The Williamson turn is a maneuver used to bring a ship or boat under power back to a point it previously passed through, often for the purpose of recovering a man overboard. It was named for John Williamson, USNR, who used it in 1943 to recover a man who had fallen overboard. However, according to "Uncommon Carriers" by John McPhee, the maneuver was originally called the "Butakov pipe" and was used in the Russo-Japanese War as a way of keeping guns at the same distance from an enemy.