NavList:

   

Reply

Master Chief, the Officer of the Deck (OOD) can be relieved by the Navigator, 
the senior watch officer, and the commanding officer (CO).  By the Navigator 
and senior watch officer only if they're warfare qualified (SWO).  And also 
by the executive officer (XO) if SWO qualified and permission to do so is in 
the CO's standing orders.  Not that it happened that way - there were a lot 
of "gentleman's agreements" that separated the real and bureaucratic worlds.

For Jeremy's question (peaceful pilotage transit) I'm assuming the ship is 
transiting with a working pilot.  From the Cape Henry pilot pickup to Naval 
Station Norfolk, for example.  Then the CO was on the bridge, babysitting the 
pilot and the Officer of the Deck (OOD) on my ships.  By preference - legally 
he could be anywhere he wanted to be.

Having "the deck" and having "the conn" are two different things, for the 
non-navy readers.  The OOD has the deck, meaning he's in overall charge of 
the bridge watchstanders.  The helmsman and leehelmsman (engine order 
telegraph) obey only the officer who has the conn, and he doesn't have to be 
the OOD.  The OOD or conning officer, whomever actually had the conn, would 
give the conn to the pilot when the pilot was ready to take it, and with CO's 
permission since the pilot was usually a civilian.  The OOD was then an 
advisor to the pilot in terms of how the ship handled, and the conning 
officer was out of the picture.  The pilot would usually "state his 
intentions" before making a helm or engine order - pilots were pretty good at 
training OODs in pilot waters.  Legally the OOD could take the conn away from 
the pilot, but the "gentleman's agreement" was that only the CO would.  I saw 
the CO take the conn from a pilot on only two occasions.  One was to avoid a 
collision, the other in a pea-soup when the pilot (and everybody else but a 
very instinctive CO) didn't realize that he had lost his way - no nav radar 
then.

The CO napped, if needed on long pilotage transits such as the Suez, in his 
bridge chair.  It could recline like an automobile's front seats.  The 
executive officer (XO) was wide awake, and in his bridge chair, when the CO 
was napping.

The main, or primary plot was on the bridge for these evolutions.  For us it 
made no practical difference if main plot was bridge or CIC.  Having main 
plot on the bridge made the pilot feel more comfortable, as there was a legal 
distinction between main and secondary if there was an incident.  Inbound 
we'd usually "shift the plot" to the bridge before the pilot came onboard - 
just a log entry, not a physical chart switch.

Bridge "bearing book" recorder and CIC "bearing book" recorder were both on 
the receiving side of the bearing taker's sound powered phone circuit.  Two 
men on a bearing taker team, up to three teams on my ships - one man took the 
shot from the pelorus or alidade attachment and the other man wrote it down, 
then called on the phone when it was his turn.  Very fast - perhaps 15sec 
from "shoot now" to concurance between the two plot evaluators if all went 
well - one arm drafting machines are nice plotting tools.  On the other hand, 
15sec can seem like an hour if you're sweating a goofy current.

This for pilot waters.  A different story when outside the sea buoy and no pilot.

Joe

-- 
NavList message boards: www.fer3.com/arc
Or post by email to: NavList@fer3.com
To , email NavList+@fer3.com

   

Reply