SafePilot CAT II

#maritime #pilot #ship

The General Company for Ports of Iraq (GCPI), a port operating company under the Iraqi Ministry of Transport, recently began operating a new catamaran pilot station vessel built by Colombo Dockyard (CDPLC) of Sri Lanka.

For 170 years, the San Francisco Bar Pilots have been navigating the world’s largest ships through some of North America’s most difficult waterways. These state and federally-licensed master mariners are highly-specialized ship captains who rely on navigational experience, ship-handling skills, and local knowledge to transport more than $1.2 billion in goods to and from 200 Bay Area ports, docks, and berths every day. This critical service protects more than 1,000 miles of fragile coastline...

The term pilot is defined as, “a person who is qualified and usually licensed to conduct a ship into and out of a port or in specified waters.” The Merchant Shipping Act 1894 states that, “a pilot is any person not belonging to a ship who has the conduct thereof.”

The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) examines and investigates all types of marine accidents to or on board UK vessels worldwide, and other vessels in UK territorial waters. Here is the annual report of 2020.

Footage filmed by DFS Williams on the Edmund Gardner pilot ship 1968-69.
The Edmund Gardner is now the largest object in National Museums Liverpool's collections and can be seen in dry dock opposite Merseyside maritime museum. Find out more about it here:
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/collections/edmundgardner/

Although it cannot be said that ship piloting is the world’s oldest profession, most maritime experts do agree that pilotage does date back to antiquity.

Pilot boarding the bulk ship Aquamarine SW inbound for San Francisco.