GOOD STEERING
By Lieut. Commander A. M. R. Allen, U. S. Navy
A type of apparatus for studying the work of the steersman is described in the August number of the Naval Institute. This apparatus is very useful for experimental measurements, but is hardly applicable to the ordinary ship for everyday use. A simple method for obtaining the same result on board any of our modern battleships has often been used by the writer with excellent results.
Practically all the chart houses on the above mentioned class of ships are equipped with the Forbe's log and a gyro repeater. The log ticks at the rate of 100 per knot so that, from the speed of the ship, or the table of time intervals for different speeds furnished with the log, the time interval can be readily obtained. Use the ordinary plotting or ten square section sheets. Select one vertical line as the zero or course line. Have the assistant navigator read carefully, to the nearest one-half of a degree, the ship's head, to the right or the left of the course, each time the log ticks for a period of several minutes. Use one interval down for each tick, and one interval to the right or left for each one-half degree. Draw a smooth curve through the points so obtained, and the result will show you just how good the steersman is. From the number of sine curves per minute or longer you can get a still further comparison of the relative value of two apparently equally good steersmen, but under usual conditions, you will see at once which man is the better as the poor man's curves will not only be very irregular, but will generally show him steadying a degree or two off the course.
If you mark each sheet with the name of the man and the time, and post the sheets, you will soon get an interest aroused in this very important factor of ship control, and the resulting competition will more than pay you for your trouble.
It is essential of course that the work be done in the chart-house or central station, where the steersman does not know what is going on, and by selecting different times for your observations, he will always be on the lookout not to be caught doing poor work.
The conditions arising in fleet formation for this work are not as satisfactory as when steaming singly or in the lead, but fair results can be obtained if proper times are selected on long steady courses with a smooth sea.
A good course means such a saving in horsepower, that men should be trained for this work in small vessels, and only trained men used for this work on board battleships. The helmsman detail should be permanent and no changes made without permission from the navigator, so as to give this officer an opportunity to gradually weed out the men who in many cases never can be taught to steer properly.
The introduction of the gyro-compass has brought out many other interesting points in ship control bearing on the shaping of a good course, one of the most important being the frequent comparison of the master, repeater and magnetic compasses. The regulations now require the navigator to make these comparisons frequently, and this can best be done by having a comparison book kept on the bridge in which half hourly entries are made. Such a book is useful in many ways. First it ensures a careful attention to the comparative courses by the officer-of-the-deck, and the quartermaster; then it makes a permanent record that the above mentioned officer can refer to in case the gyro fails, enabling him to select the best course to steer until the navigator can be called or the gyro repaired, and finally it enables the navigator to check over not only the constant operation of his compasses, but to study the deviations of the magnetic compass under actual operating conditions.
Many officers and men still believe that the vibrating steering repeater is necessary and that it is impractical to use the relay for the navigational repeaters, but experience proves the contrary, and better courses can be steered and better bearings taken when the repeaters are operated through a properly adjusted relay, which entirely removes the hunt. Anyone who has watched the hunting repeater for a full two hour watch knows that it is a very severe eye strain, which is entirely eliminated when the relay is used. It will sometimes require personal demonstration that just as good steering can be done with the relay, as with the vibrating- compass, but once the steersman has become accustomed to the steady moving compass he will never want to use the other.
The application of the integrating center dial of the "Anschutz" compass to our steering repeaters will greatly improve the steering, as it will enable the steersman to see quicker which way the ship is going to swing, which is especially necessary with the long "firing interval" of the electric steering gear.
Good steering is so very important for the navigator, particularly in coasting, that if this part of his ship control organization is properly trained, and this otherwise routine work made interesting and competitive, by some such methods as those mentioned above, it will greatly assist him in this very important duty.