Hy Hy DredgeBoyThrottleJocky,
The Quarter Master has no real responsibility in that matter. The officer who has the conn must make sure that the wheel order is properly executed. Whether he looks at the wheel itself or at the rudder indicator, but he has to do so at every little single wheel order and at all the times. The day you don’t look at it, the QM will turn the wheel on the wrong side. Murphy’s Law. But from the VDR extract that I posted, it is clear that nobody realized that the wheel was turned on the wrong side. And I am not surprise at all, because over 20 years and more than 2,000 trips as a pilot, I can witness that nobody is checking the wheel except me. I would not be able to remember how many times the QM has put the wheel on the wrong side. But I still survive.
As soon as Shitto saw the sea foam shining from Stb’d, if the wheel would’ve been ordered Hard Over to Stb’d with the Stb’d engine Full Astern … the tactical diameter would’ve been really shortened and the vessel would’ve loose speed. The angle with which the stern would’ve hit the rock (the case be) would’ve been more at right angle, so the opening to the sea would’ve been shortened and most probably less than over 3 or more watertight compartments. Hitting a rock at reduce speed is not a bad idea as well. But I would rather choose to put both engine Full Astern and lose my job. But it is not in the seaman nature to go full astern. We tend to avoid danger by steering out of problems. I have in emergency put the engine full astern only ounce. It worked pretty good but the Old Man, neither the Chief, liked it too much. Well I told them, it takes what it takes. If it is written Full Astern on the telegraph, it’s because we can use it. But you should’ve seen the shit coming out the stack !!! On top of that, when that vessel was ready to depart, it was me again. The captain was desperate. He told me; ‘‘No more Full Astern Mr. Pilot’’ … I replied back; ‘‘Do you have a problem with your engine … If so, I will report you to the Coast Guard’’ The captain said; ‘‘No No Mr. Pilot … everything is OK’’ … End of story ! 