Wooden Ship's Wheels: Together with the anchor, the ship's wheel is the recurrent symbol
of ships and sea. It was introduced somewhere in the beginning of the 18th century. Before that, ships
were steered with the tiller. Larger ships of that age had the tiller linked with block and tackle systems
to the rudder which made steering cumbersome. The wheelstand was most often placed close to the
rudder on the aftdeck and nearly always in the open air. Only later with the introduction of steam
ships built from iron and steel, the wheel was moved to the "bridge", and the command center
was from then called the "wheelhouse".