For 170 years, the San Francisco Bar Pilots have been navigating the world’s largest ships through some of North America’s most difficult waterways. These state and federally-licensed master mariners are highly-specialized ship captains who rely on navigational experience, ship-handling skills, and local knowledge to transport more than $1.2 billion in goods to and from 200 Bay Area ports, docks, and berths every day. This critical service protects more than 1,000 miles of fragile coastline...
Join us out in the North Sea as we take on another challenging day aboard the pilot boat, transferring pilots to and from massive ships in choppy seas. 🌊 Watch as we battle the swell and spray, timing every approach perfectly to safely board and disembark pilots onto moving vessels in tough conditions. From cargo ships to car carriers, this video gives you a front-row seat to life at sea — where precision, teamwork, and nerves of steel are essential. 📍 Filmed off the North East Coast of...
A French munitions ship and a Norwegian steamer collided in Halifax harbour in December 1917, and the blast that followed remains the largest human-made explosion before the atomic bomb. Within six days, a formal inquiry opened — and within two months it placed nearly all the blame on one harbour pilot. Wreck Commissioner Arthur Drysdale's inquiry found Mont-Blanc's pilot and captain responsible for the collision that triggered the disaster, and all three men involved, including a naval...
