Land and Sea: Sea Harbour Pilots

Comment and photos by Reshma Nilofer Naha
India's first female Marine Pilot (Kalkata Port Trust)

“The current plight many seafarers are facing, unable to crew change or return home, is being described by many voices within the maritime community as the next humanitarian crisis.”

A maritime pilot tells us about why he loves switching ships in midstream.

It’s my first voyage taking over solo watch as a navigating officer – from bridge commands to monitoring traffic and weather, every second counts. Once we arrive in Ningbo, it’s straight into cargo operations, intense mooring work, and pilotage.

This video complements the earlier demonstration of wind effect on straight track and shows now wind effect on turning circles. It can be seen that during a turn under strong wind the ship reduces turning when it comes close to equilibrium on straight track - if the Wind-to-ship speed ratio is big enough then the ship even goes straight instead of turning. This is shown for three samples for Head, Stern wind and Beam wind. The turning can be increased if the ratio of Wind speed-to-ship...

Die Lotsenbrüderschaft Elbe ist ein geschlossener Kreis, der sich nicht gern in die Karten schauen lässt. Wer dort Mitglied werden und bis zu 400 Meter lange Containerpötte in den Hamburger Hafen steuern möchte, muss hohe Anforderungen erfüllen. Bewerber müssen mehrere Jahre lang zur See gefahren sein, um ausreichend Fahrpraxis zu haben. Aber es gibt immer weniger deutsche Seeleute, weil die Reeder billigere Kräfte aus dem Ausland bevorzugen. Dadurch wird es zunehmend schwierig,...

Ocean Pacific Marine of Vancouver Island BC have been awarded a contract to build and deliver a state of the art 19.9m Pilot Boat for the Pacific Pilotage Authority. The new craft will be all-aluminium construction and built to Lloyd’s Class in accordance with Transport Canada regulations. Designed by Camarc from their Scotland office, this vessel represents the latest in cutting edge pilot boat technology.

SINGAPORE — One person was taken to hospital after a small boat caught fire off Seraya Buoy, located in the waters off Singapore's south-west coast, on Monday (Sept 4) afternoon.