I agree Steiny. When ever you are un-familiar with a vessel you take it to some place with less traffic and play with it until you can control it in tight situations in real life. When you don't understand how a ship works in ship simulator take it to an sea environment and calm the weather so there are no effects on the ship from weather, play with the controls for a while and see what happens to the ship.
Just play with it a while and get familiar with the ship before you go try a mission with lots of traffic and no room for error. Just think that you are changing the direction of thrust. Think of it as you aren't steering the ship, but you are directing thrust in a different direction.
Best Regards,
Austin