Sidewheelers: Bow rudder at the bow?

[rva1945]

Is it true that some sidewheelers had a rudder under the bow in order to make it easier to steer while on reverse?

[Walter Snowdon]

Hello Robert. Quite a number of British paddlers had bow rudders, but most proved to be more of a hindrance than a use. They were very prone to damage and when not in use had to be locked with locking pins which tended to wear or bend, often giving a degree or two of stearage, making life difficult for the helmsmen. they soon went out of fashion. From a modeling viewpoint they are a disaster due to several points. Even in 48th scale, model bows are so narrow it is difficult to find room for a cross arm. You require two channels, one for the ahead rudder, one for the astern rudder.The risk of damage is much greater than it was in full size. I have NEVER seen a model with a working bow rudder. I have seen several fitted, but ALL were very quickly disconnected and glued into position. Anyway, welcome to the club. May all your wakes be twin ones!. Walter.

[ancoaster78]

Hello

Just reading through and thought i'd drop a comment in, when the Jeanie Deans was transferred from the Clyde to the Thames (an renamed Queen of the South in the process) towards the end of its career, a bow rudder was fitted in time for its second and last season on the Thames, this was to enable it to sail astern up stream towards Tower Pier and therefore avoid the need to turn with the aid of expensive tugs in the narrower parts of the river, the plan was to turn the ship down river and simply go astern the rest of the way up! A wheel was fitted aft of the wheelhouse off set to one side so as to give a view astern to enable this to happen. Sadly as I'm sure most of you know, that ship's time on the Thames didn't work out and it was scrapped, and so very few sailings as described above took place.

On the videos 'Day trips to the Sea' available from the Kingswear Castle store, footage of the ship on the Thames, and even of its new astern wheel in use can be seen.

I have in bits/early stages of construction a model 1:32 of the ship, I have often wondered if i should fit the rudder and show the ship as it sailed in its final guise, it'd certainly be unusual, maybe oneday I will....

[Khephre]

A lot of the Auckland Harbour ferries (both paddle and screw) were double ended. These had ship's wheels and rudders at both ends. They had rather blunter bows and sterns than the narrow-gutted British paddle ferries though, so there was room enough for the rudder cross-arms.

Once at the destination the captain would move from the ship's wheel at the "outward trip" bow end of the ferry to a second wheel at the other end, a deckhand would pin the outward trip rudder and unpin the "return trip" rudder, just as Walter describes. The return trip was in effect done entirely in reverse.

There are a couple of photos in my folder of the Britannia, a wonderful old double-ended sidepaddler - in one photo you can see both wheels (Britannia Auckland Harbour 1914) and in that photo Britannia is working her way "astern" up the harbour. Incidentally, the two ship's wheels came from the Brig-Sloop HMS Wolverine.

One of our club members had a double ended car ferry - the Korea - with working rudders at each end. Both used the same servo - long coupling rods connected the short rudder cross-arms to the servo horns. She worked without any problems but she was a relatively slow-moving model so the bow rudder wasn't subjected to the heavy lateral forces that you'd expect.

regards
Tony

[Kevin Foster]

Some of the United States Navy sidewheel gunboats built during the American Civil war had bow rudders, and they were all called "double-enders" and intended to be able to get into small creeks and back out again.  Many of them had identical lines fore and aft.  See chapter 8 of Don Canney's The Old Steam Navy: Frigates, Sloops, and Gunboats, 1815-1885 for drawings and a history of the several classes that made up the group.

There were also several sidewheel steamers with bow and stern rudders built for East Indian waters, but sold for use as blockade runners.  Nangis, which ran the blockade as Merrimac, was the first of several built in London.  Merrimac was owned by a company mostly financed by Zachariah Pearson, the Mayor of Hull England.  By the time Merrimac had reached Bermuda, ready to run into Charleston with a Confederate government cargo, Pearson was broke.  His first six runners had been captured.  The Confederate government had to buy the ship from creditors to get the valuable cargo away from Bermuda.  The US Navy historical Center has a nice photo of her that shows off the huge paddleboxes.  See:

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/images/h46000/h46242.jpg

Kevin Foster

[Waverley]

Hi all - been meaning to add to this thread for some time.   I'm going to slightly disagree with Walter, as ships (not paddlers, of course) were still being built with bow rudders into the 1970's - the diesel car ferry MONA's QUEEN (Isle of Man Steam Packet, launched December 1971 had bow rudder AND bow thrust).

There was a proposal, not implemented, to fit WAVERLEY with a bow rudder round about 2003.

While its an extra "gadget" and something else to go wrong in a badly maintained ship, and definitely not worth fitting if not going to be used,  I would suggest that there were numerous locations where the provision of  a bow rudder was essential due to the constraints of a ships's regular route - another non-paddler example may be taken from the virtually identical sister ships built for CSP Clyde services - DUCHESS OF MONTROSE was not fitted with one - DUCHESS OF HAMILTON was.  This was probably due to the "Hamilton" being based at Ayr harbour, not an easy place to manoeuvre a ship of her size.

A quick google search (so not guaranteed accurate or anything like complete!) produces some example of paddlers fitted with bow rudders, either when built or added later:

RYDE and SHANKLIN (Portsmouth)

GRACIE FIELDS (Southampton)

WOOLWICH BELLE (Belle steamers) and CRESTED EAGLE (General Steam Navigation - both Thames) - I believe the practise of reversing in the Thames described above for QUEEN OF THE SOUTH ex JEANIE DEANS was fairly common and I suspect a dig in my library would show most Belle and GSN steamers so fitted.

WAVERLEY ex BARRY (P & A Campbell, Bristol Channel) - but not till 1934 when she returned to the Bristol Channel after several years based on the South Coast.

EMPRESS QUEEN (Isle of Man SPC) - this was the last paddler built for them, but she and all later ships built for the company were fitted with bow rudders, including the much loved and greatly missed post-war turbines KING ORRY, SNAEFELL, TYNWALD. MONA'S ISLE and MANXMAN. IOMSPC ships always reversed out of Douglas harbour, and a bow rudder was essential for this - especially when the weather conditions were not perfect.

The CSP Clyde turbine DUCHESS OF ARGYLL (1906) was built for service from Ardrossan - another difficult harbour in which to manoeuvre, and so she also had a bow rudder.  It may well be (I'm not sure if I have the information to check this) that paddlers built for service out of Ardrossan were also fitted with bow rudders - this list of possibilities would include SCOTIA, MARCHIONESS OF LORNE, DUCHESS OF HAMILTON (1890), GLEN ROSA and GLEN SANNOX. And I wonder if JUNO, the Ayr excursion paddler had one, as her replacement DUCHESS OF HAMILTON did?

I'm sure a lot of research would turn up other examples, but it does seem that paddlers fitted with bow rudders served in many parts of the British Isles - but it also seems likely that, with the possible exception of the Thames and the Isle of Man, this fitting was for selected ships only, and was determined by the ships' regular duties. The only locations on the Clyde where a bow rudder would be needed were Ardrossan and Ayr, so bow rudders would not have been needed on the majority of the Clyde steamers, for example.

Just to finish off a post which has "just growed" I must mention two paddlers still in service which use bow rudders daily. These are LOTSCHBERG on Lake Brienz and BLUMISALP on Lake Thun in Switzerland. I've yet to visit myself, but both the lakes are connected by a 2 mile long canal passing through Interlaken - the terminus of both steamers.  As the canal is too narrow for the steamers to turn, they must both travel in reverse through the canal in one direction - I believe they both do this when approaching Interlaken from their respective lakes. Clearly in this case, a bow rudder is an absolute essential.  I have also read that, while en-route, BLUMISALP travels in reverse between two of her intermediate calling points.

Regards

David (who has just spent 3 hours producing 2 posts!)

[AlistairD]

WOOLWICH BELLE (Belle steamers) and CRESTED EAGLE  (General Steam Navigation - both Thames) - I believe the practise of reversing  in the Thames described above for QUEEN OF THE SOUTH ex JEANIE DEANS was fairly  common and I suspect a dig in my library would show most Belle and GSN steamers  so fitted.
 Â 
 QUEEN OF TNE SOUTH was fited with a bow  rudder when she went to the Thames. Waverley need tug assistance when  turning at Tower Pier because she does not have a bow rudder
 


Just to finish off a post which has "just growed" I must  mention two paddlers still in service which use bow rudders daily. These are  LOTSCHBERG on Lake Brienz and BLUMISALP on Lake Thun in Switzerland. I've yet to  visit myself, but both the lakes are connected by a 2 mile long canal passing  through Interlaken - the terminus of both steamers. As the canal is too narrow  for the steamers to turn, they must both travel in reverse through the canal in  one direction - I believe they both do this when approaching Interlaken from  their respective lakes. Clearly in this case, a bow rudder is an absolute  essential. I have also read that, while en-route, BLUMISALP travels in reverse  between two of her intermediate calling points.

There is  also a fall in water level between the two lakes, and the steamers berth at two  different quays at Interlaken, both adjacent to the stations of the same  name.
 BLÃœMLISALP berths at Interlaken West, reached by a canal from  Lake Thun with has a passing place half way along, I think she reverses up this  towards Interlaken
 LÖTSCHBERG berths at Interlaken Ost, reaches by a river from  Lake Brienz up which she reverses going towards Interlaken.
 Â 
 Alistair

[Brian]

P S Medway Queen when built in 1924 was provided with a Bow Rudder.
On the upper deck at the very front of her bow there is a hand wheel to lock the bow rudder, with a steering wheel for the bow rudder fitted just abaft  the capstan.

These details may be seen on the set of drawings which may be purchased from the Medway Queen Preservation Society (MQPS), as shown on the Sales List page of their website http://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/.

In discussion with a MQPS committee member about the plans I was told that often when paddle steamers were fitted with bow rudders the ship was also fitted with unique navigation light boxes to enable the ship to "steam" either in the usual forward direction or in the reverse direction, i.e the Port & Starboard Light Boxes were double-ended for this reason. This may be seen on paddle boxes of a 1/32nd scale model of PS Medway Queen shown below



As mentioned elsewhere on Puddleducks the PS Medway Queen is in the process of being restored to full-working order, so her new master/skipper will also have to learn to handle a in effect "ship which is able to steam either forward or in reverse directions!!
.

[Bill Worden]

The big Lake Erie sidewheel overnight boats all had bow rudders in regular use.  The docks in Detroit did not require them, as the river is very broad with plenty of turning room, but the river at Buffalo did not permit turning, and so the vessel would be backing to enter or leave.  In the earlier years, the docks at Cleveland were also well up the Cuyahoge River, which is narrow and twisting.  

I've never heard of problems with the bow rudders on these vessels, which ranged up to 535' in length with 1400 berths in staterooms.

I've attached a photo of the Greater Buffalo in drydock; the bow rudder is in view.

Bill Worden

[Roderick Smith]

At Interlaken, the lakes are connected by a canal, but low bridges prevent the boats from exchanging position, or going all the way through to turn.
I have a photo of Lotschberg in the Swiss thread within the Preserved forum.  I can't recall if the forward rudder shows.  Neither it nor Blumisalp was operating until the week after I left, so I didn't experience the reversal along the canel.  Lotschberg was facing the lake, and so had backed in.

Regards,
Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor