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Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver:74:wheel by which the ship is steered (Neal Stephenson)

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

Actually most ships of this day probably didn't have wheels, because it was a relatively recent innovation; but as we'll see in future volumes, Minerva is ahead of its time in some respects.

Balanced Ship's Wheel

Modern day Pirates say it was in 1705 that the balanced ship's wheel replaced the tiller -- likely imported technology of the Indian or Chinese shipbuilders 1 -- in use by the Dutch and Porteguese. It was an improvement from the Mediterranean nao, or carrack -- which would lead to the full-rigged ship that combined frame-first construction, high sides, center-line rudder, and mixed rigs of square and lateen sails. In Quicksilver, Captain van Hoek was wise to build the Minerva in India as Malabar teak is more rot resistant than oak available in the dockyards of Christiandom.

  1. http://www.macautourism.gov.mo/english/museums_en.phtml as per their Maritime Museum. There is a strong possibility that Chinese would consider Indians (foreign barbarians) and thus discount their technical achievements.

  2. http://www.noquartergiven.net/timeline.htm

  3. http://college.hmco.com/history/readerscomp/ships/html/sh_000101_publicationd.htm -- a good timeline and a list of literary ships
  4. http://boston.about.com/library/weekly/blconst006.htm - a balanced ship's wheel from a famous ship I believe was the first official US response to the Barbary Pirates.