Why did Titanic need two steering wheels?

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While on the open sea, the helmsman follows the course, as ordered by the officer of the deck (OOD). Before radar, lookouts were used to identify passing ships, and obstacles, with the information relayed to the OOD, who then made decisions, and passed orders on to the engine room, and the helmsman.

When entering a harbor, a harbor pilot would take the place of the OOD, and would often take the job of helmsman as well; the pilot would then need a wheel on the bridge.

I've stood watch as helmsman, and the job was to follow orders, and mind the compass, which in modern times is a gyrocompass, or other inertial navigation system.

Upvote:1

The assumption that the person at the helm needs to see things is based on the assumption that the person at the helm makes decisions about which way the ship should turn.

However, the person who turns the helm is usually following the orders of an officer who has a good view from a different position on the ship and/or other sources of information about the situation and decides how the ship should be steered.

See the answers to this question about a different type of ship in a different age:

How did the helmsman know what he was sailing towards with a big mast in his face?1

Upvote:3

The link mentioned by Steve Bird is relevant, but it is also important to recall that the North Atlantic is renowned for the ferocity of its storms and heavy seas. When your view is changing from this enter image description here to this enter image description here every few seconds, the temperature is -20C with a 40 knot wind blowing salt spray across the foredeck, the helmsman tended to perform much more reliably when under shelter.

Another video of weathering a North Atlantic storm.

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