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Re: Did the Titanic helmsman turn the wrong way?
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2010 Sep 23, 20:02 +0100
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2010 Sep 23, 20:02 +0100
Douglas Denny wrote: >I simply do NOT believe it. I admit too I find it annoying. > >A helmsman used to being given instructions days in, days out; hours >in, hours out on watch and perfectly used to helming in a particular >fashion (whichever way that might be).... suddenly panicking and >turning the wrong way? - NO, simply not credible. Hmm. I think that the "instructions" that our hapless helmsman would have been given "day in, day out" would have been of the kind... "Steer 295 degrees magnetic". So he turned the wheel until that is the heading indicated in the binnacle. But if, in an emergency, he was given the instruction, "Hard a-port!" that would - or could - have been a quite different sort of instruction, depending on the helmsman's background. And could have led to a quite different response from the one intended. Just a thought. Geoffrey Kolbe.
