History: River Thames Pilot (1960-1969)

This documentary made in 1959 in the popular Look at Life series is from Volume 5 - Cultural History and takes a journey along the River Thames passing several famous buildings and monuments such as - County Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Shell Mex House which has the biggest clock face in London. Cleopatra's Needle, St Paul's Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Port of London Authority, Prospect of London Pub, Port of London Docks.

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.

10 years back in time: Port of London Authority Pilot Jon Stafford talks about his work and the challenges of guiding large ships safely into and out of the Port of London.

„In God we trust“ - this short sentence can be found on the one dollar note.
Marine Pilots for example are experts in trusting. They simple have to be....

Coronavirus may be hampering global trade but it hasn't broken the supply chain at the Port of Oakland. The latest evidence: the largest ship ever to call in Oakland arrives this week. The container vessel MSC Anna is scheduled to berth at the Port April 16.

The ship will tie up at Oakland International Container Terminal on the Oakland Estuary. The Port said that the 1,312-foot-long vessel is on special assignment from Geneva-based shipping line MSC. It’s collecting a backlog of empty containers in Southern California before arriving in Oakland. It’s scheduled to spend 24 hours here discharging import containers and loading exports.

"A routine pilot task"

Tampa Bay Pilot

A day in the life of a PLA Pilot and the team effort it takes to get the job done

Issues like the Covid 19 crisis and the moves towards increased autonomy appear to be driving a renewed interest in Shore Based Pilotage (SBP), nowadays often called Remote Pilotage.

Finally!!! The last section of the ship was removed from the site and taken to port for final salvage. While there is still a lot of clean up remaining this is a big mile stone in the salvage operation of the Golden Ray which capsized over 2 years ago on 9/8/2019 in the sound of St Simons Island, Georgia. Included is the movement of the section along with footage taken from a boat trip at the site and at the port. Some of my best video in the 2 years I've been filming. So I hope you enjoy...