Whipstaff

A whipstaff is a steering device that was used on European sailing ships from the 14th to the 18th century.

[1] In a typical arrangement, an iron gooseneck was fitted at the fore end of the tiller.

The ring was attached to a long, thin pole (the whipstaff proper) and this pole connected the tiller to the helmsman one or more decks above it through a pivot point, roll, or rowle, described as "that round piece of wood or iron wherein the whip doth go and is made turn about that it may carry over the whip from side to side with more ease.

To move the ship to port, the forward-facing helmsman pulled the top of the staff to his left and pushed the pole down and to the right; to move it to starboard, he pulled the top to his right and pushed the pole down and to the left.

Emphasis had to be placed on the use of sails to control the ship's course, and this was imprecise and depended on the vicissitudes of the wind.

An animated schematic of the basic workings of a whipstaff on a 15th or 16th century sailing vessel. Shown are the whipstaff, the rowle, the tiller , the rudderstock, and the helmsman .
Part of the whipstaff of Vasa , built in the late 1620s