Interview with a Bar Pilot 2014 (Mississippi, USA)

River Mersey Pilot Boat going slowly inbound on the river before turning and heading northbound again.

These are some of the reliable sturdy Pilot boats of Netherlands and Belgium to bring and pick up Marine Pilots to and from commercial merchant vessels either inbound or outbound. The Marine Pilots are licensed PROFESSIONALS who have a thorough knowledge of a certain port and they guide the Master/Captain of commercial ships in and out of the foreign Seaport. Location: Steenbank Pilot Station, Flushing/Vlissingen Pilot Station, Wandelaar Pilot Station. Boats in order of appearance in this...

Over the course of 4 days this August, I was afforded the opportunity and privilege of riding with the Savannah Bar Pilots for an article I was writing for a major maritime magazine. The pilots are given the responsibility of boarding a vessel in the Atlantic Ocean and safely navigating the vessel up the Tybee Road 9 (a name for the shipping lane that leads into the Savannah River), into the Savannah River, and into the Port of Savannah. The same is done in reverse when a ship is outbound...

To monitor the vessel’s progress, the pilot had set up his portable pilotage unit (PPU). He had connected the rate-of-turn generator to the vessel’s pilot plug and had set a variable range marker on the radar with a radius of 0.5 nm.

Coronavirus may be hampering global trade but it hasn't broken the supply chain at the Port of Oakland. The latest evidence: the largest ship ever to call in Oakland arrives this week. The container vessel MSC Anna is scheduled to berth at the Port April 16.

The ship will tie up at Oakland International Container Terminal on the Oakland Estuary. The Port said that the 1,312-foot-long vessel is on special assignment from Geneva-based shipping line MSC. It’s collecting a backlog of empty containers in Southern California before arriving in Oakland. It’s scheduled to spend 24 hours here discharging import containers and loading exports.

What does a Bristol Pilot do? This is a short film we made for Bristol Pilots LLP to show what it is these guys do - from climbing up the side of oil tankers in the middle of the night, to bringing in huge ships through a lock with inches to spare either side - the Bristol Pilots do an amazing job.

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-...

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.