Go back to the "steam ship era" and learn about the story behind the clock

What is a car clock?

The engine bell appeared in the mid-to-late 19th century and is an important representative object of steam ships. As an independent operating device that enables the bridge and the engine room to communicate with each other , the engine bell is divided into a transmitting engine bell and a receiving engine bell , which are installed on the bridge and the engine room respectively. The two engine bells with the same scale on the bridge and the engine room are connected by steel wire. When the captain needs to adjust the speed, he only needs to pull the control handle of the transmitting engine bell to the corresponding position on the bridge, and the receiving engine bell in the engine room will display the corresponding position. The engineer pulls it to the same position again to respond that he has received the engine instruction. Then, the crew changes the working status of the steam engine according to the engine instruction.

A set of car clocks, National Maritime Museum "From Sails to Wheels"

The ship's bell was originally used to transmit information through mechanical links, and then manually operated to change the ship's forward, reverse or parking state, thereby realizing the ship's control .

1908 British ocean liner clock, National Maritime Museum

Che Zhongling

Please look carefully at the car clock panel. There are different scales on it. What do they mean? Next, let's learn about the common car clock scales.

Car clock (partial)

Middle part:

Stop : A temporary stop state when a ship is entering or leaving a port or maneuvering its main engine at sea. It is equivalent to the N gear of an automatic car.

FINISH WITH ENGINE : When the vessel approaches the dock or has finished anchoring, there is no need to start the engine.

Stand by Engine : The ship's power plant is ready to start at any time. The engine must be ready before use, usually 40 minutes in advance. After the main engine is ready, the driver and engineer must check the consistency of the engine clock.

AHEAD——Moving Forward:

DEAD SLOW AHEAD : The lowest main engine speed that the ship's main engine can run at, which is the minimum speed used to maintain the propeller rotation.

SLOW AHEAD, HALF AHEAD, FULL AHEAD: The engine moves forward according to the speed of each gear set by the ship's main engine.

By analogy, there are four common reversing car clock commands:

ASTERN——Backward (reverse): DEAD SLOW ASTERN, SLOW ASTERN , HALF ASTERN , FULL ASTERN

Car use process

Every time the vehicle instructions change, records must be made in the driving console and the engine room, and there is a special car clock record book .

Clock record book

The specific process of using the car clock during driving is as follows:

1. The bridge wants to use the forward three speed navigation

2. Push the car bell to the forward third position to send the car use instruction to the engine room

3. Bells are heard in the cabin

4. The engineer pushes the bell to the forward third position and the bell stops ringing (the bells on the bridge and engine room ring and stop at the same time)

5. The engine room immediately executes the vehicle command and drives the main engine to the forward three position.
6. The ship sails at three speeds ahead

Modern car clock

Since the 1960s, along with the rapid development of the entire scientific and technological community, the progress of maritime science and technology has also been changing with each passing day. Among them, ship automation and navigation record automation are two important signs of the development of maritime technology. Ship driving automation has also emerged and continued to develop. The automatic driving system can realize functions such as automatic control of heading and speed, thereby improving navigation safety and reducing the labor intensity of drivers.

Modern car clock

The clocks of modern ships no longer rely on mechanical links to convey instructions. The clocks are connected to computer control systems , and their appearance has changed. The speed adjustment is also directly recorded by the voyage recorder (VDR), commonly known as the ship's "black box". The use of VDR makes it easier for us to find out the cause of a ship accident after it occurs. We can learn lessons from it and take targeted preventive measures to avoid similar accidents from happening again and improve the safety factor of ship navigation.

Enhance the national maritime awareness and inherit my country's maritime culture

Looking back at the "steam ship era", the clock is just a microcosm, which takes us back to the end of the 19th century, when the beautiful sparks created by the collision of steam power and steel bloomed in the vast blue ocean, bringing earth-shaking changes to the world's maritime culture. From sails to wheels, the roaring steel fortress on the sea brought an end to the wooden paddle boats that had lasted for thousands of years.

In the heyday of steamships, in the era of conflict in which strong ships, powerful guns and iron armor were used to establish the prestige of sea power, the clock not only carries the evolution and development of modern ships and navigation technology , but also tells us that the world's powerful countries have always prospered and become strong because of the sea . Navigation technology is not only related to water transportation, shipbuilding, fishery production, etc., but also an important force to ensure national security. From nothing to something, from weak to strong, it has gone through twists and turns. Today, China's shipbuilding industry ranks among the best in the world and is constantly developing towards the research and development of intelligent equipment.