Bar pilot
A bar pilot guides ships over the dangerous sandbars at the mouth of rivers and bays.
A highly coveted and potentially dangerous position, a pilot is a master mariner with many years of experience in his or her licensed operating area.
Most crossings require vessels of a certain size to take on a pilot. A pilot is legally only an adviser to the master.
Normally the pilot joins an incoming ship at sea via helicopter or pilot boat and climbs a swaying rope ladder sometimes up 40 feet to the deck of the largest container and tanker ships. With outgoing vessels, a pilot boat returns the pilot to land after the ship has successfully negotiated coastal waters.
Pilots specifically use the pilotage techniques relying on nearby visual reference points and local knowledge of tides, swells, currents, depths and shoals that might not be readily identifiable on the nautical charts without first hand experience in the harbor in question.
Due to their size and mass, most large ships are very difficult to maneuver; the stopping distance of a supertanker is typically measured in miles and even a slight error in judgment can cause millions of dollars in damage.
See also
External links
- American Pilots Association
- Atlantic Pilotage Authority
- Australian Marine Pilots Association
- Biscayne Bay Pilots
- Boston Pilot Association
- Columbia River Bar Pilots
- Columbia River Pilots
- European Maritime Pilots Association
- Honolulu Pilots
- Houston Pilots
- International Maritime Pilots Association
- Association of Maryland Pilots
- Northeast Marine Pilots
- Puget Sound Pilots
- Sandy Hook Pilots
- San Francisco Bar Pilots
- Savannah Pilots Association
- Western Great Lakes Pilots
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