Look at Life - Pilot Aboard 1963

Many people wonder how ships made it across entire oceans without getting lost in the seventeenth century. Aaron introduces seventeenth century navigation to us today by beginning with piloting.

Look at Life - City of Sailors - Portsmouth - 1965
Portsmouth is no longer the sea-faring city it once was; this film from the Documentary Series "Look At Life" Volume 5 - Cultural Heritage in 1965 looks at its changing face.

Let us start a journey back in time. Back to the black and white films of history. The times have changed, but it is good to know what kind of things have changed and where are the roots of pilotage.

This video seems to be slow and boring for non maritime people, but doing the job in a good way needs a lot of experience and knowledge. And it's the very the best job in the world.

They look like toy boats, but they serve a serious purpose. An outsider at this facility near Grenoble, France, may see grown men riding arounda lake in miniature ships. But these are pilots of the world's largest ships, and they're practicing navigation with meticulously engineered 1:25 scale models of real cruisers, tankers, and containerships. Port Revel Shiphandling Training Centre, in operation since 1967, has had more than 6,000 maritime pilots and merchant ship officers from all over...

Gabon, Baie du Prince, 2012.
Getting that nice fat lady alongside

It remains a sad fact that accidents and near misses continue to occur during pilot transfers with frightening regularity. Most of these fortunately do not result in injury, and a surprisingly high number of them are not even recognised for what they are.

Surveys into pilot ladder safety consistently reveal that unacceptably high numbers of pilot transfer arrangements are not compliant with the regulations.

"Discover the Port of Rotterdam with Port Reporter Dave | Short behind-the-scenes excursions | Mainport Rotterdam | Today: Pilotage"
In this video, port reporter Dave van der Wal takes you on a unique behind-the-scenes excursion of Europe's largest port. Commissioned by the Educational Information Centre Mainport Rotterdam, Dave visits various companies in the port and gives you an insight into the fascinating world of the maritime industry. Discover the innovative technologies and...

Raw footage of a an offshore Pilot transfer.
More pictures and an occasional video can be found at
https://instagram.com/sea_weathered?igshid=3qbu808ioyqf

Here’s a video of recent Sea trials during ‘Storm Bram’ aboard the ‘all weather’ Interceptor 48 ‘Northeast Pilot III’ we built for the North East pilots at Newport, Rhode Island in the USA. With winds of Storm Force 11 and heavy breaking waves conditions were pretty wild, and proved a good test for her seakeeping abilities, especially her stability where she recovered nicely from a hard 90 degree knock down. Also respect to the seamanship of the captain aboard Fokko Ukena whom we filmed and...