By the way, on that sailboat if I want to turn quickly to the left, it's "hard to port" or "hard-a-port." I move the tiller all the way to the right or starboard and the rudder swings to the left.
When I've watched Titanic movies, the order Murdoch gave was "hard-a-starboard" and the helmsman at the ship's wheel turns it fully to the left. The counter-clockwise turning of the wheel by the forward-facing helmsman would move the tiller to starboard causing the rudder to swing fully left and that would have turned the ship to port. I don't see how reversing the props and slowing the ship down would help the ship turn to the left any faster with the orders Murdoch gave. But I understand that older commands used at that time were confusing and might have played a factor in what happened. There must have been further orders given if Murdoch was maneuvering the ship to have it hit the iceberg broadside on the ship's starboard side.
I still feel that the events were a sad comedy of errors on the parts of all three men...Murdoch, Smith, and Ismay.