UNIT 39 – SMCP: STANDARD WHEEL & ENGINE ORDERS

This unit covers the standard orders given on the bridge to the helmsman and to the engine operator. It follows the IMO SMCP phrases for On-board Communications in three areas:

• Wheel orders — rudder angles, ease to, hard over, midships, meet her, steady, nothing to port or starboard, and the rule that every order is repeated and held until countermanded.
• Courses and marks — steady as she goes, compass courses given digit by digit, steering on a mark, reporting when the vessel does not answer the wheel, and finished with wheel.
• Engine orders — full, half, slow and dead slow ahead or astern, stop engines, stand by engine, finished with engines, twin propellers and bow and stern thrusters.