STEERING THEM.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1056, 20 February 1911, Page 6

STEERING THEM.

THE HELM AND THE MAN BEHIND. ON MANY SniPS. (By Gyho.) Mararoa's Unique Gear. "Behold also tlio ships"—so runs the beautiful diction o£ tho epistlo—"which though they lie so. great, and aro driven of fierco winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever tho governors listeth." - Perhaps tho allusion was to a Liburnian brieino with two banks of flashing oars, or perhaps to some simpler sort of ship, but the wonder 'of tho steering struck, as it still must strike to-day. • And yet, • even on such a- striking subject, it is rather strange how unobservant most of us can contrive to be.' Sometimes, coming up in the Mararoa, for instance, oho can hardly help wondering how it conies that her essential peculiarity has escaped even tho observant eye of shipping reporters for twenty-six years. It is not that in lino and symmetry she is different from every vessel on tho coast—a delicate Adrian Ross lyric in steel and brass is tlio Mararoa—but there is, too, the fact that slio has been "navigating about" for a quarter of a century without a wheel iu chart room. The wheel, by tho way, seems to bo going out of date, for tho, telcmotor is tho hew thing in steering, but tho Jfararoa has pursued an efficient and honourablo career with no moro imposing applianco than a tiller, but still only a tilia, hydraulic tiller, but still only-a tiller, and, if ono looks in through the glass windows of tho chart.room, ho perceives just a stout red beam of hardwood, tipped with metal. It is this which the quartermaster takes hold of when having taken out your tickot by tho "night mail," the Mararoa rushes you and your fortunes southward from 'Wellington into ' tho vast}-, starlit night. •/■ ■■ On the Night Mail for Lyttelton. Quartermasters arc tho elite of the fo'c'stlo, and it is their fine judgment which makes steering 0110 of tlio quietest and most unostentatious of trades. The captain takes the boat out from ' the wharf, manoeuvres her round Halswell, gives her a certain offing from Pencarrow (generally two miles),- and then passes the'word to tho quartermaster "S. by W. i A\." "Sou' by west art west, sir!" responds tho 'quartermaster, and tlio course for Lyttoiton (be it Maori, .Mararoa, qr some other boat) is set. If it is a'fine night a land lubber almost might steer, but when a sen is, tumbling through tho Strait, and a wind-driven current is hastening .up, from south, and theso meet somewhere off where ,a poor occasional blink shows Cape Campbell light . 011 tho starboard beam, then "tlio. bridge" must triqi tho lamp of judgment and burn tho oil of "special knowledge of tlio coast." Tho nervous passenger, whoso nervousness may after all bo merely a symptom that ho is a littlo more intelligent than tho rest, aligns a-stanchion 011 0110 of tho constellations, and notes that tbp steamer's head is falling .away, sometimes to jiort, sometimes to starboard, and,' possibly, 110 turns'to a fellowtraveller who has also.-hitched his stanchion to n star, and observes: "She's yawing dreadful, ain't she?" . "Yuss," says tho other observer, "I don't think much of tho steering; do you?" "Meanwhile, what is tlio "special knowledge" of tho bridgo doing? Perhaps nothing at all. Tho intelligent quarter-, master may mako no attempt to meet her or straighten her up, for'ho knows that she is yawing equally each way, and if ho just continues as ho is doing, tempering his ancient and unteachablo vocation with wisdom and coolness, the first glint of the morning sun will hit up Godley Head for him all right. Tlio bridge, it may bo noted, is a very quiet place, but) let it not' bo imagined that it is a r '|la - isy, .place.., Always behind tho quartermaster there marches tho very capable young gontleman who is his officer. Almost each timo lie passes tho binnacle, 110 notes how tho ship's head is. , Tho helmsman is watching it just as intently, and thoro is very littlo colloquy. -Only every two hours, when tho new quartermaster conies up to take his trick at tho wheel, ono hears tho following short dialoguo:— "Soil* by west, arf south, sir!" "South, by, west, half south!" replies the officer. < "Sou* by west, arf sou'!" chimes in tho newcomer, and tho shin goes on. How Wharves are Approached. ■ Bringing a steamer-.alongside a wharf is a chapter iu itself, and,, in.it, the impatient. person who goes down to meet a boat, and thinks that slio is as long in berthing as tho Mcrrio Monarch was in dying,' may find food for reflection. To begin with, tho chief engineer is no doubt as important apersonago ill. tho ship's oeconomy as "tho bridge," and, if he is studying his coal , bill (as lie usually is), ho contrives that slio shall corco alongside under dyinj; steam. "But, if "tho bridgo" were minded to do it, the ship could bo brought to tlio wharf at full speed, and stopped by lior screws in less than twice her length. "Tlio bridge," however, seldom if ever attempts such a feat, for a rigid safety margin is always ■maintained. Even the best engines may possibly go wrong, and only very infrequently is a. steamer allowed "to como alongside at a greater speed than her anchors could cope with if anything elso failed.. . The W4y they Have in the Navy. Es-cntially different! from tho bridgo of a merchantman is the bridge of. a-war-ship. There' are 110 such orders as "Port easy!" or "Half speed'ahead!" , in tho Navy.Changes of tho'.course;are ordered in degrees, which are at. once shown on the Evershed helm indicator/while any desire to incrcaso speed, or "whack her up," as tho saying is, must be called for in terms of an exact number of revolutions of tho'screw. " .; ■" The writer once had the, good fortune to witness the Challenger steered round what was at ono time,'perhaps, the ugliest bend on the New Zealand coast (the old channel just insido Taiaroa Heads, Otago Harbour). It was not only.that a stunning sea was baying on tho cliff, and banks of spindrift shut out tho leading beacons, but it happened also to be near tho time of slack water, and tho flood tide was making'in through. - .the channel;' whilo the strong end'of tho ebb was pouring out over tlio flats.- At ono part of tho passage the cruiser's bow must have been . 1 tho flood, while her stern was in the ebb, - But it mattered nothing, apparently, to tho young English'officer-who drovo her. in at astonishing speed, and round a bend which 1 experienced pilots used to negotiate with care and caution. If the cruiser had struck, ono.was inclined to imagine that slio would havo stood straight up 011 end. and shed a cataract of boats. guns, and projectors into tho waves ahead. , On the long straight run in 011 the line of' leading beacons the helmsman's hand scarcely moved, and then came tlio bend, and tlio turn of tht> young Englishman who had never seen the port before. lie did it very simply and quietly. First he rang off his starboard engine, and "whacked up" his port propeller about 20 revolutions -more. The starboard propollor was then sent astern, while at tho 6amo time, in a rather'musical tenoring voice, ho said to tlio helmsman just two words— . • 1 "Port foali!" ' , The helmsman ported four, and that Was all. Even the pilot,- ivho was looking on, was, I thought, impressed.