How do You Steer the Ship?

Eurodam’s wheel already is in place on the bridge

When you picture the ship’s wheel, do you imagine something along the lines of a giant wheel with spokes adorning its circumference to enable steering? Well, times have certainly changed, and though ships keep getting bigger and bigger, ship wheels of today are surprisingly small for the job they have to do. Yet despite their size, they still have the power to steer today’s megaships. To find out exactly how a ship is steered, we asked Eurodam’s Captain Jeroen van Donselaar for an explanation.

It is a common misconception that the captain steers the ship himself or is always on the bridge when the ship is at sea. The presence of the captain on the bridge is required when entering or leaving port, during reduced visibility, in heavy weather or dense traffic, and when circumstances so dictate.

The captain or the second in command — the chief officer — always maneuvers the ship alongside or off the berth, but this does not mean we are actually steering or are “at the helm” as we prefer to call it. This job is done by helmsmen who have the rank of quartermaster, which at Holland America Line is a position in between able-bodied sailor and boatswain. In pairs of two, these gentlemen assist the watch officer on the bridge on a four-hours-on, eight-off rotation. They are not licensed, but are qualified to act as helmsman and lookout, and to provide general assistance to the watch officer.

When at the helm, they take orders from me, the chief officer, the watch officer or a pilot, depending on who has what we call “the conn,” which means who is handling the ship at the time.

The orders given to the helmsmen can be course orders, such as “Steer zero nine zero,” direct rudder orders such as “Starboard ten,” or rates of turn such as “Fifteen degrees rate of turn to port.”

The actual helm is quite small, not bigger than the steering wheel of a car. Generally, the quartermasters are only at the helm when the ship is sailing in confined waters such as buoyed channels or rivers, or when making large course alterations. At other times the ship is steered electronically through various autopilot systems.

The main autopilot system is called NACOS, for Navigation Command System. Quite literally the ship can follow a preprogrammed track by itself and can even slow down at its destination. It will not allow for traffic though. These preprogrammed tracks end near the entrance of a port and from there on it’s all manual again until the ship is docked.

P.S. Thanks to Blog Board member Andre van Schoonhoven who got us the photo of the ship’s wheel in record time!