Pilot (harbour)

From Freepedia

A harbour pilot guides ships through the narrow, shallow and dangerous coastal waters between a harbour and the open sea.

A highly coveted and potentially dangerous position, a pilot is a master mariner with many years of experience in the harbor that (s)he is licensed to operate in.

Most harbors require vessels of a certain size to take on a pilot, at which point the pilot effectively takes over as master of that ship.

Normally the pilot joins an incoming ship at sea via 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 judgement can cause millions of dollars in damage.

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