Full Speed Ahead

I was working on my boat the other day. I was working around the throttle cable - this is the cable which relays the movement of the control lever under my hand when I am driving the boat. If I push it forward, the boat goes into forward gear and as I continue to push it farther forward it gives the engine more throttle and away we go! Until the skier falls on his or her face, then I pull back - slowly or quickly according to who it is that we are towing.

But the engine on my boat sits in a box. It has no windows, which is fine because it has no eyes. It has no connection to the outside world other than that throttle control which is also fine, because it has no brain or intelligence. So the engine simply obeys the tugging and pushing of that cable. If I turn the engine off, it will sit in darkness in it's little box for minutes, hours, days, or sometimes months if I have put the boat on the trailer and parked it in my warehouse. But at the touch of the starter and the push of that cable, it is ready to go. Exciting life, no? For all it 'knows,' I could be aiming the boat over a thousand foot waterfall, or I could be about to ram it into the sheer rock face of a tall cliff. But if I push that lever, the engine responds with all it has. Ok, you say, but an engine is not a thinking being. Not a human. And you would be right. Though I am in love with it, but that's a guy thing and blog for another day...

Many years ago I took my kids on a tour of the Queen Mary, down in Long Beach. One of the stops on the tour was the engine room - specifically the control area. We had already been up on the bridge, and we saw the controls used to command the engines. They are called "telegraphs" because they don't actually control the engines, they just send a message. There is no connection between the telegraph and the engines on the Queen Mary or any large vessel. Instead, the telegraph simply relays the command to the matching telegraph in the engine room. When the indicators jump - and there is a bell or buzzer to let the crew know some new command had been initiated - it is up to the crew to make all the various adjustments to valves, levers and controls to get the engines to go the direction and speed that the bridge had requested. And once that is done, they walk over to the telegraph in the engine room and move the levers on their end. That moves a set of indicators on the telegraph up on the bridge. It is called "answer back" when the bridge shoves the levers to full throttle ahead, and a moment later the indicator also goes to full throttle ahead to show that they got the message way down below. So at any time, you want to be able to look at the telegraph and see a perfect match - the handles are at a setting - perhaps "Ahead Full" and the indicators are also at the same: "Ahead Full."

So what if the guys in the engine room don't want to go to full speed ahead? What if they only crank one engine up to speed, but leave the other one going astern? Or what if they all take a coffee break at the same time and nobody hears the bells? The bridge officers would know in a second, of course, because two things would happen at about the same time:

1.the telegraph would not 'answer back,' and
2.the ship will continue doing whatever it was with no change.

These are bad things.

Ironically, the day we were on the Queen Mary, the telegraphs were not synchronized. It has been too many years for me to safely venture a guess at what they were saying, but I distinctly recall pointing out to my kids that here was the handle, that's what the bridge was calling for, and here is the indicator, and it was not answering back the same command. The Queen Mary is a hotel and tourist attraction now, and they don't run the engines at all anymore, so there was very little danger of the ship running aground anytime soon. As a result, our panic level was quite low.

But I so clearly recall thinking about those men and women who had to work in that engine room. They sure had to have complete faith in the people up on the bridge. If that bell rang and that telegraph called for All Ahead Flank, they really had no option but to obey. They couldn't look out the window, there were no windows. They couldn't second guess the captain. In fact, their life could be in greater danger if they did not obey: for all they knew, going forward right now may be the very thing which gets them out of danger. Think of a war vessel - instant changes to the speed and direction could mean life or death for hundreds on board. And every man on that engine crew had to know how to respond to any orders from the bridge instantly.

One more thing - there was also a backup steering system in the engine room of the Queen Mary. A small ship's wheel, on a bulkhead. With the turn of a valve, the engine room crew could take over the control of those vast rudders, and steer the ship from right there in that blind room. They would only do so in time of greatest need: if the bridge system failed, or in war, if the bridge was blown away. But they were blind! How could they hope to know which way to go? They would listen for a call from somebody - anybody - who was topside. Any surviving member of the bridge crew could call down and be the eyes for that engine room crew. Just give them the direction they needed to go, and all the controls of the ship would be at your disposal, instantly.

Seems like a good analogy to Faith. God says go, and all we need to say is "how fast?" He says turn left, and all we need to say is "how much?" We don't have to see our path, we don't have to know our destination nor the obstacles in our way. He takes care of that part of it. He sees what we can't.

OK God - help me. Guide me.