How did the Captain in the Wheel House talk to the Engineer on the lower deck? The bell and gong/gong and jingle system was an invaluable part of the early pilot house before the implementation of the mechanical telegraph. As there was no real way to control the engine from the pilot house, the captain needed a way to tell the engineers in the below decks how fast and which way to go. Though voice tubes also offered a way to communicate, they were only a safeguard – instead, those on the engine deck relied on jingles to change speed and bells for direction.
Below, you can see the exact set up we have on the Sicamous. At the Captain's wheel in the pilot house, pulling one side rings a bell in the engine room while the other hits the gong in the same area. The placement in the pilot house meant the captain wouldn't need to move away from the wheel or windows to contact the engineers and, if you happen to be near the engine room when someone upstairs decides to play with the pulleys, you'll definitely hear!
A blog post from the Hudson River Maritime Museum has a video taken in the engine room of one of their operating ships to show how this works at the engine room end of things.
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