A steering engine is a power steering device for ships.

History

Prior to the invention of the steering engine, large steam-powered warships with manual steering needed huge crews to turn the rudder rapidly. The Royal Navy once used 78 men hauling on block and tackle gear to manually turn the rudder on HMS ''Minotaur'', in a test of manual vs. steam powered steering. The first steering engine with feedback was installed on

Isambard Kingdom Brunel Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...

's ''Great Eastern'' in 1866. Designed by Scottish engineer John McFarlane Gray and built by George Forrester and Company, this was a steam-powered mechanical amplifier used to drive the

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, airship, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (usually air or water). On an airplane, the rudder is used primarily to counter adverse yaw ...

position to match the

wheel A wheel is a rotating component (typically circular in shape) that is intended to turn on an axle Bearing (mechanical), bearing. The wheel is one of the key components of the wheel and axle which is one of the Simple machine, six simple machin ...

position. The size of ''Great Eastern,'' by far the largest ship of her day, made power steering a necessity. Steam-powered steering engines were employed on large steamships thereafter. The Mississippi River style steamboat '' Belle of Louisville'', (originally ''Idlewild'' and oldest in her class), is fitted with a steering engine. Original equipment when the boat was launched at Pittsburgh in 1915, the engine consists of a single double-acting steam cylinder mounted aft of and above the engines, coupled to the rudders, with the motion of travel abeam. The steam valves of the engine are controlled by mechanical linkages which extend up to levers mounted either side of the engine order telegraph, just aft of the pilot wheel in the pilot house above. The steering engine is open to public view. A functional description is given in the 1965 book ''Str. Belle of Louisville,'' by Alan L. Bates, the marine architect who supervised the restoration of the boat, who comments that when in use, the steering engine causes the pilot wheel to whirl "as fast as an electric fan." The same source also describes the functional need for steering hard-to in vessels of its type, whose combination of shallow draft and high above-water profile require rapid changes in rudder under shifting wind conditions, a need which is addressed by the steering engine.

References

{{reflist Control devices Mechanical amplifiers Watercraft components

History

See also

References