Just to confuse you there was no monkey island in a warship. I used the term to describe a position that merchant navy officers would understand. The captain I referred to stood on top of the wheelhouse that was completely bare of any fittings and was just forward of the Visual Gun Direction Platform.
If my maritime experience had been confined only to the navy I would never consider myself qualified to comment on anything to do with the merchant navy. But I elected to sit for the same certificates and spent close to 40 years in the merchant navy, sailing for a variety of owners including over 20 years as master. The navy like any large organization has its fair share of idiots and some very smart people.
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I very much doubt that any deck is actually referred to as the “conning deck”. Aboard this ship it would have another Spanish name I presume, an equivalent to poop deck or quarterdeck with whatever variation they find suitable.
The use of conning deck here came from the report.
My ship simply refers to the poop deck as the place where the OOW cons the ship. It is a complete deck slightly higher than the main deck and has no superstructures.
My fighting tanker, former RFA HMAS Supply, had one and the powers that be decided that the perfectly adequate wheelhouse below lacked visibility or some such, and moved the standard conning position to the monkey island. That’s fine in fine weather, but it lacked even basic wind protection and we all had to be issued with proper duffel coats.
War stories follow. Beware. 
It also didn’t help when a furnace fuel oil replenishment hose forward of the bridge burst and spurted upwards covering the entire ship, captain, officers and bridge crew (in whites, of course) in sticky black goo.
One more at another time. The chart was in a hooded shelter with waterproof curtains. I was told duffel coats were preferred as the water soaked in and didn’t drip off onto the charts. I’m not so sure.
As a midshipman, I once wanted to fold the chart in half and pulled it out of the hood to use some wind assistance and it blew away in the wind. It was pitch black but I wandered hopefully aft to the flag deck and found it there flapping caught in the railings. I got it back in one piece and never told a soul. The OOW hadn’t noticed hiding out of the wind somewhere.
Someone sensible then refitted the ship with a proper enclosed bridge above the still perfectly good wheelhouse.
Ditto, but only to the level required for generally smaller size of sail training ships.
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Hey dude.
Just look at this.
From above last it looks you have more Polish dudes here looking to whom the Hogwash bloke is talking to.
Next thing. Have run search " monkey deck "on this thread and have come up with below results :
My guess the Hogwash dude is confused and has either problems with concentration or is in continuous O.D. condition .
Are the Kiwis also eating eucaliptus trees like Australian famous Koala cute bear??
May be before eating the leaves he should start from reading the Forum rules , that say one should read the whole thread first before replying with some out of context b.s.
Just saying.
Another one :
Holly molly . Can not wait when the Hogwash dude will tell you he has a bigger dick as symptoms of a new pissing contest are quite clear with his text here.
Have read few times your comment and can not see You criticising the Navy Boys or saying anything critical about them. So this defensive position and reaction is somewhat bizarre.
Just sayng.
Can not wait for your NEXT shot . Stuka bombing sounds was good .How about :
Looks like some here are dying to hear it’s life performance .
Good luck
Now it explains why they had no time or run out of messengers to let go anchor with 1.5 : 2 ukc length of chain with this type of communication there. Or the state of anchors readiness to let go was a lot worse then in the case of Dali , when the time there was wasted on lifting the guillotine bar and caalling/searching for one another.
Thx for your input and words of encouragement. Liked the katyusha segment. 
cheers
BTW. Have checked on this Hogwash fellow. Untill 23 days ago his responces to my profile/alias looked like below:
Since the last 23 d responses has changed to sth like below :
By comparison it means He or moderators changed sth. in the profile settings. For example hitting IGNORE BUTTON .
I do not give a ratts ass abt it but it demonstrates the mentality of this people . Imposing sanctions seems to be their favourable trick. Exlusion, shutting down, ridiculing, belittling , vague & veiled insults once they run out of arguments. Tipical woke bag of tricks. I do not need ignore button to ignore one moron , two or the whole flock . Let thenm think they are super duper smart. 
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What a lovely story . You are a very good story teller indeed and a good diplomat too. You truly are in possesion of the so called “soft skills” which i regret to observe some here are obviously lacking.
We had a spat once on thing generating much controversies as obviously we had some opposite views on the issue but yet still , You have rather focused on things that we agree on/share and have simillar views , that sort of join us, rather then seperate us , thus avoiding an escalating hostility .
Not many have that skill and I am sure in gaining such skills You must have benefited from Your enormous experiences on sailing /commanding a Tall Ship with hundreds of young people from different backgrounds.
Reading and undestanding nonnative speaker is a challenge sometimes.
My salutations and I am pleased You are not on my list of hostiles
Back to the main issue.
Have contacted the FB friend I have mentioned in my PM to You, nicknamed “LONG SWORD” - the Tall Ship buff who at 72 signed on Gift of Youth to train the kids from Belgian maritime academy . Asked him if He remembered the DIA of mizzen mast or cirumference . He said it never crossed his mind to check it and now( this morning ) is somewhere near Bondi Beach drinking Aussie lager. . Will come to PL next year for a beer with me.
So my trip to old Dar is inevitable to measure the thing .
I need this for my project on this forum. . Have noticed here the euclidean and non-euclidean geometry and Navier-Stokes equations seem like an ordinary topic among this genius community.
Then i reckon my puny application of Talles, Pitagoras, simple geometry, and some very basic trigonometrical functions to demonstrate my point and way of thinking will surely not unsettle and/or CONFUSE the viewers.
I will do it in the same way as I debunked once , the Ever Forward utterly preposterous concept of capsizing/flip-floping during refloating from the grounding area into the channel.
The concept was never contested by the "we crowd " here by all those wanna be captains, have beens or impostors-the best trained and the best in everything ,including but not limited to BS.
I am sure i will not need to go beyond the elementary school level even by the " Planck lenght ".
Meantime after time consuming research I have found some video clips that You Sir may find interesting . Have glued the clips into one for easy viewing .Turn down the volume pls as PL bird like chirping may destabilize your nervous system and your general well being . I know some are hugely irritated by it .
Brief description : First part start to 1976 STA Tall ship races in Plymouth .The old commander and soon to be new commander discuss tactics . Later the moment of commencement at the line of navy ships and You can see old commander shouting ordes to rise the sails and setting the tempo and rythm of action telling the boys to hurry up.
2nd part the new commander (1978 STA tall ship races with my participation ) is issuing an order to stand by and report readiness to rise the sails.
I served under old (1977) and new commander (1978) .
3rd part - man overboard drill .
As one can see the mike with wires for public adress system was used( sockets were placed in various places ) and loudhailers were used very often especially for sending orders for those who were high on the yards.
All this equipment was used during docking /undocking and the MP position was on the platform visible in the 360 viewer provided earlier.
On the forcastle port /stb the forward visibility was obscured by the bowsprit hence one can see special nests port/stb where lookouts were placed during normal navigation and officer during docking /undocking.
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Now .All interested viewers are kindly requested to view this video yet again.
The most interesting part is btw 06:30 and 08: 50. What do You see???
And finally I have the question to have beens, present masters, pilots.
Tell me briefly how do you anchor your ship.? What do you do, where are you prior and at the moment of letting go.??
Scenario: both anchors are ready to let go, wind =0 , current=0 , depth 15 mtrs under keel, you are approching your anchor position at 2 kts , your engine is stopped, still steering, sunshine , perfect visibility but your little toy here:
is out of whack compkletely. So you shout your orders to your mate inside and see no revs /no pitch -nada. But you see something , what you can not see from “the monkey deck” ,or from inside .
You see something what tells you when your vessel is stopped , whent it moves ahead, when it moves astern.
You see what Admirante con Pilote could not see from their conning position but what they could have seen if they were on port side of the open bridge at the rails.
Pls note that the boats which were claimed to obstruct the view were swung out in port condition but before movement should be swung in and WERE swung in as per Dr.Sal other video above showing the allision.
What is it???
If you’re asking me, I come to anchor differently under sail or motor. Mostly I’m navigating to a selected spot set up on my chart plotter which is below decks in the charthouse. I can see it ok from the door to the deck and simply con by direct orders.
I stop under sail by turning head to wind and backing yards to add windage but without mizzen square sails I can’t sail controllably astern. Under power, I use engines and see when I’m stopped by looking over the side at the water. I then tend to wander forward to observe the cable and see if the anchor is dug in. I give engine orders by hand signal.
I’m not sure what you’re trying to point out about CPP and bridge tour. I note a centreline left/right lever which I presume is one form of non-follow up emergency steering when the steering motors are running. It can’t be a bow thruster if there’s none fitted. Otherwise I’m unfamiliar with the types of engine controls.
I would suggest that the captain and pilot could see well enough from where they were that the ship was gathering speed astern. They would not be able to look down at the water but wouldn’t necessarily need to.
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I don’t anchor a ship from outside, that’s for sure.
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Sir.
Yours is noted with thanks.
To remove any misunderstanding by outside You mean" You do not anchor the ship from the bridge wings. "
Yes. There’s no reason to, in my opinion.
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agree - have also found finding a natural range ashore if available is a very good tool as well.
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yet - didn’t get that one either - can’t see a reason to leave the bridge - unless just can’t trust the crew on the bow. I just ask or get shots out, lead and strain.
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Noted with thanks. I asked an honest question .No traps , no hiiden surprises, no gotcha stuff.
Just want to probe the other opinions and see how their nautical minds work. Seen many US pilots on my bridges bringing ship to anchorage and letting go .
On one occasion during my one off stunt on MPC ( multi purpose carrier) as master I have arrived at Kalama port with windmill bases -special cargo , with all my Nor-control engine control system whacked completely and w/o governor from South Korea. So all wing controls were out of action . Many things were out of action and M/E was operated from mcy position in the e/r . Only telegraph wroked as selsyn . So we manoeuvered like in the good old 60-ies like ancient Dr.Bugge.
( USCG initially refused us in when I reported this impediment , pilot was sceptical also so I got the SOLAS book and demonstrated to the pilot before entering the river the vessel could be handled w/o any problem w/o remote control- long story but managed to convince the pilot ) .
Have not seen anything unussual in American style of anchoring cargo ships .Just the standard moves as myself and many other pilots from other countries did. Nothing kinky.
The big clit you have noticed is indeed the steering tool , looks to me like non-follow up .
Will give it here another 24- 36 hrs .May be others will share their experiences/knowledge/habits/ rituals. I am very interested .
Ok
Inside for me as well but always a glance outside to see the wash from the astern movement making its was towards the bridge wings on a conventional all aft ship, the same as I do just before going into a swing to make sure the headway is off
Spot on … everything works until it doesn’t. Problem is we never know when the “last time” was until there isn’t a next time.
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“Conning deck” is the term used in the NTSB preliminary report. It’s also the term used in gCaptain, Maritime Executive and elsewhere this story was reported.
I think we all know what it means, just I for one ,have never heard that term before.
Kind of thought it was an navy term
From the report:
“At departure, the ship’s captain and both pilots were on the open conning deck directly above the vessel’s enclosed navigation bridge.”
The term “conning deck” is from the NTSB report that’s the subject of this thread. I don’t recall ever seeing that term before now. I thought it would be less confusing to stick with the same terminology.
I believe the Navy term for that deck is “flying bridge”
14 posts were split to a new topic: Air India Crash