NEW HELM ORDERS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21377, 29 December 1932, Page 9

NEW HELM ORDERS

ALTERATION ON SUNDAY USE OF DIRECT TERMS END OF OLD CUSTOM - RELIC FROM DAYS OF VIKINGS

From Sunday onward ct new system of helm or steering orders will be in use on all the merchant ships and in the navies of the principal maritime countries of tho world. New Zealand is includod in tho change. In the Gazette notice to mariners it was described as "the change, from the present indirect system in use to the direct system as required by the Merchant Shipping (Safety and Load Line Convention) Act, 1932." In such prosaic language does officialdom deal with the death of a nautical cuslom which has passed through the ages, ;it least from the days of the Vikings. Under the new arrangement an order containing the word "starboard" is to be 1 used when a ship is going ahead and when it is intended that the wheel, the rudder blade and the head of the ship shall all move to the right. Similarly, the word "port" will be used when a movement to the left is desired. The system at present in force is one of opposites; an officer on the bridge says one thing and means another. For a man looking toward the bow of a ship, "starboard" is on the right and "port" on the left. Yet the order "helm a-starboard" at present results in the head of the. vessel swinging round ..to port. The crowning 4 anomaly of the position is that when the order is given the wheel, is- swung not to ■ starboard but to port. Link with Days of Tiller To those who have no occasion to go down to the sea in ships, or to those who take no interest in the work of men carv- ~ ing trade routes across wide expanses of ocean, the present position of "orders by opposites" may appear more than faintlyridiculous. But there are many who will - mourn the passing of the old contradictory system as the breaking of a seafaring tradition. • - >- ' The old orders are a survival from the days when a tiller or a long sweep at. the stern of a vessel provided the only means of steering, By this method, if the rudder had to be moved to port to swing the head of the ship round in the sarne'direc-', tion the end of the tiller or the handle of the sweep had to be pushed to starboard. For years this was the only method of ■ steering known to mariners; indeed, the tiller is still employed on the majority of small yachts used as pleasure craft. ; Gradually, however, the wheel began to be used on ships. #lt had a direct ' action, distinct from that of the tiller. II - it was moved to starboard, or to the > right, the rudder and the head of the vessel moved in the same direction. But the tiller orders persisted, even when the use of the wheel 6n board ships became practically universal. It is, perhaps, ft classic example of how contrariness ''can be enshrined by custom and tradition. Only One Previous Change For the first six months of their use, the new orders will be given in modified form. When the Mariposa enters the Waikfriata Harbour .next Tuesday morning, the order to the quartermaster at the wheel when she is rounding North Head will be "wheel to starboard." If the plain order "starboard" were given and an absentminded quartermaster happened to'be on watch, the olcl system might be followed, with tho result that the liner would make for Motuihi. Alternative orders have been suggested for the six months' transitional period— . "wheel to starboard" and "wheel to port" or "starboard the wheel" and "port the wheel." After the transitional period, . the old orders, "starboard" and "port," will be used with the opposite but moi'6 logical effect. The new arrangement will mark only the second change in. steeriftg routine since the early days of maritime history. The first was the change from "larboard'' to "port," made because of the difficulty experienced by steersmen ill distinguishing between "starboard" and "larboard when orders were shouted against , a heavy wind. 'J»he orders will change, but it is safe to predict that the art of Steersmanship will not be lost on that account. Sea- . faring men still talk of the days of sail and of helmsmen who could handle a ship under full canvas as if she were a living thing. True steersmanship, they say, vanished with the passing of sail, but even on ocean-going liners to-day it is still possible to distinguish Jietween the touch of the quartermaster who has inherited a "gift for the wheel" and the one who ploughs through seas—and ships more than his share.