What is the emergency procedure if the steering gear fails?

Losing steering turns the ship into a drifting hazard, so the response is drilled, immediate and built on redundancy that SOLAS deliberately requires. The instant the helm stops answering, the priorities are to keep the situation safe while steering is restored by the fastest available means.

Immediate actions, run in parallel between bridge and engine room: - Call the master and duty engineer and put the engine room on standby; be ready to reduce speed or stop, since a ship without steering closes on danger fastest at full speed. - Start the second steering gear power unit; running both pumps also speeds the rudder. If one system has failed, change over to the healthy one, and try the alternative control mode, switching from autopilot to hand and from follow-up to non-follow-up, because many failures are in control rather than power. - If bridge control is dead, man the steering gear compartment and steer locally, with helm orders relayed by telephone from the bridge. - Warn traffic: exhibit not-under-command lights or shapes if genuinely unable to steer, sound the appropriate signals, broadcast to nearby ships and inform VTS or the pilot in confined waters. - In narrow channels prepare the anchors, and consider tugs early rather than late.

The redundancy exists because SOLAS requires a main and an auxiliary means of operating the rudder, with duplicated power units, so that no single failure leaves the ship helpless; on many ships the auxiliary is simply the second identical pump unit. Regulations also require the steering gear and its changeover arrangements to be tested within twelve hours before departure, and an emergency steering drill at least every three months in which the crew actually steer from the compartment on relayed orders. Crews that have done the drill recently restore steering in minutes; crews that have not lose time discovering which valve does what while the ship swings.

Once steering is recovered, find and fix the cause before resuming normal passage. Typical culprits are a tripped or failed pump motor, hydraulic leakage and low oil level, air in the system giving a sluggish or jerky rudder, a blown fuse or failed control signal, or a mechanical failure at the tiller. Record the event, times and actions, report it under the safety management system, and treat any unexplained failure as ongoing until proven otherwise, because a fault that cleared itself will choose its own moment to return.