eli5: Why is a ship’s steering at the back and not at the front like cars?
In: 5
Rudders have been in the back of boats since long before propellers. Water provides much more resistance to motion than the air a car travels through. To minimize that resistance, the bow needs to be narrow, slicing the water. This means it needs to be small.
The aft end of the boat can be much wider. Sails push the boat from the middle, so moving the steering to the far aft end gives the rudder a larger lever to rotate the boat around the pivot point that’s cutting into the water. Any drag from the rudder helps the boat track straight in rough seas, if your rudder was in the front it would tend to spin you broadside to rough seas, which fills the boat with water and everybody dies, so they don’t do that.
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