Marine Port Pilot, Port Operations

This expert article is based on a presentation given by Capt. Pilot Sven Stemmler at the MCN's (Maritimes Cluster Norddeutschland e. V. ) event ‘On the Future of the Pilot Profession’ at Fraunhofer CML in Hamburg on 9 September 2025.

Topic: Technical or human error?
Ed Verbeek already published this interesting article about the proportion of human to technical errors on LinkedIn last week.

The Cosco Shipping Galaxy alongside Felixstowe Berth 9 cargo operations come to an end with the cranes beginning to boom up. Mooring gang in attendance and the tugs begin to go to station. The pilot requests for both to make fast on the centre lead fore and aft. Svitzer Kent makes fast centre lead aft while the Svitzer Sky makes fast centre lead forward. The Sky comes under the bow to pick up the heaving line but the crew slackens the head lines before the last crane had boomed up. Sky...

It will replace the "Coatham" pilot vessel which will now find a new home at the Port of Tyne after racking up 800,000 miles servicing the River Tees over a 20-year period.

Safehaven Marine are delighted to have signed contracts with P&O Maritime for an Interceptor 48 pilot boat.

Day shift for duty pilot in Gibraltar on 15th October 2016

Marine Pilot Arie Palmers, who works in the Netherlands, will make a presentation on the irregularities found in the embarkation and disembarkation ladders of ships. After suffering two accidents in 2018, Arie became an inspector of the problems and has been an active voice in search of corrections with shipping companies, manufacturers, certifiers and entities that deal with the theme. According to him, the day-to-day practice shows that more than 50% of the means of access to vessels are...

This video deals with the training of apprentice pilots and the transmission of knowledge and know-how. The language in the video is French.

Container vessel ALDIVIA (IMO 9333395) was dangerously close to public beach at Vlissingen Netherlands, on May 21, while heading out to sea, en route from Antwerp to Helsinki Finland.
The cause of dangerous approach is unknown, but the ship wasn’t detained, she continued her voyage.

Pilot of cargo ship Ever Forward, which ran aground in Chesapeake Bay last year, gives up license