Where's the Ship's Wheel?

I nearly called this: 'Steer?  I can't see where we're going?'  I shall explain.

A while back I wrote a blog about where the galley was on 16th/17th century ships.  The accursed thing could be almost anywhere, or the crew might settle for a barbecue on the top deck - yep, no kidding, it was a possibility.  As a child I was taught of sailors' fear of fire, yes, they were very careful about it, and yet their definition of health and safety was very different to modern 21st person's view of the matter.

I thought I was on safer ground with the ship's wheel.  Big galleon in danger,  my young heroine sees no one is at the wheel, she steps forward to wrestle the mighty vessel to safety.  Hah ha!  No wheel!

I thought as soon as ships grew so large that the rudder would be too heavy to control directly, the ship's wheel would be an obvious invention.  I thought wrong.  The ship's wheel is a rather late invention coming in around the turn of the 18th century.  My early seventeenth century vessel would definitely not have one.  It would use a whipstaff.  In fact, ship's wheels weren't quickly adopted, with many vessels still using a whipstaff well into the 18th century.

Below is a model in Dorchester Museum of the Mary and John circa 1630.  I used it as proof of the moving galley.  Now I can show off what a whipstaff is.

The Mary and John 1630

The Whipstaff

This vertical shaft gave the helmsman a bit of mechanical advantage to steer a big vessel.  It has loads of disadvantages over a wheel; for example:  its hard to get lots of hands on it when in heavy weather; so control goes down as the wind picks up.  Unlike a wheel the movement of the whipstaff, and therefore the tiller, is limited by the size of the slot the whipstaff moves in.  That means big steering motions are out.

It also has a major disadvantage shared with early ship's wheels - placement.  You can't see where you're going.  You can see from the model, it's in a room below the quarterdeck.  Even if the forward wall wasn't there the helmsman's view would be appalling.  Look at the first picture.  Notice that the mainmast, foremast, forecastle and bulwarks all block the view of the sailor on the whipstaff.

No one alone can steer a big ship without the risk of hitting something.

This leads on to ship's operation.  The helmsman would never be expected to see where he was going.  The sailor would obey the orders of his officers, men standing on the quarterdeck above him, who could see beyond the limits of the hull.  He would steer to a compass bearing and though he wouldn't watching where he was going, he would be watching the ship intently.  His best view would be of the sails and rigging.  He would be ensuring they held the wind.  He would be watching for when men were aloft, because bad steering on his part could cause the yards to jerk or buck and his crewmates to fall to their deaths. 

Helmsmen needed great concentration and skill to do their job well, and there is an old adage that helmsmen steer by their fingers and toes: they feel the ship and control with a delicate touch.  They also need to be strong.


While writing my story, I realised my heroine wouldn't have the muscle to hold the ship, so two of her friends came to help.  Research is important.

Useful Links

Replica Ship Half Moon - a great resource on a historical vessel from 1603.  See if you can find the whipstaff.  Try here: I like to make things easy for people:)

Useful Books

Tudor Sea Power by David Childs
The Galleon by Peter Kirsch

Where's the Galley?

I've been writing an historical novel set in the seventeenth century.  The majority of action happens on a typical cargo ship of the era.  I thought it would be easy:  read a few books, trawl the Internet and hey presto I'd have the layout ready for my characters to interact.

No.  It turns out that 'typical' and 'standard' were not words in our shipbuilding ancestors' vocabularies.  They kind of played it by ear, following the last build that must have worked 'cause it didn't sink when they launched it.  No wonder sailors were superstitious.

There were design rules, well, more guidelines for hull shape and rigging and I may go into that in another blog (never fear, I will never go too technical), but internally it was pot luck.  Remembering of course, national differences too.
Good examples of ships, a little early but still applicable are the Mary Rose (the hulk of which is in Portsmouth, England) or the Golden Hind (one replica in London and another in Brixham, Devon).   The Mayflower (replica in Plymouth, MA) is much closer to the time period.

Right, so if you read most books or visit websites or even visit some of these ships (well worth it), they will tell you because of the risk of fire the galley was built in the lowest part of the ship, often known as the orlop deck.  This was where the stone ballast was laid to stop the ship turning turtle when a breeze got up.
It makes perfect sense, place your galley on the stones that won't be set alight while cooking.  Galley cooking equipment is very heavy being brick surrounds supporting large metal pots and so it helps keep the ship stable.  David Childs, in Tudor Sea Power, describes wood burning cauldrons/galley range on the ballast.  In The Galleon by Peter Kirsch confirmed the same thing.  On the Mary Rose they found the remains of the Galley exactly there.  There's your proof, brilliant, case closed, job done.

 So why is this photo, of a model in the Dorset County Museum, showing the galley as far from the orlop as possible without sticking it up a mast?

Model of the Mary and John circa 1630

Close-up of Galley region.

 If you look at cutaway illustrations of the Mayflower, a similar era vessel, the galley is in the same position.

The model is not wrong.  That lovely fireproof ballast is where all the water that doesn't drain over the sides gathers.  On a long voyage that water grows stale adding to that the fact that the animals on board didn't take trips to the heads when they needed to relieve themselves and stale water is worse than you an think.   It could end up stinking like an open sewer.

Old salts knew that if somewhere stank to high heaven, it probably wasn't a healthy place to prepare food so it would be moved.

Also the galley, being the only place to have a fire aboard, was the only place sailors could dry out their clothes or have a smoke.  They tended to congregate down there and Masters of ships are never happy if the bulk of their crew are out of sight.

So where did I put the galley?

I put it roughly amidships one deck up from the orlop.  My Master wanted to keep the ship stable, he had cargo he could keep lower, but didn't fancy having the galley as high as the Mayflower or the Mary and John.

Useful Links
Mayflower II
The Mayflower Steps, Plymouth, UK - cutaways of the ship
Mary Rose Museum
Guide to the Ship. Pick 'Cook' and learn about the galley

Richard Schlecht, a Brilliant Illustrator, who has done a great cutaway of the Mayflower, you have to search for it though.

Golden Hind, Brixham, Devon
Golden Hinde II, London


Useful Books
Tudor Sea Power by David Childs
The Galleon by Peter Kirsch