Automatic Pilot

[Paul Racine]

I am trying to remember how we did it.
I only sailed on one ship with an automatic pilot and I am at a loss to remember how we organized our night watches while the pilot was in operation.
When sailing without the pilot one of us was on the wheel while the other was on lookout. No problem there!
But what did we do when on the pilot?
Did one of us stay behind the wheel as a formality or were we both on lookout? Just can't remember.
Any reply's would be appreciated.

Paul

[Captain Kong]

In the 50s in Blue Star the man was on the wheel from 6pm to 6am as usual , but the wheel man from 6am to 6pm worked on deck or around the Bridge.

Later on VLCCs etc, there were One Man watches, Just one Mate on watches. 24/7. with one AB around the bridge doing jobs and at night on look out on the wing of the bridge.
Cheers
Brian

[Ivan Cloherty]

Ships I sailed on (which had it, many didn't) it was on 24/7 . Different ships had different practices daytime, the watchkeeper worked around bridge/boatdeck area, nightime he kept lookout, with breaks for tea. Never sailed with it where it was switched off at night because the auto pilot never dozed off. Sailed on one ship with no gyro but the auto pilot worked off signals off the magnetic compass, that was a real slow responder and must have put miles on the voyage with the wavy wakes we used to leave, still cannot remember out it worked but if I remember correctly it was a Norwegian system

[j.sabourn]

All the ships I was on if you had automatic steering it was on for 24 hours a day. In later years on smaller tonnage ships was used all the time even in buoyed channels. Today or in 2002 you had ships with the mate on watch only. Berthing ships the OOW used to do any helm work as required. Maybe my last 24 years at sea being mainly on offshore ships never saw a seaman on the wheel. The few deep sea ships I was on during this period carrying foreign crews they couldn't steer in any case even if you had sufficient manpower to have someone spare. Nearly in every case one went almost up to the berth on auto with the master adjusting as necessary only putting it off when swinging turning or manouvering on thrusters and screws and rudders. The days of a helmsman pilot Master and third mate on the Bridge are long gone on working shipping. The rudders if have are designed today to put helm on and stay on not like having to keep the wheel hard over and hold there, otherwise it came back midships. Different ball game today and varies from ship to ship and trade to trade. Was an obvious factor on most ships was a disadvantage to having smaller ships crews, try telling that to a Health and Safety expert or the government dept. responsible let alone the shipowner. Must say however the Automatic steering devices of today are much in advance of what they were originally, that is if you are fortuanate to have one fitted. As regards earlier days if had Auto had two men on a watch which used to work on deck during daylight hours and split the nightwatch up as lookouts. I speak from my own experiences in the tramp trade, this will probably differ to the liner and passenger trades where an appearance of trust had to be awarded to passengers and such like. Cheers JS

[Red Lead Ted]

Hi Paul, I sailed in ships with and without auto, If you had just sailed and had two seamen on watch on the bridge, Even if you where well out at sea weather conditions would play a big hand as I recall, We don't get pea souper,s that we did in our day, And my recollection was in that situation or heavy weather you would still keep the watch doubled up, One at the wheel and one on the wing lookout, If you remember when ships changed to single watches around the clock and the skipper or officer of the watch wanted manual steering, And a lookout you could call on a J.O.S. or S.O.S. Who where on day work to take the lookout on the wing, It all came good in the end Regards Terry.

[j.sabourn]

Terry with todays automatic helmsman you will find they can steer better in any kind of weather better than any helmsman would be able. On seismic lines and such no human helmsman could steer a course satisfactory for a survey line. With todays manning scales I would say they are a necessity on long ocean passages. A ship with practically no headway will carry on steering longer and better than a human at the wheel. The human mind cannot compete with a computer. Mensa tests or no mensa tests. When towing big deep water rigs and the likes it is always on the automatic helmsman. When towing in tandem with another tug and the vessels being 30 feet apart and in bad weather is always still on automatic steering is much more accurate and safer, any breakdowns in such devices is in the lap of ato do, don't know if that phrase is still used or not, from 2002 until 2015 is 13 years so I am also speaking of a bygone age as well. Only those in specific trades and still at sea would know the present day routines and these will vary ship to ship I would imagine. Cheers JS

[Red Lead Ted]

Agree John, Things are different today of course they are, But turn the clock back 40 50 years no bow thrust and a lot of conventional ships were slower to answer to her helm, I was 30 odd days at sea one lung manual steering, Bombay/ Mumbai/ To Avon mouth suez closed, Wouldn't happen today, Terry.

[j.sabourn]

#7... the last 4 lines are not right the typing must have jumped as was in a hurry as going out. Should read in the lap of the Gods. and a whole line missing.... the normal practice of seamen. in ref. to the old days. Ref Seismic towing up to 12 arrays on the surface 3 to 4 miles long, speed through the water being constant at 4 knots, and course accuracy up to a maximum of half a degree off, doesn't leave much room for mistakes, and if do go more off course have to go back and start all over again and the line to be run could be anything 12 miles being nothing out of the ordinary. Wouldn't be the flavour of the month with all the added expenses incurred, no room for mistakes. Towing in tandem the lead tug usually about half a ships length ahead of the second tug sets the courses to steer and any alteration is usually done in 5 or 10 degree alterations. If say the course to be made good was 270 the lead tug would steer say 272 and the second tug 268 so as to keep them apart. All the adjustments being made by the lead tug who also keeps the tow under instruction to what he is doing re courses speed length of tow line etc. this is all done with the automatic doing all the steering. The heavy tow lines on tugs being refreshed every 4 hours or so by letting out another fathom or so as to not have all the wear and tear on the wire in one place, this is all done whilst towing with no stoppages when under way and still in automatic. Cheers JS

[John Arton]

Re Ivans#4
Dependent on whose auto pilot manufacturer a company purchases, many of them have a built in feature for emergency use should the gyro compass fail. This back up system uses the magnetic compass for heading information which uses a transmitting magnetic compass. This consists of a small pick-up unit attached to the compass bowl which sends a signal giving the magnetic heading to the auto pilot. Many pleasure craft that have only a magnetic compass and even commercial craft will have these transmitting magnetic compass units fitted in order that they can have an auto pilot fitted. I have only ever sailed on one ship that did not have a gyro compass but it did have an auto pilot driven by the magnetic compass and this auto pilot system was as good at course keeping as a gyro compass driven one. I have sailed with many auto-pilots that have a transmitting magnetic compass as the emergency input for the auto pilot should the gyro fail and these systems when using the magnetic compass for heading info. worked very well, though trying to get the officers to understand that they needed to apply variation and deviation to obtain the true course to input into the system was a different matter altogether.
Nowadays heading information can be obtained from the AIS system and this can be used as the back-up to the gyro compass to provide the auto-pilot with heading info.
rgds
JA

[Ivan Cloherty]

Thanks for that John, knew I wasn't dreaming, on the ship I was on with it we had no gyro compass, it was a purely magnetic compass system and not a backup and with the magnetic compass swinging wildly as it does in inclement weather it left a lot to be desired, in calm seas it kept a good course, but the sea had to be placid so that the compass wasn't swinging. sometimes it was better just to switch it off and put the lashing over the top spoke in bad weather and adjust when necessary, mind you you weren't going anywhere fast at 7/8 knots!