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~ Modern Steering Equipment 1S Especially Suitable for _ Diesel Drive Ships By O. B. Whitaker HE ‘diesel engine has brought [ along new problems for the marine engineer in the design and selection of auxiliary machinery. Steam makes it possible to operate all kinds of -auxiliary machinery with types of engines to suit the particular requirements; but with the absence of steam on the diesel ship other means must be used to drive the auxiliaries as it would be impractical to operate the steering engine, multi- plicity of pumps and deck winches with individual oil engines. Elec- tricity steps to the front in popu- larity as a substitute and promises to outdo steam in extent of useful- ness. The operation of pumps and other ‘auxiliaries is largely a matter of adapting industrial developments to shipboard use. This has been done ‘so completely and with such little ‘change in the original designs in some -cases as to make one believe that he is stepping into an industrial plant when entering the engine room of ‘these vessels. Generators are indi- vidually driven by smaller diese!s -which supply the electrical power for operating the auxiliaries. Automatic Control of Steering The gyro-compass has aided mate- rially in this transition by bringing ‘along the development of manual and automatic control of the steering en- ‘gine by electricity. This develop- ment originally started as an auto- matic steering device operating the ‘steering wheel in the wheel house and depending upon the ship’s tel- ‘emotor, or the steering equipment, to operate the steering engine. This machine has reached a high degree of efficiency and is now in use on ‘a great many vessels. Instances be- The author, O. B. Whitaker, is connected with the Sperry Gyroscope Co. and prepared - this article at the request of the Edito-. 64 gan to arise, however, where it was desirable to operate the steering ma- chinery directly and not through the medium of a telemotor. What is now known as the Sperry two-units gyro- pilot was developed to meet these re- quirements. In designing this two- unit system, provision has been made for manual as well as automatic steering with facilities for changing from one to the other on the wheel house unit—making it unnecessary to go aft for the purpose of removing or inserting pins in shafting or linkage in the steering engine room. This system, however, operates equally well with either steam or hydro-electric steering machinery. Electric Follow-up Steering There is now, however, a growing tendency toward straight electric steering in which case an _ e'ectric motor of sufficient power to operate the rudder directly through gear and worms is employed. The need of a means giving complete control of this motor from the bridge gave rise to new problems. The simple start, stop and reverse method without follow-up was first used for operating this type of gear but had the disadvantage of unrelated motion between ship move- ment and the motion applied to the controls for steering purposes. In this type of equipment a controller normally rests in a central or neu- tral position,—moving it to one side moves the rudder in one direction so long as the controller is held in that direction. When the controller is moved back to the central position the rudder does not return to its amid- ship position but is stopped wherever it rests. To return the rudder to the amidship position the controller must be held over in the opposite direction for a sufficient length of time to drive it back to amidships. A good helm angle ind‘cator and some practice on MARINE REVIEW—November, 1927 GYRO PILOT STEERER WITH LARGE HAND WHEEL AND STAND the part of the quartermaster is re- quired to steer a ship efficiently with this type of steering. The gyro-pilot removes this objec- tionable feature of straight electric steering which promises to be of great popularity on diesel vessels, by pro- viding an electric, follow-up, wheel steering system with complete con- trol over the rudder action. This system does not move the rudder over in steps determined by contact but- tons but provides a control having the desired results of the telemotor with-- out the attendant troubles with leaks, packing, etc. The Diesel Ship from the Bridge Probably the best examples of this type of steering equipment are in- stalled on the shipping board vessels converted to diesel drive. On each of the vessels the steam steering en- gine was substituted by a 30 horse- power motor operating through the original machinery. This motor is controlled from the bridge by a Sperry gyro-pilot which provides full follow-up, wheel steering as well as automatic steering. The controller method of steering is also embodied in the same machine for use as an auxiliary. These machines incorpo- (Continued on Page 76)