NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Did the Titanic helmsman turn the wrong way?/ OTHER CASES !
From: Irv Haworth
Date: 2010 Sep 24, 11:16 -0700
From: Irv Haworth
Date: 2010 Sep 24, 11:16 -0700
With all due respect to helmsmen...let me add two stories. The Torrey Canyon went aground in part because the helmsman was ordered to turn hard to ? , by the Master. He struggled with helm but to no avail, turned out it was on auto helm and he did not know how to disengage it ...Master finally did ( by pulling a lever over the helmsman's head ) but too late.(the helmsman did not know how to disengage the auto helm) About 4 years ago I was on a cruise ship that left Puerto Monet and ultimately entered the Beagle Channel south bound heading for Cape Horn. ( Without looking up my notes I note the following.) At some point we made a course change due to a dog leg and we saw a small but British registered coastal passenger freighter an old rusted high and almost dry on a large out cropping of rocks off out port hand. Our Master reported the following. The freighter had been northbound with a pilot on the bridge, clear WX and unlimited visibility, and approaching the dog leg ordered the helmsman to turn to port . The Master who was out on one of the wings , upon hearing the pilot's orders , cried out "ALL RIGHT" whereupon the helmsman turned hard to starboard .(In other words the Master was just confirming the pilots order but the helmsman took it to mean he was overriding the pilots order, and put her hard to starboard thereby putting her hard aground. (No lives were lost but vessel was a total loss) If anyone saw the location as it was/is it would not seem possible that the helmsman , with a clear view, would steer the vessel onto the clearly visible rocks...but the Master's Orders are Orders over riding those of the pilot If needs be I should be able to find some pictures /names etc. relating to this incident. 73 Irv Haworth -----Original Message----- From: navlist-bounce@fer3.com [mailto:navlist-bounce@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Geoffrey Kolbe Sent: Thursday, September 23, 2010 12:03 PM To: NavList@fer3.com Subject: [NavList] Re: Did the Titanic helmsman turn the wrong way? 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.