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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.

   

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