Rudder facts for kids

Stern-mounted steering oar of an Egyptian riverboat depicted in the Tomb of Menna (c. 1422-1411 BC)

An Eastern Han (25–220 AD) Chinese pottery boat fit for riverine and maritime sea travel, with an anchor at the bow, a steering rudder at the stern, roofed compartments with windows and doors, and miniature sailors

Stern-mounted steering oar of a Roman boat, 1st century AD (RG-Museum, Cologne)

A rudder is used to steer ships, boats, submarines, aircraft, hovercraft or other conveniences that move through air or water.

History of the rudder

Oars mounted on the side of ships for steering are documented from the 3rd millennium BC in Persia and Ancient Egypt in artwork, wooden models, and even parts of actual boats of that times. An early example of an oar mounted on the stern is found in the Egyptian tomb of Menna (1422-1411 BC). Stern-mounted oars were also quite common in Roman river navigation as proved from reliefs more than a millennium later.

A depiction of a sternpost-mounted rudder can be seen on a pottery model of a Chinese junk dating from the 1st century AD during the Han Dynasty, predating their appearance in the West by a thousand years. The technology of stern-mounted rudder in Europe and Islam World, which was introduced by travelers in the Middle Ages, was transferred from China

Images for kids

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  Modern ship rudder (the long red rectangle behind the propeller)

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  RMS Olympic's rudder turned

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  An early Song Dynasty (960–1279) painting on silk of two Chinese cargo ships accompanied by a smaller boat, by Guo Zhongshu (c. 910–977 AD); notice the large sternpost-mounted rudder on the ship shown in the foreground

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  Pottery boat from Eastern Han Dynasty showing the earliest known representation of a rudder

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  Pintle-and-gudgeon rudder of the Hanseatic league flagship Adler von Lübeck (1567–1581), the largest ship in the world at its time

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  A ship's rudder carved in oak, 15th century, Bere Ferrers church, Devon. Heraldic badge of Cheyne and Willoughby families.

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  Movement caused by the use of rudder

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  The rudder is controlled through rudder pedals on the bottom rear of the yoke in this photo of a Boeing 727 cockpit.

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  The water rudders on this Cessna 208 Caravan floatplane are the small vertical surfaces on the rear end of each float. Their setting is controlled from the cockpit.

See also

In Spanish: Timón (dispositivo) para niños