Telemotors and Steam Steering

Telemotors and Steam Steering.

Reading the postings on ET there seems to be some misunderstandings regarding Titanic’s steering gear and how it operated. It has to be said that most steamships of any size in the 20th Century had a similar system whether they were 200 feet or 1000 feet long. Starting at the stern first the rudder is connected to a ‘steam tiller’ a reciprocating steam engine geared to the rudder post. The most common make of steam steering gear was by Browns of Edinburgh. On a ship as large as Titanic the steering engine or steam tiller was duplicated and either set could be engaged or disengaged according to requirements. In the case of the three Olympic Class ships the Steering engines were built by Harland & Wolff themselves but Brown Telemotors were used. The steam tiller was controlled hydraulically, connection with the wheelhouse being by piping, and the steering wheel operated two pistons. With the wheel amidships hydraulic pressure was the same in both lines, on turning the wheel, say to Starboard pressure would be increased in the right hand line and decreased in the left. A censor in the steering flat would open a valve on the steering engine and apply steam until pressure was equalised in the system. If you turned the wheel till the pointer on front of the pedestal was at 5 degrees then the steam tiller would operate until pressure in the lines was equalised and 5 degrees of helm was on. I do not know whether the helm on the Olympic Class ships was ‘self centring’ – i.e. when you release the wheel it returns to midships. The more you turn the wheel the more the pressure on one side is increased and the steam tiller will run until ‘hard a starboard’ has been reached when a stop on the tiller quadrant automatically shuts off steam to the steering engine. If you want to see such systems in operation still, the TS “Shieldhall” on the Solent and PS “Waverley” both have Browns Steam Steering gear and Telemotor. Incidentally, the hydraulic fluid normally used is a mixture of water and alcohol! On Titanic etc. there was also an electrically operated helm indicator which sensed the rudder position and relayed this to an indicator on the bridge. The steering wheels on Olympic, Titanic and Britannic were duplicated, the wheel in the forward part of the bridge was only used in port and was connected by shafting to the main Telemotor control and wheel which was in the wheelhouse. The forward wheel could be disconnected by a clutch, which could only be engaged or disengaged when the helm was midships. There was a steering wheel with Telemotor control on the after docking bridge, again this was only for emergency use. In emergency the tiller could be worked using the warping capstans on the after poop deck above, only under these circumstances would the steering telegraphs on the bridge be used. At all other times the rudder would be under control from the main bridge forward. It has to be remembered that the rudder on a ship 880 feet long will be of little use at low speeds, manoeuvring in port being accomplished by the use of tugs, the warping capstans fore and aft, and in some cases the use of the main engines forward and astern – some captains like Captain Barr of the Carmania were very good at this whilst others relied heavily on the tugs.