Lesath and Procyon. Pilot vessels at the Port of Rotterdam

Pilot transfer arrangement is a sensitive topic to be discussed among the pilot’s fraternity. Although ships are designed and operated with compliance to the SOLAS requirements in all respects including the pilot transfer arrangements, there has been numerous deficiencies observed related to pilot transfer arrangements. The small deficiencies from the part of ships cause life threatening accidents for pilots and sometimes to the ship staff themselves. There are many instances of defective ladder and complacency in proper rigging of ladders has been reported almost every day in different parts of the world. Many pilots lost their life, severely injured for life and face many minor to major accidents. The latest incident being the Capt. Timothy Murray of Sandy hooks Pilot.

Delaware River Pilot Boat Cape Henlopen Transfers Pilot to Cargo Ship Al Wathba - Delaware River - Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania - June 6, 2025

IcePad Demonstration, MARSAT
a product driven by Drift + Noise and TRENZ GmbH, Germany

It is not often that this blog is used to show bad practice, however in this case some pictures tell a whole story. Ship is compliant by design for rigging a combination. How about the operator(s)?

The world's first 24,000 TEU container ship HMM Algeciras made its first domestic call to HPNT in Busan New Port on April 28th. HMM Algeciras loaded a total of 4,500 containers from Busan and headed for China.

The Professional Association of Maritime and Inland Pilots (Beroepsvereniging van Loodsen – BvL) announced on Thursday that its strike over Belgium’s pension reform will continue throughout the weekend.