Hey, who's steering this ship?

[Jason]

Hey, who's steering this ship?

These huge luxury vessels, built ever bigger, take a seasoned captain and automation to maneuver them.

Source: Mary Lu Abbott, Cruise News

IF parallel parking your car makes you nervous, imagine being the captain of a 935-foot-long cruise ship, and maneuvering it alongside the dock — with 1,800 or more passengers watching you.

"It's only 80,000 tons and no brakes," says a laughing Peter Harris, captain of Holland America Line's Westerdam.

Today's ever-bigger cruise ships are modern marvels of engineering and electronics. Despite their size, a combination of propellers and bow thrusters helps ships move sideways from a dock and turn 180 degrees in a tight harbor in minutes.

The maneuvering looks as easy as making a U-turn in your car, but it takes a corps of officers with skills and experience to handle a cruise ship today.

The question of who's running the ship gained new importance after a July 18 incident in which Princess Cruises' Crown Princess tilted a reported 15 degrees, injuring 240 passengers. The line cited human error as the cause.

Before Sept. 11, 2001, tours of a ship's bridge gave passengers insight into its workings and a chance to meet the people at the controls. But with tighter security measures in place, bridge tours have stopped, and most passengers meet officers only at a cocktail party.

The navigational heart of the ship is the bridge. With advanced technology and sophisticated computers, the bridges of today's cruise ships are far more automated than in the past.

The captain, who is the senior officer, is always on the bridge when entering or leaving ports, in tricky navigational areas and in rough seas or other demanding weather situations. Otherwise, he shares navigational duties with other officers.

The career path to captain, or master of a cruise ship, is a long one. "It takes about 10 years from the first time you go to sea until you get the master's (captain's) license, and then you spend time working your way up through the ranks," Harris says. It takes 15 to 20 years to become a captain.

After a high school education, a student enters a maritime college. It's usually a four-year track, balancing time in classes with periods at sea to become a junior officer. Then there's more time at sea and a return to classes for advanced licenses.

Often the first or second officer is in charge of the bridge for a four-hour period, or watch. The steering is done by a quartermaster, who acts on the command of the officer in charge.

"Anytime an officer feels uncomfortable [about the navigational situation], he calls the captain," Harris says. And, at anytime, the captain may walk onto the bridge "to see how things are going," he says.

Junior officers work with senior officers, Harris says, watching before they actually take on duties. Junior officers start handling the ship in less critical situations, such as in open water. "They steadily build up [skills] over a period of years to get to handling a ship confidently." Harris says. "If you're out at sea in big waves, you can't learn about that from a textbook."

New radar makes it easier to navigate in fog, and new equipment identifies other ships in the area by name, Harris says. Being able to verify a ship's identity is an added security measure.

Modern bridges also have extensive monitoring equipment to detect a fire or water problem anywhere. Large panels display the entire layout of the ship.

And the classic ship's wheel is gone, replaced by two navigational tools, which seem small to handle today's huge ships. One is a tiny wheel — "a bit like in the cockpit of an airplane," Harris says — that's used mainly in open waters. The other is a joystick, mainly used for maneuvering in port. Learning to use it takes practice.

"It's easy to overdo. It's like driving a stick-shift car — the first time you do, it's a bit jerky. You have to get used to it, see how it reacts. The more you do it, the easier it becomes," he says.

As ships have grown, bridges have widened. The Westerdam's bridge is 112 feet wide — larger ships are more than 150 feet wide. It's too far apart for officers at either end to talk to each other in person, so they have to communicate through microphones and speakers.

Wings project from either side to allow officers to see the entire length of the ship. Maneuvering consoles on the wings allow officers to see how the ship is moving as they steer it, particularly critical when docking.

"When you have 900 feet of ship, you need to know what it's doing," Harris says.

[Dan]

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