Steering

[eric fisher]

Tony, Dunno about steering. On S.S. Thistleford in 1945 had chain steering across the deck. Almost as noisy as the blasted rats.

Paravanes were in use frequently in the Med in 1943 after many mines 'tween Pantelleria and Tunisia left by the Italians. Lucky that the weather was calm and clear and allowed us to skirt them taking a few pot shots.

The anti torpedo nets (AND), were fitted on the Ocean Wanderer in 1942 and were streamed once in convoy KMS.1G en route to Algiers for the Torch operation 8th. Nov. '42. They had hugh booms fore and aft to stream the nets, port and starb'd. It took a long time to get in place and slowed headway so much that we couldn't maintain convoy speed. Anyway the result was they were hauled inboard. Eric

[happy daze john in oz]

.............They were the good old days, They dont build ships like that anymore.

No they build them like the Costa Concordia and put the local village idiot in charge.

[Roger French]

As a cadet I steered a number of ships, but only remember one being awkward - the ED mailboat Apapa, with a following wind.