were used to keep Cadets and Apprentices fully employed in the care, protection and renovation of Woodwork.
However on a more serious note, when I asked this question at sea, I was informed by a rather quietly knowledgeable Old Man, that it was to keep the temperature in the wheelhouse as even and as pleasant as possible, as wood was warm in the winter and cool in the summer and did not magnify nor decrease the internal temperature, as steel did. I have always accepted this explanation as a perfectly reasonable explanation.
When one door closes another one shuts, it must be the wind
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17th October 2018, 11:53 PM
#3
Re: Ships' Wooden Bridge Fronts
I always thought it was they thought a steel bridge front would have affected the Compass??
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18th October 2018, 12:32 AM
#4
Re: Ships' Wooden Bridge Fronts
The compass is corrected for The steel of the ship as far as practically possible this is the deviation of the compass error and variates as to course . The other bit is the variation and is the earths magnetism and is fairly constant in different parts of the world with an annual usually small correction. A good compass corrector will just about erase any deviation, but this will alter as time. Goes by. In theory any ships master is competent to correct his own compass. This used to be a question and practice In the orals , whether still there or not don’t know.the correction magnets for the compass are inside the binnacle , Lord Kelvins balls , and the flinders bar outside. JS
Just as a surmise maybe the wood fronted bridge developed from the open bridge and was a method of shielding the helmsman from the weather , and was maybe retained for decorative purposes. For those ex Chapman’s people , the old Geneton had an open wheelhouse but beleive she had a wooden bulwark across the bridge front. The chart room I think was a deck down and covered in of course couldn’t get the charts wet. JWS
Last edited by j.sabourn; 18th October 2018 at 12:44 AM.
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18th October 2018, 02:46 AM
#5
Re: Ships' Wooden Bridge Fronts
Think Lewis”s suggestion may bear some reference to the possible truth. Also the weight of steel would have added more substantially. To the displacement of the vessel. As a previous post was the custom in years gone by to build ships as possible to the north / south line , as was when a ship acquired its magnetism with all the banging etc. of the steel work, and as the lines of magnetic force travel north to south was considered to lessen the magnetism of the ship at its birth. JWS
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18th October 2018, 11:01 AM
#6
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