Avoiding a collision
Back in the late 1970s we were stormbound on the PS “Waverley” in St. Ives bay attempting to get round to Lands End and
begin our annual visit to the South Coast. Our Catering Officer produced an 8mm cine-projector with sound and in the course of
the evening showed an condensed version of the film “A Night to Remember”. This provoked much discussion in the ensuing
weeks especially with myself, our Chief Engineer and our First Officer.
It all centred on what Murdoch did after sighting the berg. We came to the following conclusions.
1. Many officers in 1912 had been brought up in sail and were not used to manoeuvring large vessels. Their natural instinct
would be to reverse the engines and put the helm hard over to avoid a collision. However, once you take the way of a ship under
such conditions the ship tends to ‘slide’ so that in actual fact you are likely to present more of the ship’s side to the obstacle than
less.
2. Had Murdoch been schooled in handling a ship the size of Titanic what he should have done was ordered the helm hard over
and reversed the port engine keeping the starboard engine at full speed. He might, and we added the word might just have gained
enough of a turn to avoid the collision. It depended on how quickly the engine room could have got the port engine running full
astern.
3. We therefore felt that the whole business centred round the competency of deck officers to handle large vessels in an
emergency. There is no doubt that the First World War gave many the opportunity to learn such tricks and with the decline in the
sailing ship more experience was gained with steamships and their foibles.
4. The fact that Titanic had an unbalanced rudder would also make steering less positive at slow speeds than with a balanced type
as fitted to Lusitania and Mauretania. Strange to say the vessel we were on at the time also suffers from having an unbalanced
rudder and its disadvantages.
ATC