with massive ships like oil tankers, how are they steered and controlled? Is there just one captain at a wheel directing the whole thing?
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My Dad was a captain on VLCC ships. As a kid I used to sail with him.
The procedure back then (~40 years ago) was you had a duty officer who’d work a 4 hour shift. He’s controlling the ship for his watch.
The course is set and the duty officer is keeping the ship on course. If an obstacle appears on the horizon, he’d make minor direction changes. If the engine room needed, they’d I form him of a speEd change and he’d change that too.
Every 15 minutes they update a large chart with their past travel, and plot the direction for the next 15 minutes. They’d physically draw this on the chart and initial it.
If the chart indicates some islands in the next 15 minutes, they’d pull out the protractor, calculate the course change and then go to the helm and turn the steering wheel to the needed compass bearing.
The wheel has an autopilot switch. As soon as you’ve turned to your desired course, you straighten up and set the switch on your bearing. The ships now on autopilot, basically just a steering lock with the speed set according to your throttle setting (a pretty simole lever with speed settings like full forward/full aft on it).
Then the officer goes out to the bridge wing, scans the horizon with bino’s, checks radar, responds to radio messages until 15 minutes has passed, repeat. They do this until their 4-hour watch is over and they’re relieved by the next officer on rotation, when you’d do a handover, discuss any events/problems, maybe have a cuppa and a quick courtesy chat and then bugger off and let the next watch start.
Modern ships are a lot more automated. Radar, GPS, computerisation etc are used more. But you’d still have someone on watch.
Keep in mind this is when the ship is underway/deep at sea. When you’re close to shore or coming in to port, the entire officer crew is on the bridge and the captain is co-ordinating what’s happening.
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