Thank you Art, and all the rest of you who have commiserated with me with this.
I tried turning the shaft with my bf wrench and it will turn if I heave on it and it makes a screeching noise. It might be too self - serving to day it's sound like rubber...I undid and backed off the stuffing box until it was running like a tap, then I started the engine and ran her at the dock, 1300 rpm max in forward and reverse. Tried with the wrench again, no change. After the episode with the steering, this morning I will unbolt the coupling and I will also make sure I'm getting full travel on the throttle. The screeching, well, it might have been coming from me, I'll try again. I might ask our diver to do his thing today too, to make sure I didn't miss anything. The wheel needs to be scraped anyway.
Unfortunately, the wheel is stainless and 36" and the shaft is 2 1/2" so it doesn't respond well to the feeble efforts of a geriatric boat owner to wiggle it while being pinned to the bottom in a shorty wetsuit and a snorkel! It will need some number of meaty boys or a forklift to do the bearing.
I will let you know!