Just returned from a cruise on the Belle of Louisville. As we were leaving the dock, we hear this "beep, beep, beep, beep, beep..."

Later we had a very intimate tour of the engine room, and as the boat was making its turn, we heard this again. We learned that the Belle has a backup beeper! It is wired to a position switch on the reversing gear. When the gear is in reverse, the beeper sounds.

I do not believe it is a Coast Guard regulation, as certainly no other boats I am aware of have this.

The crew said that occasionally mistakes were made where the crew forgot which position the gear was in, and dropped the throttle open resulting in an unexpected reverse. Similar issues were experienced with confusion between the pilot and engine room over telegraph communications.

It's also possible to momentarily forget during a long switching session which position the reverser on your locomotive is in, so I sympathize. Which is why I always have the independent applied when opening the throttle...

I am familiar with the Belle.

The beeper is in fact there because several years ago an engineman made a mistake while docking. Full ahead can have disasterous effects when full reverse is required. The position of the valve gear is not seen well by the Engineer (called the "Striker"), so the beeper was installed along with green (ahead) and red (astearn) lights on the gauge panel.

Those of you familiar with steam engines may find it interesting that the Belle of Louisville does not have any eccentrics on the paddlewheel shaft. All valve motion is actuated from the position of the connecting rod, which in steamboat terminology is called the "Pittman".