Bridge Tours

    One of the things you can do on the ship is take a bridge tour, which helps you understand what it is like where the controls of the ship are. Tours start after around a month and a half of the voyage start. Our tours started around the first or second week in October. You sign up at the field office and meet in Tymitz Square for the tour. Our ship is one of the fastest made, having the ability to go at around 30 or so knots, although we go at around 12-15 knots using only one of the four engines.
    I took a tour on October 13th, and it was really cool. In order to get to the bridge, you walk through the Union and go through the door on the right. You need someone in the bridge to open the door for you. Once you walk in, you see where crew members go out on platforms on the sides of the ship to see better once we are coming in and out of port. After these side rooms, there in the main room with all of the controls. The first station has all of the communication devices. There is a PA system just for the bridge to use. There is a phone to use for ships within 60-80 miles, and then there is another phone for ships withing 150 miles or so.
    The next section is in the middle. It contains all of the speed and location devices. There are many different compasses in this section. There is also a traditional compass in case the ship loses power. Behind this, is the maps and charts room. There are cubby holes holding all of the flags of the countries that we are going to. Once we get to port, the crew puts up a flag for that specific country. There are also flags for certain ship operations. For example, there is a flag that is put up to let other ships know that we are refueling. These flags let other people what is going on in our ship at a given time.
    Behind the ship's wheel are panels that monitor fires and sections of the ship. Similar to the Titanic, this board monitors water-tight compartments with lights. There are routine fire tests as well. If a fire is suspected, there is a fire personnel on duty that will inspect the situation.
    After the tour, Captain Jeremy allowed us to wear a crew hat and sit in his (the captain's chair). It was quite powerful.