Helm Station Notes - Colonel Frost

The helmsman has three physical locations at which he can do most or all of his job. They are the forward wall of the control room, forward wall of the conning tower, and forward left side of the bridge. Note that the RPM gauges are on the starboard side of the control room above the dive plane station.

If you are at the control room station, on your left you will find a speedometer and odometer. On the right is the amp meter, showing battery charge. In front of you is the rudder control, which you manipulate using the A, D and W (to auto center the rudder) keys and the gyrocompass, which shows the boat's heading. The outside ring shows 10s of degrees. The inside ring shows degrees in single degrees and fractions.

Above that is the Engine Order Telegraph. The EOT is a communication device, not a control switch. When you use it, you are sending an order to the engine room. If the order is unclear or partial, you will get bad results. For instance, if you are at full speed on the diesels and the captain orders a dive, you have a limited time to switch to the electric engines. You need to do that AND select a new speed (usually dead slow or slow - whatever the captain tells you is the default). If you set the electrics and fail to set a new speed, the engine room will set the electrics to full speed, and they will spin at very high RPMs. The nearby escorts will almost certainly hear you. Your boat will be pinged on the hull and attacked for the next 25 minutes to 2 hours. Do not screw this up. Switch to electrics AND set a default or ordered speed.

Also, do not run the diesels while the boat is diving. Set the electrics before you breathe. Otherwise, as the boat dives it will soon attain a “decks awash” attitude which, again, will be heard by the local escorts with predictable, sad results.

The shift key combined with the left mouse button, “operates” both engines simultaneously unless you are increasing or decreasing RPMs on both engines. Usually you will want to issue the same command for both engines. Get used to using the shift key.

Do not report the battery reserve unless asked.

The captain may want you to bring the boat to a quick stop if it is his habit to get the target speed while at a dead stop. That means you will need to set dead slow reverse or slow reverse on both engines to bring the speed to zero as quickly as possible. It is easy to do if the boat is submerged, trickier if it surfaced. Practice it while on the surface. To make sure the boat is exactly at zero knots, there is a digital speedometer available on the Navigator’s table at the top just right of center. You actually have to click on the table itself, not the N button, to see it. When you are executing a quick stop maneuver, the map table is your territory unless it is actually manned.

You also have a control station in the conning tower that has speed controls, and on the bridge that has only rudder controls. Go where the captain tells you to go. If the captain gives no order, the choice is yours.

Sometimes a captain will want to match a convoy’s speed. He will ask you to set a speed and ask you for a multiple of 10 revolutions higher or lower than the speed. Click on the both engines 10 higher or 10 lower buttons to get there. When you are done, confirm the number of RPMs the captain wanted and confirm the speed on the map table.

If the engines are out of sync because you failed to use the shift key, the boat will drift toward the slower engine. You can see the problem on the RPM gauges above the dive plane controls. You can fix the problem by setting all stop and then resetting the speed correctly.

As helmsman, you are also the de facto TDC operator. When you board the boat, immediately go to the conning tower and set your captain’s default settings. If he has not specified them, then set the following in this order: Range 10,000m (all the way to the left so that the red no-solution light is on. This safes the TDC from accidental shots.  Torpedoes have a range of 6000m. Setting the range to 10000 is called “safeing the TDC.”  You can report “TDC is safe” or “safed” every time you do this.) Angle Tracking to AP. Target Speed: 6 kts. Target Depth: 4m.

Then go to your station and wait for orders. Note that the captain might have beaten you to this. Report the TDC safe anyway.

Finally, if you are manning the TDC during an attack, be sure to safe it after the attack concludes.

You may be called upon to relinquish your duties as TDC operator to a member of the fire control team or to perform advanced TDC work as part of that team.

Advanced work consists of setting exact convoy speeds or of manual operation of the TDC during an attack. If angle tracking is turned off, you will have to set target bearing, AOB, and range pursuant to orders received from an officer. You will then be required to shoot the torpedoes manually using the space key.

With angle tracking on the periscope sets the target bearing and assigns the trigger to the tracking scope. When angle tracking is off the TDC operator must set the bearing and shoot.

The actual torpedo firing levers were at the TDC station. So even if angle tracking was on, the officer had to order the torpedoes to be fired. To make that happen, the TDC operator must manually enter the target bearing. (Any job that deprives the captain of work he could otherwise do easily or not should be delegated to the crew.)

Colonel Frost 3/13/2021