RickM wrote:
If the sailor at the helm were not an experienced salt, the Captain might
prudently forego sailing "close and by" and instead order a less demanding
course of "by and large."
Steering a ship isn't easy. There is a big delay between helm input and
change of direction. Then the ship reacts to the wind and seas quite a
bit, so the right amount an length of helm to adjust a certain amount of
directions is never quite the same. One guy on a ship I was on managed
to get completely messed up at night and went almost 180 out. That
brought the Captain right out of his bunk. Made me feel better about my
less than perfect helmsmanship. I was on the helm as we approached Pearl
Harbor and was pleased that they didn't replaec me with a real
experienced helmsman until we were quite close in. I've only been on the
helm of a relatively small ship, ~280 feet. I imagine it's quite
different with the really big ones. The effect of wind and wave is
probably smaller, but the delay in movement must be huge.
The XO on one ship I was on could come down the very narrow Oakland
Estuary apparently way too fast, spin the ship 180 and end up dead in
the water except for a very slow drift to the side that brought us up to
just kiss the dock, evenly spaced between ships ahead and behind. The
deck hands could just drop the lines on the dock. He was a prick with
amazingly bad BO, a major drawback at battle stations in the CIC, but he
sure could handle a ship!
Moose
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