Posted by Scott Andrews on September 20, 1998 at 14:13:55 in spider-te074.proxy.aol.com:
In Reply to: Re: Forecastle Steam Valves posted by Bob Read on September 20, 1998 at 11:33:19:
Bob,
I just read your original post again and I have
looked at the photos you mentioned as well.
Could we be looking at the same six wheels
and interpreting what we see differently? Your
description in the original post of these hand wheels was as follows:
The four valves that are easily seen in the photo are in a straight line from port to starboard. The two that I saw in the movie and which I can now identify in this photo are located just outboard of the steam pipes which lead from the capstans aft to the forward hatch. These two valves are not in line with the others but are slightly aft of them.
I believe the "steam pipes" you refer to are not
pipes but are the shafts going aft from the wind-
lasses to the gearboxes just in front of No. 1
hatch. One of the shafts and the front of the
gearbox it connects to are visible in the photo
on pg. 39 of Marriott's book. Looking between
the anchor crane and the starboard anchor
windlass head, you can see the two inner pede-
stal handwheels (one just visible between the
double stays, the other at the starboard corner
of the open access hatch cover). Just between
the stbd inboard handwheel and the windlass
head can be seen the front face of the gearbox
and the shaft coming out of it, heading forward
to the baseplate of the windlass. The hand-
wheel of this gear box, which is offset to the
outboard side of the shaft , can be seen just
peeking out from behind the inboard edge of
the stbd windlass head at roughly the same
height as the handwheels on th pedestals. The
gearboxes are located nearly agaist the sloping
forward end of the No. 1 hatch, putting their
location just aft of the four pedestal mounted
handwheels which are in a row. The wheel atop
the gear boxes appears to be of the same type
as those at the forward outboard ends of the
chain rails, having sockets to take bars for
increased leverage in tightening. The two outer
pedestal-type handwheels are completly hidden
by the windlasses in the pg 39 photo.
When I look at that Olympic photo, I too, see
six handwheels. I think the two "extras" are the
ones which are on top of the gearboxes in front
of No. 1 hatch, but I may be missing something
you see in the photos you have. I do agree that
there are six handwheels in that area but I can
only see four on pedestals and two on boxes.
The two on the gearboxes are still visible on the
wreck photos but the pedestals all seem to be
missing. I haven't gotten the movie on tape yet
but once I do I intend to look at some of that
footage frame by frame, particularly Cameron's
wreck footage. By the way, take a look at the
"fly-over" scene. If the stills in Cinefex are right,
in the scene of Smith (w/teacup) and Murdoch
looking out over the fo'c'sl (pg.93), the orienta-
tion is correct, but in the following "fly-over",
(pgs. 94-95) there's a major gaff: the whole ship
is flopped!! If so, this is a MAJOR snafu!
Regards,
Scott