Harbour Master

Commissioned by the Aberdeen Harbour Board the Sea Shepherd was built by the renowned Macduff Shipyards in Aberdeenshire. The vessel was designed by Murray Cormack, evolving from their highly successful "NorthBay 17" hull design. The primary design prompt called for an exceptionally rugged craft capable of handling the severe, choppy sea conditions found just outside the Aberdeen breakwater. To meet this requirement, Murray Cormack developed a single-chine displacement hull specifically...

The dangerous job for a marine pilot when embarking a huge vessel that don't and can't wait for you to get on board...
We can all no doubt appreciate the dangerous that some folks are in just to do their respective jobs.

The pilot fell into the sea from the cross at around 04.30 (04.02.2024) in the morning, while being transferred to the Cook Islands-The ppilot flagged 176 m long ship called NEW SIHAM, at the southern entrance of the Bosphorus.

The following short clip appeared on TikTok recently, showing a non compliant trapdoor arrangement, and a pilot using it. From this short video, the dangers of this kind of arrangement are very clear.

In 2006 I was invited to join Port of London Pilot Capt. Tom Miller on one of his last few voyages before his retirement. A pilot cutter ferried us from the Gravesend Port office to the Port of London Terminal where the Hebridean Spirit waited for us to board. Once aboard, the ship's captain manoeuvred the vessel off its moorings and into the channel. After handing the vessel over to Capt. Miller, the Captain joined the ship's company for dinner, and the first offer and a helmsman remained...

Another great education video by Knud Benedict (Germany): Practical experiments for getting useful data for planning.

Shortly after 5 a.m. local time the vessel “Else” had a collision in the Kiel-Holtenau lock to the Kiel Canal.
The "Else" subject to pilotage passed the pilot's boarding position without taking a sea pilot on board and collided from the outside into the closed gate of the new north lock. The bow bored into the metal construction and the ship was stuck for about six hours.
For more information about this accident see related content below (articles).

Capt. Nasir Khan is responsible for the content and copyright of this film and kindly provided us with this video.

In October 2019, we launched our web portal Marine-Pilots.com. Over the last few months we have gathered a large collection of reports, information, articles and videos on the topic of pilots around the world.

DPC provide a Pilot Service for vessels visiting the port, the service involves putting on and taking off Pilots from the vessels both in port and at sea. Only personnel who are qualified, trained and passed out as competent in their respective roles are involved in this operation which will normally involve a Coxswain to helm the boat, a boatman to look after the deck operations and ensure the safety of the Pilot throughout the operation. Following correct procedures and utilising all...