helmsman

[j.sabourn]

#18 Thomas if you had sent that to me I would have replied with Juliet , given you a couple of minutes and then said trust you received ok . Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

On the bridge a couple of years ago on a modern ship, no wheel just a joy stick.
Of course such a name more popular with some companies of old rather than today.

The only wheel on that ship was in one of the bars, complete with compass and well polished brass.

Odd though Macenzies balls were the wrong way around and when I pointed it out to an officer he just looked at me and said little.
Maybe he did not like the balls, who knows.

[j.sabourn]

Never heard of Macenzies Balls John , he must have sold them to Lord Kelvin another one with a dubious title. The only straight man amongst the compass lot is the Flinders bar , he was a genuine navigator. And was around your part of the world a couple of century’s ago. How’s your compass adjuster friend doing in this modern technical world of today , any big shifts in the magnetic pole , or the earths magnetic field in general , this would be maybe the first warning of any huge changes in any climate change discussion cheers JS .

[Michael Black]

Whenever I was on the wheel I would always have a look in the chartroom at the course recorder after my spell to see how straight the line was.
Just a matter of pride in my mind.
Regards Michael

[Keith Tindell]

I was on the Baltic Trader in 1961, and she had the two buttons for steering, she was also a ship with loads of overtime, and whether i was just knackered, but it was definitely not anything to do with booze, but i fell asleep on the wheel one night. This was on the 8-12 fortunately, but she obviously drifted of her course quite heavily, the 3rd, called out and woke me, and i remember i had gone off so deep, i could not remember what course i was steering !!!, but the 3rd put me right, and for a while kept a close watch on me. I had never done that before or since, but the shame was with me for a while , kt

[j.sabourn]

#24. Michael we bought a new car 6 months ago more for the wife than me , as I drive as little as possible now .It is A Hyundai and for the first few weeks the wife didn’t know how to open the petrol cap . There is no need for a course recorder in this car for as soon as you cross a white line an alarm sounds , I am usually a passenger in this car and spend most of the time gripping the seat and cringing at the frequency this alarm sounds . If cars are fitted with these alarms maybe the ships of today are also? Would certainly keep the oow awake at least .JS

[j.sabourn]

The first gyro compass I sailed with was the Browns B type and could not run repeaters off. So the actual compass stood alongside the magnetic compass with a periscope jutting from it , also the magnetic compass on the monkey Island had a periscope down into the wheelhouse , so in theory you had 3 compasses you could steer by. You were continually trying to get compass errors on the monkey island compass and interpolating them for the other two compasses. Contrary to popular belief the gyro compass is not always exact and usually has at least half a degree out and have seen it as much as 3 degrees constant error. It has to have a constant a/c supply and any fluctuations will cause it to wander. On a DC ship you had to have an inverter to obtain this a/c supply and carbon piles to try and keep constant , these carbon piles there was one in the wheelhouse which used to scream often and the only way to shut it up was with a clout with something heavy. Turning the adjusting screw never did work.JS

[happy daze john in oz]

For some reason John always called the Mcenzies balls, but obviously they belonged to some one else.
But no matter who they belonged to they were the wrong way around if you were looking into the compass.
But being in a bar of course many would not notice.

[j.sabourn]

They were usually painted red and green presumably to teach the passengers and all those decky learners their left hand from their right ? That’s all , if it was a castle boat would of thought they may have been painted pink. Artistic licence they used to call it. Graham when he gets out of bed is going to say , they really belonged to Goeballs as he had no balls at all , as it was 2 balls were required so how Hitler managed is anyone’s guess. Cheers JS
PS how do you know they were the wrong way round ? Maybe the the ship was going the other way . Another solution by Inspector Cluezo to this mystery is, was there a big mirror behind the bar ? , then if so you were supposed th look at the reflection then the reds and greens would appear on their supposedly correct side , maybe you were averse to looking in this mirror if there was one in case you saw yourself looking back. You see that poor maligned man was trying to be helpful when he just walked away, without embarrassing you JS

[Peter Harris]

My second trip to sea was on a modern Tanker with auto pilot. Queda of British India.I steered the ship for four hours and kept an amazing course without being told it was in auto pilot. Everyone thought it was so funny but at the time was not amused