History: Pilot Ahoy! (1940). A pathetone special

Let us start a journey back in time. Back to the black and white films of history. The times have changed, but it is good to know what kind of things have changed and where are the roots of pilotage.

Look at Life Vol 01 Transport Pilot Aboard 1963
The story of Britain's pilotage services.

The Maryland Pilots have guided ships to and from Baltimore since the 1700's. They have been chartered as an organization since 1852. This is an edited except from films about the Pilots shot between 1950-1965 for the Port that Built a City and State. The original films are in the archives of the Baltimore Museum of Industry.

Spectacular (silent) film footage of the construction of the Panama Canal more than a century ago. The film shows the construction of the Miraflores and Gatun locks in detail as well as the digging of "The Culebra Cut" including steam trains, steam shovels and steam dredgers at work and scenes of the locks an the Canal in its first days op operation in 1914. Wikipedia: The Panama Canal (Spanish: Canal de Panamá) is an artificial 82 km (51 miles) waterway in Panama that connects the...

Discover your true worth, you're not searching for gold, you are the gold!

A court sentenced a captain to a total of 30 months imprisonment: It had been proven beyond doubt that the side ropes had been manipulated to make a ship inspection more difficult or to prevent it.

#tugboatwilly #tugboat #mariners #nyharbor #mariner #docklife #boatlife #ship #bigship #captain #pilot

Time Lapse Video: An inbound LNG carrier arrives at the Port of Rotterdam. At sea, in the Eurogeul channel, two maritime pilots have joined the vessel. Between the breakwaters four harbour tugs (Smit Harbour Towage) make fast to assist her manoeuvre. In the Beerkanaal channel the LNG carrier is stopped and swung before entering the Nijlhaven harbour. While approaching LNG Jetty 1 the ship's mooring lines are taken ashore by mooringboats (Koninklijke Roeiers Vereeniging Eendracht).
Pilot...

Issues like the Covid 19 crisis and the moves towards increased autonomy appear to be driving a renewed interest in Shore Based Pilotage (SBP), nowadays often called Remote Pilotage.

A routine station watch turns surreal as a massive container ship slowly emerges from dense fog. We board the pilot, complete the transfer, and watch the vessel disappear back into the mist.