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.

Mississippi River Pilot transfer off of south bound ship in the Mississippi River below New Orleans to a Pilot Boat. Pilots climb down rope ladder onto the top of the Pilot Boat while both boats are underway.

We take a look at some of the dangerous ladder arrangements provided by ships when attempting to take maritime pilots on board. Our message is simple: if you are offered an unsafe or non-compliant ladder, do not board!

Saab is proud to announce its delivering its flagship Pilot Dispatch Management System (PDMS) PilotControl to Gladstone Ports Corporation’s (GPC) Gladstone Marine Pilots (GMPS).

Ro-ro cargo ship FESTIVO struck pier at Ceuta while berthing on arrival from Algeciras, at around 1300 UTC Jul 6. Cause of accident unknown, both ship’s bow and pier sustained damages.

The Chinese container freighter "CSCL Star" belongs to the class of Ultra Large Container Ships (ULCS) and is one of the largest ships that can enter the port of Hamburg.

Captain Bronson Stubbs discusses what harbor pilots do

Port Revel is used for shiphandling training of maritime pilots, masters and officers on a 5 ha lake with 11 manned model ships representing 20 vessels, and 4 tugs at scale 1:25 and DGPS tracking system. Instructors are former maritime pilots.
Training on the scale models provides experience that could never be gained on real ships for the simple reason that neither ship-owners nor local authorities would allow such risks to be taken. Scale models allow the shiphandler to make mistakes....