Marine Pilot

Comment and photos by Reshma Nilofer Naha
India's first female Marine Pilot (Kalkata Port Trust)

After spending years at sea, Brett Monthie had to chart the channels in Tampa Bay from memory in order to become a Tampa Bay harbor pilot. And then he spent 30 months in training.

Three pilot companies operate launches from Queenscliff. They take pilots to and from the shipping that comes through Port Phillip heads to the ports of Melbourne and Geelong.

Shri Sanjay Bhatia former Chairman of Mumbai Port and Indian Port Association (IPA) expressed pleasure while releasing the All India Marine Pilots Association’s (AIMPA) maiden Issue of “Marine Pilot’s Journal” and applauded the efforts in taking out this kind of Journal to help highlight issues of pilots.

Helicopter services company NHV Group has won a contract extension with the Dutch Maritime Pilot’s Association (Nederlandse loodsencorporatie) to support maritime pilotage services in the Netherlands.

Recently, Svitzer took an important step towards strengthening its presence in Africa by signing a five-year contract with Nacala Logistics in Mozambique for harbour towage, occasional pilot transfer and potential salvage work in the port of Nacala. At the same time, Svitzer also secured a five-year extension of its current contract with Egyptian LNG assisting the land-based Idku LNG plant with four tugs, two mooring boats and one pilot boat.

Pilotage to the port of Vitoria, Brazil. This video was taken on 26.04.2021.

There are many things in both our everyday and professional lives which we take for granted and never question the origins of, an example of this might be the IMPA recommended ‘pilot mark or pilot line’, which is sometimes seen on the side of vessels indicating where a vessels freeboard exceeds 9 metres.