Breastboards & glazing

I might be wrong about this, but my understanding is that in the early days, pilothouses had no forward window panes, and relied on these breastboards and visors to be closed during inclemant weather. The pilot would look thru 2 holes strategically cut in the visor, where he could see ahead while standing at either side of the pilotwheel.

The Barbara H had no glass in the forward windows, and relied on the breastboard and visor while owned by Standard Oil (1923-1939). My guess is that it was difficult back then to make large panes of glass that were not "wavy", and pilots don't want to look thru wavy glass. So they simply didn't put glass up there until glass quality improved.

If I'm wrong about this, I'd like to know the correct answer anyway! 🙂

-Steve

The glass in the side and aft windows of the pilot house seemed to be adequate, and I have seen a good many photos of later boats with the forward window made of the same small panes as the side & aft windows and hinged up or sliding for direct vision. That's why Im puzzled about the convention of using solid material with peep holes.

Part of the reason was to be able to hear. Before radios, radar, etc., it was important for pilots to be listening for all kinds of sounds and signals from other boats, both those underway and those laid up on the bank. They also might want/need to listen for a hail from a prospective customer on the bank. As mentioned, clear, unobstructed vision was very important, too before the days of modern navigational instruments and accessories.

The breastboard would not have been ideal in inclement weather, and I assume it was closed up during navigation only under the harshest of weather. I have been told that those old boats tied up for a lot more than what we might think -- dark of night, for instance, so it was probably rare that they would use the breastboard closed while underway. Steve may be right about the quality of the glass, not only vision-wise but maybe safety-wise, too, before the advent of safety or tempered glass. The few examples we see of multi-paned front windows for the pilothouse was likely either an experiment or a gamble against those reasons I mentioned in order to decrease delays for weather, poor visibility, etc. Just a guess, though.

Good point about needing to hear other whistles for passing/hailing. I have an old photo of a steamboat operating with both breastboard and visor closed, and you can see the slots that the pilot must be looking thru. I just don't know where that photo is...

I thought about the vision through rain streaked glass and the navigating by eye problem that inland river boats face, (in contrast to tugs and blue water ships which seem to have glassed in the pilot house from the mid 1800s) but the audible component didn't come to mind. Good point. Perhaps that's why the use of glass for the front window didn't come into common use until after the turn of the (20th) century when there were few if any hails from the bank. Still, a hinged setup provides the same hearing advantages whether it is made of glass of wood. The photos I've seen of Alaska and northwest coast and river steamers mostly have glass fronts, and they faced many of the same problems as the inland river boats. That construction wouldn't have persisted so long without a good reason to do it that way, so I'm still puzzled.

Granted that most of my steamboating was done during clement weather, I can assure you that the first thing old-timers like Harris Underwood, Robert Porterwood and even Commodore Johnson did was open the forward sash, no matter how clear the glass was. Sounds were important, too. I watched Charley Duncan make a landing guided by highway noise near Aurora, Indiana, during a fog. The old-time stories about steering by the barks of dogs, train whistles, bawling cows, etc., were true. You could also smell apple blossoms from an orchard, a whiff of a barn or a city dump in certain locations. It wasn't GPS, but it worked. I used to wake up in time for landing when the Belle of Louisville passed under the Big Four Bridge, as the sounds of the 'scapes changed.
Good pilots used all their senses, if any.

So, perhaps the reasoning was that if it's gonna be open all lthe time anyway, it's cheaper to make it of wood than glass?

The breastboard and visor together are like wooden shutters on a house, except they are horizontal. Whether there was glass behind them or not, they could be used when extra protection was needed from the elements. The visor alone provides nice shade from direct sun, and can keep some rain out. Can't find my photo of a steamboat underway with visor and breastboard closed, but here are some close-ups of the TRANSPORTER's pilothouse which show the cutouts in the breastboard for some visibility if they are closed. I have other examples of these cutouts, such as on the JOE COOK.

Steve, I understand how the visor & breastboard work, and have plenty of photos showing different cutout patterns. What I am curious about is why they were amd continued to be made of solid material on the inland rivers up to about the 1920s when other types of craft went to all glass in the mid 1800s.

Ah, that I don't know. The old tried-and-true methods on the rivers died hard. That's my only guess.