Associated Branch Pilots

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...

Port of Dunkerque: A typical working day in the Port of Dunkerque East.
Views of the Port of Dunkerque East and its daily maritime traffic.


Towing: Tugs from Boluda Dunkerque

Berthing a 180 meter Ro-ro type vessel. With the assistance of 2 ASD tugs of 60TBP each. The ship has a 1000KW bow thruster, which makes the manuever a bit easier.

This expert article is based on a presentation given by Capt. Pilot Sven Stemmler at the MCN's (Maritimes Cluster Norddeutschland e. V. ) event ‘On the Future of the Pilot Profession’ at Fraunhofer CML in Hamburg on 9 September 2025.

Congratulations: Vicky Hérault becomes the first female maritime pilot in the port of Brest (France) in Oct 2021.

The “DangerousLadder” page on facebook is nowadays a very well known community in the maritime world. It is steadily growing towards 3000 members, which will be the next milestone membership-wise.

The pilots say that Port Tampa Bay leadership is leaning on them to change policies in ways they say would be less safe.

DanPilot, Denmarks state pilot organization have incorporated the information of Pilotladdersafety.com in their e-learning module for pilots.

The Maritime Blockade of Ukraine What's Going on With Shipping? April 22, 2022 In this episode, Sal Mercogliano - former merchant mariner and maritime historian at Campbell University - discusses the ongoing maritime blockade of Ukraine. He assesses some recent commentary and analysis on the naval operation, including the sinking of Moskva, and the commercial implications of the war in the Black Sea. #Ukraine #Russia #BlackSea #Moskva #Blockade #trade #commerce #logistics #supplychain...