Pilot embarking and disembarking

Mississippi River Pilot transfer off of south bound ship in the Mississippi River below New Orleans to a Pilot Boat. Pilots climb down rope ladder onto the top of the Pilot Boat while both boats are underway.

"Person over board - all pilot boat crewmembers and pilots should be trained in recovery as realistic as possible. Don’t wait for a real emergency to find out that something doesn’t work as intended!"

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.

Correct method of rigging pilot ladder explained.
As explained, a large number of reports related to the use of pilot ladders which are too long relative to the vessel’s draughts. As a result, the excessively long ladders require shortening up before being deployed for boarding pilots. In these cases, ship crew shortens the pilot ladders, using D-shackles to choke the side ropes at the required height along the ladder’s length. In this method, the D-shackle is first secured to a hard point...

The pilot boys on the river Haven.

Here’s a cool video of the latest Interceptor 48 pilot boat we’ve launched for the Gdynia Pilots in Poland. We captured some nice alongside ship footage during the sea trials, and had a chance to test out our new drone ‘catch net’ on Thunder Child.

In December 2022, a week-long innovation camp was organized in Turku Finland, in which 16 students from the University of Turku, Novia University of Applied Sciences and five different universities in Singapore participated. Pilotage operators Finnpilot from Finland and PSA Marine from Singapore acted as industry partners.

On October 11, 2018, the Kristin Alexis was performing fleeting work with a crew of six, including a captain, pilot, and four deckhands (two per shift), at the Cooper Consolidated fleeting facility at Convent located at mile 161.5. About 2300, the Cooper Consolidated dispatcher informed the Kristin Alexis captain that their next job was to move the derrick-type crane barge Mr Ervin upriver to the Cooper Consolidated fleeting facility in Darrow, located at mile 175.

SUMMARY A New York harbor pilot boat passes close enough for four members of the crew to be seen [Frame: 0471]. Following the sailing vessel is a steamship [0780]. From a contemporary Edison Company catalog: PILOT BOATS IN NEW YORK HARBOR. Unboys [code for telegraphic orders]. A close view of an eighty footer, schooner rigged, trim as a private yacht, skimming over the waters of the harbor near Robin's Reef, [where a] picturesque little lighthouse is seen in the near background. A steamer...