When The Gangway's In

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 50, 21 May 1927, Page 19 (Supplement)

When The Gangway's In

How a Steamer Puts to Sea

EXTRACT from the bridge log- j; book of s.s. Anonymous, Friday, i April 8, 1927: ' 5-08 p.m. — Stand by. Slow 5.12. Passed _ oa * of harbour 5.26. Streamed log. j 54 E. SE x E. 30.30. E ly. Sea | ! s smooth. Condensed into a few nautical J , rins ’. ai >d some letters and figures, ! , 1 Quite incomprehensible to the un- , mtiated landsman, the complicated Peration of taking a ship to sea is j 1 us tersely recorded in the log book, u the almost illegible scrawl, some- j in a neat clear hand, of the . c ® r the watch, every movement . the ship at sea and in port is faithim y Set out ’ t0 S e ther with the more j Portant doings of her crew. -Nearly everyone has, at some time ( r other, stood to watch a steamer’s ®Parture from the wharf, but few People understand much of what goes h n ' thistles shrill, officers bawl ? arse orders, seamen haul at ropes, j Bches clatter spasmodically, and dis- ; ??t gongs clang in the bowels of the , efore s^e begins to move. All 1 the landsman sees and hears, but ' e why and wherefore of it is nearly 1 * 9 foreign to him as the cryptic words 1 letters in the vessel’s “diary.” captain has ordered the chief 1 4 ** eer to have steam up by, say, ‘ c y Pm., and, if the working of the k RS Proceeded expeditiously, ! h n ° bitches through rain, short- 1 cr °* ruc bs, or other causes, the ' “stowing gear” by that time: d#» a « 8 ’ owerin S and making fast* the 1 by which the cargo has been 1 Aboard or discharged, and 1 ting on the hatch-covers. ' chi^ 11 ship is ready for sea. The the °® cer *s on the forecastle, and wit secon d mate on the poop, each : a .b a number of seamen to haul in coil down the mooring lines as ; thA nc bes draw them inboard. On : thi f f r^ge * the captain, with him the ; Deri mate ’ watches with a keen, exth ence d eye that misses no detail of : whe Tv Fk t^lat * s soing on. In the . bouse is the boatswain, who is !

(Written for THE SUN by G. R. Curtis.)

Making for the Open Ocean . . .

always at the helm when the ship is entering or leaving port. He spins the wheel hard-a-port, hard-a-star-board, several times, to clear out the water that has condensed in the steam steering-engine. The gangway is heaved aboard and lashed down. The captain moves to the engine-room telegraph, and shifts the handle to “Stand By.” A gong clangs deep down in the ship, as the black hand on the indicater dial in the engine-room moves also to “Stand By.” An engineer stands by the start-ing-gear. High up on the funnel, a cloud of steam blows off from the escape pipe, white against the sooty smoke pouring from the stack. Then, clear and crisp, comes the captain’s order to the chief officer, waiting on the forecastle. "Let go For’ard!” The ship has been berthed with her bows at the inner end of the wharf, and she must move out stern first. The forecastle winch clatters, heaving in the mooring lines, which are coiled down and secured on deck. The mate’s hand goes up to signify “all clear.” The captain moves the engine-room telegraph handle to “Slow Astern and there is a gentle vibration as the engines begin to revolve. A whistle shrills from the bridge. “Let go aft! .... Carry your stern line along!" Struggling under the weight of the hawser, a harbour board hand carries the loop past bollard after bollard as the 1 ship moves slowly astern, to the end of the wharf. “Hard-a-starboard! ” “Hard-a-starboard, sir!” acknowledges the boatswain, spinning the wheel, and the ship turns in an arc about the end of the wharf, the remaining stern line, now slipped over a bollard, helping to swing her, and vibrating and creaking under the immense strain. “Steady your helm!” “Steady, sir!” The helmsman again

spins the wheel, until the rudder is in the central position. Now the engines are stopped. The stern line slackens as the ship swings; its shore end is let go, splashes into the water, and one of the after winches heaves it in for coiling down.

“Slow Ahead” is the order to the engine-room, “port a little” to the man at the wheel, and the ship moves out towards the harbour mouth, gather* ing speed to “Full Ahead.” At 5.26 she has cleared the moles, and at 5.30 is put on her course North 54 degrees East by the standard compass, North East by East by the steering compass. The barometer stands at 30.30 inches, and there is a light easterly wind, with a calm , sea

A seaman is sent aft to “stream the log”—which, by the way, must not be confused with the log-book. The “log” is something like a speedometer, in that it records the number of miles travelled by the ship. It consists of a cylindrical spinner, towed astern by a long line, and operating a mileagerecording instrument fixed at the end of a beam which is extended from the side of the ship, near the stern. Streaming the log consists merely of attaching the line to the instrument, swinging out the beam, and carefully paying out the log-liqe astern. Now the officer who is to keep the watch until S p.m. comes on the bridge, and relieves the third mate, who goes down to the chart-room to enter up the log-book in the cryptic words previously quoted, have his tea, and turn in until his own watch. The captain, with a final glance round, also goes down for his tea, and a sleep that may be short or long, for he must be called if there is a change in the weather, if there is a fog, if the course is to be altered, or if the ship converges on the course of another vessel, or approaches too near the land. The boatswain relinquishes the wheel to a seaman, and reports the compass course to the officer of the watch. “Nor’-east by east, sir.” “Nor’-east by east.” Turning the collar of his great-coat up about his ears, the mate begins his pacing up and down, up and down, and the ship forges steadily ahead in the gathering dusk, while the land drops astern, soon to be veiled in the evening mists. The rhythmic throb of the engines, the occasional scrape of a shovel below in the stokehold, and the wash of the bows, are the old familiar sounds aboard a ship at sea.