The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

RO eT hand-wheel movement. This is true with all gears even with all practicable slack taken up at every point, and with slight wear or inattention it is still more. 'There are more instances of a half revolution of lost movement than otherwise. Now fon the result. Nio ship, left to 'herself, will keep a straight course; her tendency to vary from it depends largely on her trim, weather, depth of water, etc, and if the wheelsman re- lies entirely upon steadying her with his wheel, the amount of slack "has everything to do with his success and the inevitable tendency is toward giving "too much wheel." Too much starboard wheels means still more port wheel to stop ther swing, and vice versa, and the result is what sailors call "laying rail fences." The man at the wheel has no control of the rudder within the total angle of lost move- ment at the hand-wheel, although, as will be shown later, the amount of this lack of control can be greatly re- duced, and the ill effects of that which is unavoidable can be minimized by the exercise of a little judgment. Many a ship has 'been given a bad name when the whole trouble lay in the sluggishness of the gear which an un- derstanding of the problem would cure. Steered as Well as Propelled. Now jet it 'be borne in mind that, practically speaking, the steamship. is steered as well as propelled by the flow of water from tthe screw. The rudder merely diverts a portion of this energy to one side or the other as is made manifest in swinging the ship, without any 'headway whatever, by simply shifting the wheel. Niow there- fore every time the wheel is shifted in steadying the ship on 'her course, a proportion of the power which should be used in driving her ahead is diverted to shifting ther sidewise, and is most inefficiently expended besides. So that the total loss due to poor steering is not only the increased dis- tance traveled but the loss of time and of power due to driving the ship broad- side to, and this loss is very much greater than is generally supposed. Let us take a common case and see what it amounts to in actual figures. Almost any wheelsman will say that if he keeps his ship steady within one- eighth' point either way, or a total swing of one-quarter point, he is mak- ing a good course, and so he is, judged by the average; the total swing is more likely to be double that. Sup- pose we have a ship 500 ft. long; her length then is one-half the diameter of a circle of which the circumference is 3,140 ft... The number of one-eighth points in a circle is 256, so that if our "THE. Marine. REVIEW ship 'has swung off one-eighth 'her stem is 1234 ft. off the line. Before her swing has 'been stopped she has head-reached so that she has increased this distance materially, let us say to 15. ft., because at say, 12 miles per hour, she travels her own length in 28 seconds. Now in shifting the rud- der it is the stern of the ship that swings, not her head, so that when our ship is once more headed correct- ly by compass she is bodily 15 ft. to one side of the line on which she was headed when she started hen. swing, and the power that put her there is just exactly that much deducted from useful propelling effect and can be made neither more nor less. Now she swings off the other way perhaps and the process and loss is repeated. If the swing is anything greater than the eighth we have supposed the loss is proportionately greater; if it is a quarter-point the loss is at least doubled, perhaps more because more wheel'. will' 'be. given and then eased: Of. It is not "at "all. ancom- mon to see a ship swing off thus once every five minutes, 12 times in an hour; it thas been actualy observed and timed at 18 times in one hour on a 500 ft. ship in fine weather for a total average swing of three-eighths, or three-sixteenths either way, with what. would be called fair steering. Scores of ships are much worse than this. Aggregate of Broadside Movement. Suppose we are. making an 18-hour course at say, 12 miles per hour, and suppose further, that we keep within a total swing of 20 ft. and that it is all to starboard, say, nothing to port, and that -she swings thus once in five minutes. At the end of 18 hours she will have moved bodily broadside-to over eight-tenths of a mile. Now it may be argued that this is an impossible, or at least an improba- ble, case, but it is really not uncom- mon. Many wheelsmen have the hab- it, unconsciously perhaps, and perhaps for the same reason that a person lost in the snow will invariably travel in a circle, and as a matter of fact one of the most common of orders. is "nothing to port" (or starboard, etc., as the case may be). Independent of the loss of time and powen in placing a ship so far out of position even with fair steering and in good weather and without external influences, it is not hard to understand how a. ship is oc- casionally far astray in fog, smoke or snow, and with the assistance of winds or currents. The error in position may or may not occur, but the loss of time and power straightening up the ship is absolute, and the distance moved through is the same whether it 33 is all to one side of the fine or crossing and recrossing it. 'Reducing Lost Movement. Let us see what can be done to better these conditions. We cannot do away with the steam steerer and we cannot eliminate all lost movement, but we can reduce it to the very least possible for easy movement. See that there is no play in the gears in the column or shafts, these should be cut in all cases and meshed: as closely as possble, see that all bearings are as snug as they can run (except in the case of the intermediate bearings of an all- shaft transmission, where free move- ment does no harm) without causing undue twisting strains; the wire trans- mission cable should be kept taut and | all fairleads free and liberally lubri- cated; if there is play in the threads of the sleeve on the steering engine it should 'be very carefully taken out as a slight amount of slack here makes a great deal of movement at the hand- wheel and most steerers are provided with double nuts for making this ad- justment; if the pins and knuckles in the valve movement and righting gear are at all slack thave them refitted; see that in the leads from the drum of the steering engine to the quadrant there is no slack, and if the gear is properly put up it should run from hard-over to hard-over without produc- ing slack at any point; if the engine is forward and a wire rope is used for the leads between the quarter- blocks, it should 'be under strain so that when one part is holding the rud- der over the other part should not be slack; in fact this strain may be equal to that of holding the rudder hard-over without imposing additional. duty on the rope; if the steerer is worm-geared see that there is not more than enough play betwéen worm and wheel for easy working; in short wherever there is miovement see to it that it takes place. with the least possible loss. Making Needful Adjustments. © Now be sure that the midship posi- tion of the wheel and the steerer coin- cide absolutely, and if not make the needful adjustments which are simple and. easily and quickly done. See that the rudden stands perfectly fore and aft with gear amidship, -When 'the ship leaves the yard this is generally. in good shape but chains and ropes do not stretch equally and slack may have been taken wp unequally and the rud- der may shave touched a dock... A ready means of correcting this is 'by means of a straight-edge batten applied to either side of the rudder and reach- ing to the stern-post. If not right ad- just the turnbuckles in quadrant chains, When these points are attended to