Hello Shippy,
First and foremost, as Matt has rightly said, please register your legal copy of SSE in your Profile in this Forum. This action will allow you to access all boards of SSE in the Forum including Tech Support. This will also give you access to download Custom Missions from the game.
I always advise those who are new to the game and wish to get a hang of the controls to do a simple thing - choose a Free Roaming Mission in the Atlantic in Clear weather. Next choose your player ship. In the vast expanse of the Atlantic, go ahead and experiment with all the controls. Do this for every player ship that interests you. Once you are proficient with the controls you will be able to play the many missions with confidence and less mishaps / disasters.
You may be aware by now that all the player ships controls can be operated either by the keyboard + mouse combination or a joystick or a game pad. Please follow the links below that are self explanatory.
http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,23960.0.html
http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,23905.0.html
You will also find a User Manual in your Vstep folder. Please see attachment which describes the path to the folder.
Happy sailing and simming !
Regards
vin_sun