ships steering wheel

[Ivan Cloherty]

Hi Shipmates, The ones with chain steering and big wheel made of wood , with a proper compass that moved were the worst feeders, so they tell me ?and they had a strange glow in the dark on the bridge/wheel house and too much brass to clean, Never put a mark on any wheel / or any where else ? you get logged.

Had one of those on a 1914 built deep water trawler I sailed on, it was taller than me (but I was only 13 at the time) but it took some turning, you really had to work hard with it. When the trawl was down there was a smaller steam powered wheel (about 30 inch diameter) clutched on the same axle which could be spun with one finger, but only the skipper ever touched that, it was only used for manouvering whilst hauling in the trawl and quick rudder responses required. All the other ships, apart from one (Wandby) had normal 30 to 40 inch diameter wooden and brass wheels, and God help anyone who was found carving anything on them. Preferred the 30- 40" wooden ones to the small steel ones, made you feel like you were on a ship and the small ones and levers were no good for leaning on!

[Captain Kong]

I had the Chain and Rod Steering with a Big six foot diameter wheel on the old `Beechfield`, You had to have a back on you like Garth to swing that.
If a big sea hit the rudder you had to let go quick or be spun over the top.
Brian.

[happy daze john in oz]

I have a wooden steering wheel mounted on the bulkhead, my next one will be a little joy stick. People instantly recognise the wooden wheel but they will say , What the hell is that thing pointing at the joy stick six inches long.
Daft
Brian

Brain, it depends which joy stick they are pointing at.

[Gulliver]

The old Staffordshire(ex Bardic,ex Eastern Prince) on which I took my Steering Certificate had the lovely old-fashioned varnished wheel. Helm.gif.The midships position spoke had a brass collar round it about 4 inches down and the top part of this spoke was carved into the shape of a penis bell-end,complete with groove for the pee-hole.I only mentioned the previous names of the the ship in case one of you lot did it !
Strange the things you remember...

Years later when I was training for my PSV bus licence the old Bristol Lodekka training bus had a removable centre steering wheel boss.Idle hands soon removed it,to find the following piece of card on which was written : HELP!-I am being kept prisoner in a steering wheel factory in Coventry.Please call the POLICE !

[Louis the Amigo]

Hi shipmates , strange how you remember things like big wooden wheels { hard work} dim compass lights , what was my heading again? and loads of brass to polish and shine use plenty of elbow grease, the ship a coal burner {coaster} used to dive into any waves and jump like a mad horse on a calm sea, and the food was pretty bad unless you like coal dust in everything HAPPY DAYS

[Don Rafferty]

.The midships position spoke had a brass collar round it about 4 inches down...........

Wasn't this known as the King Spoke, usually of a different material to the rest of the wheel, sometimes with a turks head or other decorative knot or a brass 'button' on top of a wooden spoke.

[john sutton]

that reminds me of a car dealer i knew who was in the proccess of "clocking"(turning back the milage) a BMW and on removing the speedo found a note saying"oh no not again"
john sutton

[alf corbyn]

the one thing i never did and would have loved to do, was steer a ship. i used to be fascinated by the radar in the early fifties, and going up the delaware to phillidelphia i tried to stay on the bridge as long as i could. i bet they wondered why i kept supplying them with sandwiches. on the old athel viscount my cabin was right outside the door of the steering flat and once i got used to the noise i loved listening to the chains and quadrant.

[Keith Tindell]

Hi Roger,
Was on two of McAndrews, the Verdaguer, and the Palacio, good ships, good company, i just never seem to stay anywhere for very long, really had the wunderlust.On one of those two ships we had a bulk wine tank, again the memory has gone as to which one. The booze really flowed on those runs, perhaps thats why i kept moving on. What days they were though, walk down to Prescott St and get a ship pretty much anytime, regards KT ( Bill was the name i was given as on one ship we had three Keiths )

[Gulliver]

Wasn't this known as the King Spoke, usually of a different material to the rest of the wheel, sometimes with a turks head or other decorative knot or a brass 'button' on top of a wooden spoke.

I didn't know it was called the King Spoke . It was just the central/midships spoke to me,longer than the rest,(I think) with that brass collar round,don't know about a different material. .... anyway it turned out to be the only one I sailed with.All the rest were the aircraft-style wheel on the console- easier-but no fun at all.

QM.gif