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...

A MIXED METHODOLOGY REVIEW INTO THE BOARDING AND LANDING OF MARITIME PILOTS.

Download and view satellite images of sea-ice on your mobile device or PC within an intuitive map-based interface.

Throughout the world, mariners rely upon nautical charts to guide their voyages, to assist them in avoiding obstructions, and to note any special ocean conditions when sailing.

A ship may berth port or starboard side on or bow or stem on. The term “berth” refers to the quay, or wharf, or, pier or jetty where the ship comes alongside, but it may also mean a place in which a vessel is moored or anchored.

A maritime pilot tells us about why he loves switching ships in midstream.

The Coast Guard Office of Investigations and Analysis has released Marine Safety Alert 05-21, to notify mariners to a potentially dangerous situation involving corrosion of the turntable pin on accommodation ladders.

Departing a 159,000 tonne 274 metre long tanker at the Humber Pilot station

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...

Efforts to free the giant container ship are continuing after the 400m-long vessel became stuck in the Suez canal. Local authorities attempted to dislodge the 220,000 ton vessel from the banks of the canal using tug boats, but the megaship remains stuck more than one day after it ran aground.