Emergency steering

[Keith Tindell]

As said before , i was at sea only seven years, but got to thinking of the emergency steering gear. In my time i never recall testing the emergency steering gear, so, did it have to be done on a regular basis ?, and what was involved in the test ?, cheers, kt

[Bill Morrison]

#1 Keith. I can't remember ever testing the emergency steering gear but know of one case where it had to be used. The SS Gothic SS&A suffered a very serious fire in July/ August 1968 which completely destroyed the bridge and all navigation equipment and the lives of seven people. The ship was then steered manually from the emergency steering position aft. A member on this site I can't find his post was there and recalled all movements were passed on by word of mouth.
Bill

[Ivan Cloherty]

always tested, as did all ships, the steering gear, the whistle/horn, telephones, telegraph before leaving port with your counterpart in the ER, making sure the steering flat was empty. However the emergency steering gear was always the engineers sole responsibility, except on the rod and chain steering vessels I sailed on, and we had two three-fold purchases stowed near the quadrant

[happy daze john in oz]

Emergency steering.
Very familiar with that as a young lad, particularly on a Saturday night coming home from the pub,

[John Arton]

Keith
Think you will find it is mandatory to test the vessels emergency steering arrangements at least once in every three months where the vessel is steered from the emergency steering position for a period of time, similar to the lifeboats being exercised in water every three months.
The steering gear test also checks the means of communication between the emergency steering position and the bridge which has to have a dedicated link, often by sound powered phone, the ones you crank a handle on to establish communication.
After a Greek super tanker ran aground on the French coast in the 60/70's all tankers and possibly all merchant vessels, were required to have two steering gear equipment one of which must be driven by power from the emergency generator.
Steering from the emergency position, the steering gear room/flat, is a pain in the butt if you do not have a compass repeater situated there and even so steering a course is bloody difficult only watching a compass and having only a needle over a marked scale to indicate rudder position.
Another thing that came out of that tanker disaster was the requirement to be able to lock the rudder in an amidships position to prevent it flapping around if the vessel was under tow.
Rod and chain steering gear was long gone when I started at sea, electro hydraulic being the norm with either a rotary vane hydraulic system attached to the rudder stock or hydraulic rams being used to control the rudder by being attached to the rudder stock.
Rgds
J.A.

[j.sabourn]

Apart from all the emergency equipment being tested, every time you moved the ship either in port or proceeding to sea it was the normal practice of seamen to check all the regular gear as well Those included steering gear, steering hard over each way, helm indicators checked , navigation lights tested , bridge telegraphs tested with the engine room , phones checked , window clear view screens, steam and electric whistles and horns etc etc.this was entered in the bridge deck log as all bridge gear tested and found satisfactory. One man on the bridge these days on old Tonnage none or very little is done unless you want to lie and advance the owners claim that manpower on a ship exceeds demand. And yet this is lost as regards Safety in the new manuals off seamanship. An accident is just as likely to happen in crossing the harbour as crossing the Atlantic. JS

[Keith Tindell]

Thanks for that John A, that was really what i wanted to know. I obviously saw the emergency steering position on most ships, i just don't recall ever seeing it tested. As helmsman i have had to put the helm over hard either side before leaving the jetty, but you learn something new every day, . Same with the Jumbo , was on many ships with it, and hoped not to have to use it. On the ships that i did use it, was mainly the bosun, or one of the deck crew had used on a previous trip, so not too much head scratching, kt

[j.sabourn]

As regards steering with rudders with a single semi balanced rudder ,think if remember correctly the maximum efficiency was about 35 degrees and stops were in place to prevent the rudder exceeding this . This is one of the things you looked for on testing . JS.

[j.sabourn]

#1.. Keith on my first vessel built in 1943 . To test the emergency steering if I remember right ,was you took a lifeboat compass with you into the steering flat , disconnected the telemotor steering control from the bridge and attempted to steer the ship direct from the hydraulic wheel valve.Some ships had a spindle system connected to a Ships wheel on the poop housing somewhere , as to accuracy of the course you steered depended mainly on your communication system you had with the bridge as their compass was probably more accurate than the nice looking standard compass you may have also had. To test your anti magnetic mine system you took your same lifeboat compass and placed it above or below the copper cable running around the ship at deck level and got the engineers to put the generator on , the compass needle should if it is working point in the opposite direction showing the polarity of the ship had been reversed . It’s 68 years since I did it so EOE . I am talking about de-gaussing . Lifeboat compasses came in very useful at times . Cheers JS

[Keith Tindell]

Thats one of the things i remember on my first ship John, Treworlas, bloody great steering wheel at the stern. We used to stream the log, and when i went to do my steering 10hr ticket, had to read the log. Don't remember streaming the log on any other ships i was on. Treworlas was a real old timer, had had her foredeck blown off by a torpedo in the war, and towed back to uk, and a new foredeck stitched on. mind i did not know that at the time, that info came from our ex shipmate here Gulliver, kt