The Maryland Pilots between 1950-1965 (a journey through time)

Many people wonder how ships made it across entire oceans without getting lost in the seventeenth century. Aaron introduces seventeenth century navigation to us today by beginning with piloting.

Look at Life - City of Sailors - Portsmouth - 1965
Portsmouth is no longer the sea-faring city it once was; this film from the Documentary Series "Look At Life" Volume 5 - Cultural Heritage in 1965 looks at its changing face.

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.

Toutes les 40 minutes, un pilote du Saint-Laurent embarque à bord d'un navire de commerce qui transite entre Montréal et Québec. 230 pilotes sont chargés de guider les embarcations dans la voie maritime : une des plus dangereuses au monde. Un métier essentiel à l'économie du Québec, qui est payant, mais qui vient avec son lot de contraintes et de stress. Catherine François nous amène à bord d'un porte-conteneur qui sillonne le fleuve. Le reportage de Catherine François au #TJ18H -- Rendez-...

Footage showing the ARCADIA leaving Tilbury Landing Stage and PLA pilot boarding sugar ship bound for Thames Refinery. footage taken from the documentary short film ' Till I End My Song'

Who knwos Zé Peixe? What makes Zé Peixe a rare species is the way he works: he swims to fetch the ship, while his colleagues use a support boat. And when he takes the ship out of the harbour, instead of returning by boat he jumps into the sea.

I have had the privilege of being at quite a number of meetings, conferences and seminars, sometimes representing The Netherlands, but mostly representing the Netherlands pilots. I have had many discussions about the role of pilots and pilot organisations, which lead me to write an article “What is the added value of pilotage?”, published in the February 2020 issue of Seaways.

20mt Pilot Boat Concept Design

On the 23rd of March 2021 the VLCC Ever Given grounded in the Suez Canal. A strong southerly wind (between 6 and 7 BFT) plus so-called bank shear caused steering issues. This a combined 2D and 3D reconstruction of the incident based on recorded AIS data.