Introduction to Pilotage

Ships don't exactly have brakes. Lou Vest, a retired Houston ship channel pilot tells us about a close encounter between a ship and a barge.
https://houstonmaritime.org

On April 20, 2026, the Columbia River Bar Pilots conducted a MOB drill with the U.S. Coast Guard Station Astoria.

The Nautical Institute (NI) and the International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA) have been concerned for many years at the needlessly high rate of Pilot Ladder casualties. The NI is continuously reminded of the problem from its Members and through its Mariners’ Alerting and Reporting Scheme (MARS). The issue features frequently in our publications, and we recently dedicated an edition of our award winning magazine The Navigator to the topic, emphasising the importance of good...

Maritime Education #5: Pilotage operations in General Cargo ship
An insight to points of attention during Embarkation and disembarkation of Pilots.
This video will be dedicated to my future Maritime students who will be joining General Cargo ships, this is what we normally do here, and this is for your virtual guide.
Thank you subscribers and keep growing so as my contents as well❤️

This research paper could be useful tool for marine pilots as well during the risk analysis of STS manoeuvrings. In light of the findings of the research, STS manoeuvres may be effectively planned in order to improve overall safety and avoid the unexpected incidents. On the other hand, there is a dearth of literature on STS operation. As a result, this work has a significant input on the current literature.

Awesome scenery

Over the past few years a number of pilot transfer accidents have occurred resulting from total failure of the side ropes, one school of thought is that the methods of securing a pilot ladder is a factor in such occurrences.

What a dangerous situation. Never seen that before.

Article by Seyed Behbood Issa-Zadeh & Claudia Lizette Garay-Rondero