Captain on Bridge

[Lurchi]

Originally Posted by robj250

"Obersteuermann, bringen Sie uns raus. Beide Maschinen: Langsame Fahrt voraus!"

What does this translate to in English?

=> "Take her out Chief. Both engines ahead slow"


The first sentence which adresses the chief/Obersteuermann is unusual for the german navy. It reminds me of StarTrek . The commanders tend to take their U-Boats out themselves.

So, standard command would be engine => "Both engines ahead slow" in combination with a rudder command to control the turn rate, such as "Ruder 7 Grad steuerbord!" => Rudder seven degrees starboard.

Engine commands in constricted waters like a bunker were often given more precisely in rounds per minute such as "Beide E-Maschinen 40 Umdrehungen voraus" => Both electric engines 40 rpm ahead.