Test your navigation skills: Question: Which way is this ship headed, upstream or down stream? The red and green balls are reminders of which way the ship is headed and are switched...

malvin

Question: Which way is this ship headed, upstream or down stream? The red and green balls are reminders of which way the ship is headed and are switched when direction is changed. This is an actual Helm from an old ship on display at a museum on the Welland canal in Ontario, Canada.

jayd Loc: Central Florida, East coast

Will be interested in the this.

bamfordr Loc: Campbell CA

“On the Great Lakes and Western Rivers, a down-bound vessel has the right-of-way over an up-bound vessel, and either of these has the right-of-way over a vessel crossing a river or channel.” (From the Rules of Road for inland waterways). So, based on the crossing vessel, we are going up the river. I think. (NAVOCS was a long time ago).

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

malvin wrote:

Question: Which way is this ship headed, upstream or down stream? The red and green balls are reminders of which way the ship is headed and are switched when direction is changed. This is an actual Helm from an old ship on display at a museum on the Welland canal in Ontario, Canada.

Based upon the balls, the ship/boat is heading downstream since USCG rules state green lights to starboard when heading towards "open" water.

Domtom999

Doc Barry wrote:

Based upon the balls, the ship/boat is heading downstream since USCG rules state green lights to starboard when heading towards "open" water.

You’re right. An easy way to remember is the 3 r’s. “red,right,re-enter”. Red buoy on the right when re-entering port.

n4jee Loc: New Bern, NC

I learned it Red, Right, Returning.

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

Domtom999 wrote:

You’re right. An easy way to remember is the 3 r’s. “red,right,re-enter”. Red buoy on the right when re-entering port.

Thanks. Back when I could still be out in the sun, I raced sailboats on the Tennessee River and the lakes formed by the dams along it. It never ceased to amaze me the problems (danger) caused by power boaters NOT following the rules!

tcthome Loc: NJ

malvin wrote:

Question: Which way is this ship headed, upstream or down stream? The red and green balls are reminders of which way the ship is headed and are switched when direction is changed. This is an actual Helm from an old ship on display at a museum on the Welland canal in Ontario, Canada.

RRR, red right returning. My guess its heading downstream or out to sea, bay, etc.

spaceylb Loc: Long Beach, N.Y.

It is headed straight for another ship...

OlinBost Loc: Marietta, Ga.

If the pictures are correct I looked at the wake of the boat in front. Down stream.

cdayton

When we had a sailboat, I wore a green right sock and a red left sock. Of course, I had to stand backwards at the helm when we returned to port.

rlovaglio Loc: Augusta, Maine

downstream

stu352 Loc: MA/RI Border

The iron balls on either side of the compass are used for calibration. They are only moved for calibration purposes. Look up "binnacle". Many seem to have been painted red and green, the left being red, the same color as the marker light on that side of the ship.

So it appears there is no way to tell the direction of the "ship" from the photo.

Toolking Loc: Pacific Northwest

stu352 wrote:

The iron balls on either side of the compass are used for calibration. They are only moved for calibration purposes. Look up "binnacle". Many seem to have been painted red and green, the left being red, the same color as the marker light on that side of the ship.

So it appears there is no way to tell the direction of the "ship" from the photo.

You are mostly right. The balls are used to equalize the magnetic field of the vessel itself so that it correctly reads magnetic north unaffected by the ships own magnetic field.

You are also correct that the balls do not change sides.

jrw_mdus Loc: Elk River Basin, Cecil County MD, USA

and they are called "The navigators Balls"