Steering Gear Arrangements

  The form of steering gear with a vertical spoked wheel introduced early in the 18th century worked a long wooden tiller below decks on the fore side of the rudder post, from a revolving wooden drum or barrel with hide ropes and a system of pulleys. The system was generally similar to that used in the earliest clippers, the main difference being a change in deck leyels which brought the tiller above the exposed deck and aft of the rudder post.

  The limited distance between the rudder post and the transom or counter necessitated a much shorter tiller which was made of iron. The illustration shows the most common arrangement, whereby the action is transmitted via fixed rollers ( or pulley blocks) above the tiller level, then to the ship's sides and back to each side of the tiller. Sometimes a metal quadrant was used instead of a tiller arm.

  All this gear above deck level was an encumbrance and restricted working space on deck, and was consequently covered over by a raised platform of portable gratings which completely filled the stern as far as the wheel, or sometimes just forward of it, with the wheel working in a slotted opening. The barrel was covered with a short curved-top box like an American pillar box. Some American ships with deeper poops retained the old style wooden tiller forward of the rudder post and below a raised poop deck, with the wheel situated in front of the house in a sheltered position. The Challenge of 1851 had this arrangement.

  The drawback in all these arrangements was that the rope gear always had a certain amount of slack which allowed any very sudden shock on the rudder to be transmitted to the wheel. Considerable deck space was also necessary, and with the designers' tendency to make the poop counters shorter and rounder, inventors experimented with more simple mechanical gears which would occupy the minimum of space and make wheel operation easier.

  In the I 840s many such ideas came out and by the 50s had resolved into a more or less common idea of a strong metal yoke, keyed directly on the rudder post head and actuated by two arms which moved in opposite directions from a common shaft with opposed threads. The basic idea had been patented in 1834 by John Rapson but with the opposed threads on two separate shafts. Rapson was later responsible for a strong poweroperated steering gear on the old tiller principle used on steam warships for many years.
The advantages of the worm geared system were a considerable saving in deck space, a direct positive action, and the absence of sudden shocks felt at the helm, since the worm gear could not 'walk back' from pressure on the rudder. The rudder post yoke or crosshead could be placed under the middle or one end of the gear, usually the latter since an emergency tiller was often kept on the rudder in readiness. The whole gear was supported by strong iron legs or a heavy frame, and if close enough to a strong taffrail could be bolted to this also. A wooden rectangular wheel box with sloping lids like a skylight, and ornamental legs, was placed over the somewhat unsightly arrangement.

  One ingenious arrangement known as the pillar box steering gear , from its resemblance to a Victorian style British pillar box, was fitted vertically over the rudder post and occupied the minimum of space, an advantage to designers aiming for the shortest counters. Details of this can be seen in the illustration, for which lam indebted to the late Mr A. D. Edwardes of Australia.
With all steering gear types there was always a spare tiller either stowed away or on the post, and eyebolts about the deck ready to take relieving tackle.