The Bridge



Life Aboard a Ship

Today I’ll take you on a tour of the bridge as in on board the vessel. On board, the bridge is a place from where I navigate the ship. It is essentially subdivided into a chart room and wheel house and these days since the communications too has become a part of the navigating officers job, a communications space.
The chartroom is the place where the chart or the map of the region where the ship is placed. The position of the vessel is plotted regularly. The frequency of such plotting is more when she is near the coast than when she is mid ocean where there are less obstructions. A modern day gadget is the electronic plotter which indicates the position of vessel by a light on the chart and is interfaced with the GPS. The digital versions of charts are now available under a system known as ECDIS or the Electronic Charts Display and Information System. These are the digital charts which are easily updated by satellite. Apart from charts the chartroom has GPS which gives us the present position. There is a depth sounding device called the Echo Sounder. It works by sending the sound waves and timing the reflected waves from the bottom. Then there is a course recorder which records the course the vessel is steering. A relative new addition is the equivalent of the black box in jets and is called the Voyage Data Recorder. A comprehensive data logger which keeps records of all important data and is primarily for investigations following an accident.
The wheel house is forward of the chartroom and is separated by only curtains during the night. This is to ensure that the watchkeepers are able to see the far off lights without any interference from the chart room illumination. It essentially houses the steering wheel which is used during manual steering. The autopilot is used for steering while the vessel is at sea. There is an engine telegraph, which is used to increase or decrease the revolutions when maneuvering during arrival or departure at ports and anchorages. The various switches for steering motors, air horn and other accessories are on various panels located here. The front of the wheel house is a series of glass windows to ensure good visibility and is more like the wind shield of a vehicle.
Since the start of the millennium the communications too has become part of the navigating officer’s job. It was formerly the responsibility of the Radio officer. Here various satellite terminals and transceivers using terrestrial means of communications are located.
It is the bridge of a ship where the captain goes to take the vessel alongside or coming out of the harbor. It is the place of work for the navigating officers and the command station of the ship.I have spent many a working hours on the bridge of many a ships and hope to continue for as long as I can. It is from the bridge that I have viewed many beautiful sundowns at sea and spectacular views around the world.

Humor 360
A recent news in a National broadsheet. A group of persons hired as audience for a reality show were unhappy the way they were treated during the shoot.
So much for the “Reality Show” with a not so real audience.

There were two men at work near a park. One was digging a hole and the other was filling it up. A curious bystander who had been watching them for a while finally couldn’t stop himself from asking them as to what were they trying to do. The man filling the hole replied. Sir, we were a team of three. The supervisor had assigned the job to plant saplings at the perimeter of this park. We decided one of us would dig the hole, one would get the saplings and plant it and one would fill the hole up. It just so happens that the guy who was to plant the saplings has reported sick.

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Today’s picture is of Portulaca in full bloom at our home.


Picture by First Life 360 - A blog of humor, nature and spirituality
The Portulaca

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3 comments:

Chapters From My Life said...

Interesting...

Just Blogger said...

Nice little flower
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