Port Side is Right side?

[EDankievitch]

Back in the day of the Titanic rudder commands were given as to which way the tiller was to be moved, not the direction the ship was to be turned. This was one thing that they got right in the movie.

 

[Tractorat]

Are you saying that in 1912 turning the wheel to the left (counter clockwise), the front of the ship would move to the right ? So a command of "hard left rudder" actually was telling the "driver" to steer the boat to the right ?

What is your take on that HB ?

 

[HBarlow]

Nope, absolutely not.

Steering commands are given in two similar ways. "Helmsman, right 20° rudder" or "left full rudder. " The alternative for minor course corrections may be "helmsman, come right, steer course 270°.

Steering courses are based on the 360° of the compass where 0° is always north, 090° is always to the east, 180° is to the south, and 270° is to the west.

In all cases, moving the helm clockwise or to the right at the top of the wheel, moves the rudder to the right and causes the ship to steer right or to starboard. Moving the rudder counterclockwise or to the top of the wheel to the left causes the ship to steer left or to port.

Young seamen appentices right out of boot camp already know how it is done when they report aboard a ship for the first time but they are not blowdried empty suits like the male or female twats of the television journalism profession.

 

[Tractorat]

Methinks that EDankievitch has gotten the titanic mixed up with the phoenicians. Can you imagine the muscles on the guy that would have had to push a tiller on the titanic ? :-laf

 

[EDankievitch]

Funny..... Watch that movie with Kate Winslet again watch which the wheel is turned and what the rudder command that was given. to say things were a bit backword back then. Our joy stick controlls that we use today move the same wat as the rudder not the tiller, and when moved to the right the ship moves to the right. In the olden days early 1900's they still used tiller commands. Not sure when it all changed.

 

[Tractorat]

Well gull durn it EDankievitch, I just looked it up and you appear to be right. I defer to your knowledge of nautical traditions.

 

[HBarlow]

Tillers were a relic of sailing ships. No steam powered ships and certainly not Titanic used a tiller.

I enlisted in the Navy before lots of TDR members were born but we surely didn't have tillers.

 

[Tractorat]

Ah come on HB, they were still using tillers when you enlisted, weren't they ?

Take a look at this web site. I didnt believe it either.

http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiller

 

[HBarlow]

They probably were using them at the Naval Academy in their crew rowboats, may still be, but I was never invited to see them. I think a lot of the small Sunday afternoon sailboat sailors all over the world probably still use a tiller.

 

[mwilson]

Ah come on HB, they were still using tillers when you enlisted, weren't they ?



Take a look at this web site. I didnt believe it either.



http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiller

That's quite a find, I searched around the other trying to prove or dis-prove it. I never thought to try "tiller" all by itself.



I was watching a clip from Titanic and thought that he said "hard to starboard", then thought that it couldn't be. Probably looked like a lunatic hunched over the laptop at lunchtime playing the clip over and over again... ... . with shouts of "Iceberg dead ahead" bouncing off the office walls...



Mike.

 

[HBarlow]

The tiller issue is understandble but the original discussion as I understood it was about which side of the ship is starboard and which is port and which way the ship moves when the rudder is moved. Ships don't have tillers, they have helms or wheels on the bridge of in the conning tower of WWII vintage submarines like my first one.

 

[Tractorat]

The tiller issue is understandble but the original discussion as I understood it was about which side of the ship is starboard and which is port and which way the ship moves when the rudder is moved. Ships don't have tillers, they have helms or wheels on the bridge of in the conning tower of WWII vintage submarines like my first one.

As with most threads here, it got switched around and went in a different direction. But I think the OP was confused about the commands and why they were what they were. There had to be an understanding of what commands might have been given on a merchant ship in that era.


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[rMetzger]

Well, while you guys are worrying about Kate Winslet's port, I'm just going to toss in an age-comment, since we're picking on HBarlow and his tiller-denial. I heard he was so old that he learned the "manual of arms" with a spear.

 

[HBarlow]

Are you saying that in 1912 turning the wheel to the left (counter clockwise), the front of the ship would move to the right ? So a command of "hard left rudder" actually was telling the "driver" to steer the boat to the right ?

What is your take on that HB ?

I don't know where discussion of tillers came from? This is what I read and responded to. I don't see dankievitch's posts and don't watch hollywierd movies so don't have any idea what terminology was used in the movie about Titanic.