That's theoretically possible, aside from the sails part. You'd have to remap your controlls while sitting in a seat, while using controllable drums and the controllable attachment to the steam engines. I do a similar thing when controlling it, I map the keys to my numpad for controlling it.

Im talking about a helm where while using it the player object cant move as its controls are swapped with the ships controls so WASD control the ship's helm, where A and D control rudder, and W and S raise and lower sails / adjust the engine's throttle for speed.

Well, there IS a ship's wheel in the pilothouse, but it's not connected to the steering as it's not in a position that it can be feasibly connected to the steering of the ship.

wish they would add a functioning helm to this game.

You can see the full steering mechanism in the second picture, it is two tillers tied with a rope brought back and forth with rope drums.

what is the steering mechanism like?

That's pretty cool. I hope to see it someday myself.

Thats awesome! Ive seen the real one in Vicksburg, good job!

I do have a monitor, but i have the same problem that john has. Literally all of the ship is underwater and thus useless. You need to have everything an everyone on deck or in the small turret, and any working blocks like steam engines and the rudder that must be underwater become hard to use and are forced to be exposed so you can access them from the deck.

That is very well done, good job!

I'd build the Monitor were I to be able to be happy with the fact that the player character would have to go underwater to operate it... Besides, Mike_Angel already has made a version of the Monitor, though it has not been uploaded to his workshop.

the Monitor would be nice

Nice job

How about CSS Selma https://civilwartalk.com/threads/css-selma.121827/
that's quite a unique looking ship