SAFETY AT SEA

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 841, 9 December 1929, Page 13

SAFETY AT SEA

CHANGES IN HELM ORDERS MASTER MARINERS* VIEW A statement in the following terras ®ado by the Court of the Honour•'•ble Company of Master Mariners at ' 8 inclusion of their meeting at the Mansion House. London, on September The general public is sublimely unaware of a navigational revolution ‘ ,; it is impending, i.e., the reversal of ! e meaning of the * Helm Order/* a change that can only be compared in Magnitude to a reversal of road traffic n ® Ur land from left to right. Lnder the recent convention on Safety of Life at Sea/* the contractus Governments agree that after mid•Sht on June 30, 1931, lielni or steer- •*? orders (that is, orders to the shall on all their ships be V. en in the direct sense, eg., when the Soing ahead an order containword ‘starboard’ or ‘right* shall only when it is intended on at Present generally conand arranged that the wheel

fit would be well to add here the tell tale’), the rudder-blade and the bead of the ship shall all move to the “ Tho object, of course, is to obtain uniformity of practice among the shipping of all nations. As is natural in a change which means the npiooting of the practice of centuries, seamen feel very deeply, and as to the necessitv for the change there has beeii and still is, strong difference of opinion. However, the case for the Change may carry the day and it s now a matter for international ra tifiCation. The point of u thi°st importance now is to decide o “Helm that are to be used m tho Helm Order?” and this it would seem is purely a matter for seamen. A anous suggestions have come under consideration. such as:— 1. Port, starboard. •’ Port left. Starboard right, s' Left port. Right starboard. 4' Left helm. Starboard helm, o! Port ship. Starboard ship, t; Left. Right. 7. Left wheel. Right wheel, j S. Steer port. Steer starboard. I 9. Steer left. Steer right. ’ vnd here this Honourable Company of i Master Mariners express very definite I V 1 They feel that under no considera♦ion whatever will British seamen | band on tho terms to which they an ‘their forefathers have been accustomed -namely, “port” and.“f "board. It is considered that the general oreference of seamen would be tor a continuance of ..the use of .the simple ! expressions of port and - direct ! sense^and*'that with the ample warnof June 30 1931—that change may be ; Ceft *in the hands of the seamen with the utmost confidence. ~ if however, a safeguard is considered to be necessary, and it certainly will do no harm, and offend nobod . S ' ci-trcsted that a recommendation should 11 accompany any regulation that is made that officers should use the word “steer” before the Helm Order, I in other words, that it would be advisable for a period to give the order •steer starboard.” or “steer port in--1 stead of the direct order. It wou.d quite naturally, in a short time, contract itself into the old expression “port” and “starboard” with the new ,meanins*