San Francisco Shipping, Bar Pilot Transfer

Editor's note: The pilot boarding seems a bit improvised and unsafe to me, but that's certainly business as usual, isn't it?

Who has ever boarded a helicopter? What was the feeling like?

A 35-year-old male sea pilot of the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) fell into the sea from a crude oil tanker near the N Shed Wharf in the port of Durban. A rope of the pilot ladder is said to have snapped for an undetermined reason when the man disembarked while leaving the crude oil tanker which was leaving the port of Durban.

M/V PILOT 62 (CHEOY LEE shipyards 17m Self-righting Pilot Boat)

​A state licensed pilot from the Sabine Pilots took navigational control of the Gas Ares as it was heading to a loading dock on the Neches River.

Australia’s high-tech FRP specialist boat builder Hart Marine has been building pilot, patrol and rescue boats for a couple of decades. That experience tells as the boats continually improve from an already high base.

Based in Estonia, Baltic Workboats is a long-tenured boatbuilder for multiple markets, including the demanding pilot boat sector. Late in 2025 in New Orleans BWB debuted a new hybrid electric 17m model, a boat that leans on more than 15 years of accrued experience building larger hybrid electric vessels. Carl Mahler, BWB’s North American sales lead and a harbor pilot himself, discussed with Maritime Reporter TV the value proposition offered by the shipyard, from manufacturing process to...

Study from 2015: Psychological stressors, in addition to the physical demands associated with the role (e.g., reduced sleep, boarding, and departing vessels), may over time have a damaging effect on pilots' physical and mental health.