Gyro Compass trouble

[William Gardner]

i was on the wheel onthe rowanmore sreering on giro the mate on watch said to me that light should be not over thear we wear in the north sea heading for the port of hull what coures are you steering i read of the number he did a bit more looking and stear magnectic giro had gone crazy we only 30 minuites away from running aground close call that one

[Ivan Cloherty]

Seems as if all on bridge were asleep, as the QM should have noticed he was 'chasing the gyro' and reported it to the mate, and the mate should have noticed with all the buoys and ships in that vicinity that the vessel was swinging. Glad I never sailed on her.

[William Gardner]

the giroif iremember was showing the correct number it turned out that themaster giro had slowed down that was the fault the mate did pick up the wrong position thatis why we whent magnectic and and all well awake panic over cheers ivan

[j.sabourn]

If Was a Browns of the type you were probably familiar with, with repeaters off the master, the spin speed of Browns at the time was 600 revs per minute. Any slowing down of this speed would have caused the compass to wander. The repeaters would also have followed the master compass. Everyone thinks the Gyro is infallible, usually there was anything between 1 to 3 degrees error on such. High or Low or East or West being more seamanlike. The Armour Brown the follower of the old type was a fraction of the size was a sealed unit and required no maintainance from the ship. Your wandering compass was more than likely due to fluctuations in the ships voltages. Blame Rob. Cheers John S.

[j.sabourn]

Ref #4.. On the other hand maybe the 2nd. mate had not maintained correctly and hadn't changed the mercury in the mercury rings or rewired incorrectly. Although the first fault to check would have been the ships voltages. Almost as bad as forgetting to wind the chronometer. Cheers John S. PS The only correction I can remember for the Gyro was a speed correction and this could be set at the master compass. JS

[William Gardner]

getting abit tech hear all idid was steer to a number given to me it was areapeter but we saved the daycheers j s

[Keith at Tregenna]

Our way a giro was what was / is received by the unwashed by the wobbly, certain other regions have an own terminology ? K

[j.sabourn]

Ref #6... Its not tech. stuff. I would imagine after the occurrence you describe there would have been a big follow up to find the cause. A ship goes nowhere without a compass. If no apparent fault was found with the gyro repeater and gyro master compass, a continuous eye would have been kept on the differences shown between the standard compass and gyro to see a similar occurrence didn't happen. Ships have been lost on less what appears to be a minor problem. In fact it would have been to everyones benefit to fix, I know I would prefer steering by gyro than by the slow reacting card of the standard compass. Cheers John S.

[j.sabourn]

#7 Keith hard to translate what you are saying in post 7. Always thought a Giro was what the dole office gave out to the unemployed. I assume you are referring them to be wobbily and unwashed. Some of them might be inclined to take umbrage at that. Cheers John S.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi William.
Probably like you all I knew about the giro was that it was easier to steer by than the compass, The numbers were clearer and never swayed around and you didn't need a magnifying glass to see the quarter points, certainly would these days.
Cheers Des.