7/27/2019 Helm Order Info

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Marine Safety Update

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HELM ORDERS CREATED NAVIGATIONAL CHAOS

Sometimes languagestruggles to catch up with technology.So it was with steering or helm ordersfor over 300 years. Vessels were

steered by steering oars, and latertillers (horizontal extensions from therudder head) for centuries. In smalleryachts and dinghies tillers are stilloften used for steering.

With a tiller steering system,to move the vessel to starboard, thetiller must be put over to port. Tomove the vessel to port, the tiller mustbe moved over to starboard. Sincetillers were used for so long forsteering, navigators on ships gavehelm orders to steersmen in terms of

tiller movements. This continued longafter ships' steering mechanismsadvanced beyond tillers. Increasedtonnage and size made the use ofsteering wheels more practical. Asteering wheel is usually connected tothe rudder by cables and pulleys insuch a fashion that the wheel, therudder and the vessel all turn in thesame direction. Therefore, the use ofsteering wheels led to confusion.Steersmen had to remember thecontrary order, "Port your helm"

meant move the vessel to starboard.

An example of theseseemingly contradictory orders wasseen in the movie Titanic. When thelookout spotted the iceberg off thevessel's starboard side, the navigatorgave the order "Starboard your helm!"One then watched the steersman turnthe wheel to port, the correct directionto minimize contact with the icebergoff the starboard side. The steersmanwas following traditional helm orders

used for centuries. He knew that theorder "starboard" meant a turn to port.Knowing these orders by heart wasevery steersman's duty.

However, these contradictoryorders sometimes created confusion.After World War I, 1914-1918, somenations started giving helm orders inthe direction they wanted the ship toturn. Thus, for some the order"starboard 20" now meant to turn thevessel to starboard 20 degrees. As aresult, even more confusion wascreated as different nations used helmorders to mean different things.

The muddle was so great,that participants in a 1928 international

conference on shipping in Londonagreed to use the terms "left" and"right" when giving commands to aperson at the wheel, rather than thetraditional "port" and "starboard."Then, in 1929, the InternationalConvention for Safety at Searecommended, in Article 41, that afterJune 30, 193 all orders to steersmenbe given in the direct sense. In otherwords, an order to starboard meantthat the vessel's wheel, rudder andbow, should all turn to the right or

starboard.Confusion lingered on,however, and sometimes resulted indisaster. In the early 1930's, the shipsMohawkand Talisman collided off theEast Coast of the U.S. The Mohawk

was set up for direct steering ordersfor its main steering system. Thewheelhouse even had a sign posted:"This ship uses direct steering ordersby order of the government."However, its backup emergencysteering apparatus was marked for

the older helm orders.On board the Mohawk, the

main steering system jammed. Astarboard turn was needed to avoid

collision with the Talisman. Thenavigator gave the order, "10 degreesstarboard helm." However, since thebackup steering was under the oldersystem, a 10-degree turn to portresulted. Upon seeing that the turn putthe vessel on a collision course, thesteersman turned the emergencysteering system all the way tostarboard helm, turning the vesseleven further to port. The result was adisastrous collision.

After a congressional inquiry

into this collision, the U.S. adopteddirect steering rules in 1935. Over 300years of confusion then ended. Finallythe "new" steering wheel wasintegrated with steering orders!

Thanks to Richard Hiscock of ERE Associates,

24 Briar Springs Rd., Orleans, MA 02653 for

providing some of the information for this article.