Were her reciprocating engines broken in two

[Michael H. Standart]

Jim, I don't know if that much was ever timed in a realistic fashion. I know that something was done during trials to see how long it took the ship to come to a full stop, but that was with everybody at the controls to switch the engines from the forward to reverse modes. Out on the open ocean during a normal run, there would be no reason to have people standing by any of the wide assortment of valves and levers that would have to be worked.

 

[Jim Hathaway]

It is something I have been wondering about after hearing the theory that reversing the engines might have decreased rudder effectiveness- whether there was time to actually reverse them-
I had not considered the people aspect, only physically stopping and reversing the engines, but what you said makes sense.
Thanks, Michael-

 

[Samuel Halpern]

Jim: You may want to read this: encyclopedia-titanica.org/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=5919&post=136768#POST136768.
Cheers!

 

[Michael H. Standart]

>>It is something I have been wondering about after hearing the theory that reversing the engines might have decreased rudder effectiveness- whether there was time to actually reverse them-<<

Understandable. With no propwash over the rudder, it's effectiveness would have gone down. Unavoidable really. I had a turn at the helm of the USS Comstock and near the end of that watch, the OOD ordered the engines reversed. I lost steerage way while the ship was still doing 17 knots.

It may well be a moot point anyway since the evidence would tend to indicate that no engine reversal took place until after the Titanic's encounter with the iceberg.

>>I had not considered the people aspect, only physically stopping and reversing the engines, but what you said makes sense.<<

Thanks. It's easy enough today to overlook the fact that everything then was completely manual. There was no direct control of the engines from the bridge. When you have to send orders down by a telegraph and people have to turn to in order to make it happen, things start to take more time then you would like.

 

[Jon Hollis]

To embellish Mikes statement.
After the Engine Room telegraph registered Full Astern it was only 4 to 5 seconds after that ring the Titanic impacted the berg. So there was hardly enough tine for anyone to even get to the controls never mind reversing the engines

 

[Samuel Halpern]

>>>After the Engine Room telegraph registered Full Astern it was only 4 to 5 seconds after that ring the Titanic impacted the berg.<<<

Did they register Full Astern? Or was it a Stop order as greaser Frederick Scott said it was?