Stupid Question

Hey everyone, new guy here. I have a stupid question so I figured I'd post it here instead of the building forums...

Isn't there a formal name for the steering wheel on a boat? I've done all sorts of google searches and just can't find another name for it. Anyone have some good synonyms or nicknames I could maybe search on?

 

Welcome aboard, McBoo.

Formal name for the steering wheel of a boat.... I like "manual directional control input unit" myself... (engineering does that to ya), most just call it the "wheel". (Then again, many also call the prop a "wheel".) "Helm" is another one, also with several possible interpretations (the wheel, the console it's attached to, the duty of tending it, etc). "Tiller" if it's just a stick bolted to the rudder.

 

Steering wheel is the formal name. Automobiles, these newfangled inventions, stole it from us sailors.

 

That's too bad...

I was thinking there was something more poetic.
Thanks for the replies.

 

Being strictly pedantic, Marshmat, the 'helm' is also more properly applied to a 'stick' bolted to the rudder. 'Helm', as from 'Elm' - the timber originally favoured for its strength and long straight grain. Alas, the elm tree is now virtually extinct in Europe thanks to the cunningly renamed the 'Dutch Elm Beetle' (whose origins are found in America...)

But as Marshmat says - Welcome aboard, McBoo. And as for the name - why re-invent 'the wheel'

 

Welcome McBoo, you will enjoy this forum, plenty of good solid info....

 

How about ship's wheel, helmsman's handhold or steering windless, possibly hoop 'o pegs or vertical rotisserie . . .

 

Or even 'driving thinggy...'

 

Again ye has it bang to rights Bergalia as all ancient marriners know its well chronicled as the 'driving thingy' - that's cos us awld sailors is smart!
too much 'walrusin can get ya!

 

A helm can mean:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helm

 

So it makes helm a generic term for anything that steers the boat. Lobsterboats have a vertical stick on the starboard side to steer. It would include those too.

 

Being Dutch, helm comes from 'helmstok' and that is the horizontal handle attached to the kingpost. Same as Tiller. A vertical handle, hinged in deck, was, at the east-indiamen, 17th century, the way to move the tiller, from a higher deck. That vertical lever was called 'kolderstok'. Moving the kolderstok to port made the ship go to port.

 

I have copies of old Admiralty drawings for war ships of differing sizes, configurations and uses. The oldest one I have, that has a date visible, (looks to be a forth rater of about 36 guns) shows a hefty stock, labeled "tiller" with a foot note number keying it to a material and dimensions list, elsewhere in the plans set. The date is 1678, so the Royal Navy was calling them tillers 327 years ago. It was crossed tackled to the ceiling planks and brought up to the weather deck, with a massive set of purchases.

 

The French have two words: Barre and Gouvernail; although I speak French, I am not so deep into the seaman's lingo....

 

Moi, je parle francois aussi. Ca c'est normal pour un Hollandais de mon age. Le gouvernail, c'est le 'rudder'. L'arbre de gouvernail is the kingpost. Le barre c'est probablement te 'tiller'. A 'barre' in general is just a stick, or a handrail.
Thinking of the spokes, I thought about the construction of the wooden steering wheel. The spokes end in the centre, like the spokes or Handspaken of a capstan. Its all Dutch in the end.