4/7/2020 Steam Community :: Guide :: U-boat: a General Guide

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Overview

Wolfpack Port and Starboard Store Page

Bearing, Course and Heading

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Angle on Bow
Determining Speed
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U-boat: a General Guide Useful Links

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Covers a range of both in-game and real life topics. Check the in-game manual for things not covered in this guide.

Port and Starboard CREATED BY

Darkstar130
There are a few terms that are good to know. I'll state that I don't like try-hard mil-simmers and saying Online

and doing things the way they're done in real life just because is silly. However, if you can increase the
clarity of your message and reduce the time needed to get things across then I'm all for it.
Category: Gameplay Basics, Walkthroughs
Port and Starboard
Languages: English

"We left port right for the stars"

Posted 25 Mar, 2019 @ 9:34pm
From Wikipedia Updated 27 Mar, 2019 @ 12:04am
"The term starboard comes from the Old English steorbord, meaning the side on which the ship is
steered. Before ships had rudders on their center-lines, they were steered with a steering oar at the
stern of the ship. Because more people are right-handed it was placed on the right-hand side. The 1,390 Unique Visitors
term is similar to the Old Norse stýri (rudder) and borð (side of a ship). Since the steering oar was on 17 Current Favorites
the right side of the boat, it would tie up at wharf on the other side. For this reason the left side was
called port."

This is important when calling out directions on the Angle on Bow on the TDC which we'll cover later.

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GUIDE INDEX

Overview

Port and Starboard

Bearing, Course and Heading
Angle on Bow
Determining Speed
Tips

Useful Links

Comments

Bearing, Course and Heading

Bearing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearing_(navigation)

Relative Bearing - "A relative bearing is one in which the reference direction is straight ahead, where
the bearing is measured relative to the direction the navigator is facing (on land) or in relation to the
vessel's bow (aboard ship)."

True Bearing - "is measured in relation to the fixed horizontal reference plane of true north, that is,
using the direction toward the geographic north pole as a reference point, while a magnetic bearing is
measured in relation to magnetic north, that is in relation to the north direction of the Earth's magnetic
field lines at the given location. The latter is not the same as the direction toward the magnetic north
pole due to magnetic anomalies."

Course https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Course_(navigation)
"In navigation, the course of a vessel or aircraft is the cardinal direction in which the craft is to be
steered. The course is to be distinguished from the heading, which is the compass direction in which
the craft's bow or nose is pointed."

Note: Drift - "The difference between the course and heading, known as the drift, is due to the motion
of the underlying medium, the air or water, or other effects like skidding or slipping."

Examples:

If I say set course for heading 270, we're going directly west.
If I say enemy ship bearing 270 he's directly perpendicular off our
left side.
If the hydrophone reports contacts bearing 120, that's past 90 but
less than 180, so you know it's towards the back right of whatever
way your ship is headed.

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GUIDE INDEX
Angle on Bow
Overview

Port and Starboard

Bearing, Course and Heading
Angle on Bow
Determining Speed
Tips

Useful Links

Comments

(http://mathscinotes.com/2011/03/trigonometry-wwii-torpedoes-and-a-museum-docent/)

It's the bearing to you from it's bow.

It's the bearing to you from it's bow.
It's the bearing to you from it's bow.

Just keep saying it until it clicks

The Angle on Bow (AOB) is what angle of the ship youre looking at, relative to their bow.

You're looking at the enemy ship through your periscope. It's exactly perpendicular to you. Going from
left to right or right to left it doesn't matter yet. It's AOB is 90 degrees. Because from it's bow to you is
90 degrees.

If that doesn't help, Imagine there's a person on the on the other ship. and he knows exactly where you
are and he's pointing his finger directly at you calling out a bearing (remember that bearing is the angle
from the bow). that's your AOB.

Determining Speed

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https://maritime.org/doc/pdf/lookout.pdf (Provided by TheDirktator)
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(Length of ship in meters)/ (Time in seconds) = speed in m/s

GUIDE INDEX

Conversions Overview

1 m/s = 1.94 Knots Port and Starboard

Bearing, Course and Heading
Angle on Bow
Determining Speed
Tips

Useful Links

Comments
Tips
"The optimum firing distance is between 300 to 1,000 meters. Torpedoes require at least 300 meters of
run before they arm, so its not possible to attack any closer than 300 meters. The optimum gyro angle
of the torpedo is zero degrees. The wider the gyro angle, the higher the chance for error." (uboat aces)

Useful Links
VIIC Manual
http://www.uboatarchive.net/Manual/Manual.htm

U-995 Panorama
https://www.kubische-panoramen.de/index.php?id_id=5373&p=

U-Historia - Hard to read unless you know spanish but has excelled info
http://www.u-historia.com/

NavWeaps - Tons of data on everything Naval

Deck Gun
http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WNGER_88mm-45_skc35.php

WWII German Torpedoes

http://www.navweaps.com/Weapons/WTGER_WWII.php

http://www.uboatarchive.net/

U-570 Design Book

http://www.uboatarchive.net/U-570/U-570DesignBook.htm

3 Comments

Darkstar130 [author] 26 Mar, 2019 @ 10:48am

Gotta love the San Francisco Maritime Museum, they have a lot of great stuff. If you look around you
can find a lot of drawings on the USS Pampanito.

Darkstar130 [author] 26 Mar, 2019 @ 10:38am

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Awesome, thank you. I'll change that.
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The Dirktator 26 Mar, 2019 @ 6:44am
The knot conversion from m/s. You made a typo. It's supposed to be 1.94.
GUIDE INDEX

The smoke coming from the smoke stacks from ships at the same speed differ in angle based on the
Overview
size of the ship (Bigger ship, lower angle. it's a bug). It's unreliable to measure the angle of the
smoke.
Port and Starboard

Furthermore, there's two types of bearings. Absolute (or True) and Relative . The absolute bearing Bearing, Course and Heading
uses true North as a reference to whatever object of interest you have. The relative bearing uses the Angle on Bow
bow of the ship as a reference. Heading always uses North as a reference. Source
[www.globalsecurity.org] and Source. [maritime.org] Determining Speed
Tips
*Magnetic vs absolute bearings. Normally they differ depending on where you are on the earth
(magnetic North isn'ẗ on the same place as true North). but in this game they are aligned, so they Useful Links
can be used interchangeably.
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