Steady and steady as she goes - I thought the latter expression superfluous. If I was dealing with a helmsman that I don’t know and his first language was not English I used to back up wheel orders with a hand signal.
Stearboard and Larboard 
The helm command “STEADY” has different a meaning depending on the area.
I’ve posted about this before.:
The above was from observation from watching the pilots, I hadn’t seen the IMO standard commands at that point.
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Number 14 is by far the most important but the helmsperson must be trained to give that piece of information early on.
I hear it very often on U.S. ships… maybe depends on the pilot?
Steady, originally, non-nautical:
How about:
Aye Captain.
And ,Aye Aye Captain.
Not to be confused with this, although pretty sure it was a sparky/lecky I sailed with once;
Could be, it’s not a key part of the discussion.
I am talking about the command “steady” without a course given. It is used a lot in Asia, Japan in particular.
I use “Steady on course xxx” frequently but not without a course to steer.
That is what I was referring to… them saying only “steady.”
99% of the time I hear pilots say “steady,” and the helmsman will call out, “steady, (course xxx)” followed up by either “very well,” or an order to adjust course perhaps one degree or so.
That’s just my recollection, I might be only remembering what U.S. pilots are prone to, as my last two ships were on Jones Act runs…
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I must be mistaken about the part about the U.S. Damn Yankee said the same thing.
Outside the U.S. “steady” is given before the ship is lined up with the channel often with a high RoT. Just from seeing the heading when the pilot gives the order it can seen that it can’t be the course they want.
Just steady by itself doesn’t make sense. I guess if the person was sailing erratically in a straight line maybe it would. If a pilot is just saying “steady” with nothing else beside it while the helm is already centered and the ship is steering in a straight line I think maybe they don’t understand English.
It’s #10 in IMO list of standard helm commands.
The command is to: “Reduce swing as rapidly as possible”
Yes this was my understanding of the command. Basically the same as “Check your swing” though that’s not on the IMO list.
U.S. and IMO helm commands are not the same. I posted both in #34 upthread.
A U.S.helmsman + an IMO pilot = zigzag.
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I see what you’re saying now.
Yeah, say the ship is steering 000T and the new course is 090T and it’s full speed with a tight turn.
With a high ROT and a heading of say, 075 the pilot will give the command of “steady” , the helmsman will curse under his breath and put on big opposite rudder to get back to 075… When the swing stops and the heading is say 085 or so and the wheel now port 20 the ship will start to swing to port because the helmsman intends to get back to where the steady order was given.
The pilot will see this swing start and order “steer course 090”. The helmsman will franticly reduce rudder plus have to stop and reverse the new swing to port when the new course lies to stbd.
Zigzag.
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You should see us during marine casualties. This is why these discussions sometimes end up in the actual press.
WRT port/stbd v left/right on a U.S. flag foreign-going ship we use port and starboard for helm commands almost exclusively.
Occasionally a U.S. pilot will ask which we prefer, I tell them we use Port / Stbd but either is fine.
It’s uncommon for a foreign pilot to ask, they just use Port / Stbd without asking. When they do ask I tell them the same thing I do the U.S. pilots.
I don’t know what the practice is on a Jones Act Ship.
My last vessel I heard them discuss that during the Master/Pilot Exchange, the helmsman was then promptly informed.
Foreign I always just heard them defer to PORT/STBD as you mentioned.
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