Your interpretation was my original thought, until I remembered (from where I don’t know) that pilots don’t actually take over for the helmsman. My understanding is that pilots are pretty much just consultants that the ship’s master or captain relies on for local knowledge. The master may brief the pilot on the ship’s maneuvering characteristics but it is ultimately the master’s knowledge that dictates how the ship moves. Where, when, and how fast are in the pilot’s wheelhouse (pun intended).
One of the cruise discussion forums I frequent has several merchant Mariners, retired USCG officers, other deck officers and a proficient poster who is a chief engineer on a tanker, if I recall, and formerly an engineer on Norwegian Cruise Lines.
When the subject of pilots comes up he will post that the pilot will advise, monitor and suggest, but only will assume the helm if invited by the captain to do so. Otherwise the captain or designated ship’s officer is at the helm.
He further posts the only time a pilot will automatically assume the helm is during a Panama Canal transit.
CB
Colb, Ireland ? I’m guessing this was either Cobh or Cork ?
:dubious: He was good at posting?
Or did you maybe mean prolific?
This bought back a memory of an old film I saw on TV a while ago. Set in the early 20th century, the coastguard does a daring rescue and crossing the ‘bar’ is a major feature. Can anyone else remember it?
They don’t need to be familiar with each individual ship, only with a representative sample of ships. Get to know enough, and you can understand the ship you’re on by comparison with other ships you’ve been on that are similar in whatever the key traits are.
This also happens when transiting the Kiel Canal.
And typically, it isn’t the pilot - it’s the pilot’s assistant, known as a helmsman.
This.
A ship’s handling qualities will vary with its size and loading, so a pilot will need experience with these. But the behavior of various ships of roughly the same size and loading will not vary wildly.
Quite often it is a family history with the Merchant Marine. I am the son of a Marine Engineer and from him I heard stories about sailing and heard about the Maritime academy. But a few of my class mates took the entrance exam to the maritime academy in response to a radio advertisement. When the applied they did not know the difference between the engine department and the deck department. some of my class mates failed the exam to enter as a deck Midshipman and were asked if they wanted to become an engineer instead.
I had several classmates with fathers as either deck or engineers, 1 the son of an ABS, one than on who parent worked or owned a ship yard.
The requirement for most pilots is 1st a Unlimited Masters license. Thorough knowledge of the waters they are piloting through. They are experienced in handling ships. They operate almost all the same. Larger will require larger turning circles, heaver longer stopping times. They are not operating the ship directly but giving orders to the crew. If the pilot is giving orders that are unsafe the Captain will override him. When they get to the bridge they will be informed of how many turns (RPM) the different bells will be and the corisponding speed will be. They will be informed of the type of engines and the difference between ahead and astern bells. They will also be given any other information about the ships handling necessary.
In The Perfect Storm, Sebastian Junger wrote that the most a Coast Guard pararescue diver would say about a terrifyingly mountainous sea that he had to dive into at night was that it was… “sporty.”
That really stuck with me. Sporty!
The fastest you can get to the big cheese in 6+years. 3 unlicensed, 1 as a 3rd, 1 as a 2nd, 1 as a 1st. 4 tests will have to be taken and passed before each of the officer levels. Each test harder than the one before. And the 3rds can take a week to take and pass. 3 Mate unlimited test has 7 sections, 3rd Assistant Engineer unlimited has 8 sections.
Okay, **that **makes perfect sense. Sort of like how the passenger in a car might help their out-of-town friend in the drivers seat.
Thank you. That’s one of the things I’d expect to be quite different between even ships of the same/similar size. A container ship built for maximum cost efficiency won’t handle the same as one made to carry cargo that is fragile, large, and/or oddly-shaped. I know some ships (like some of the cheap-as-possible freighters) rely on a rudder and fixed props for manuevering while others have multiple steerable drive pods.
Well, sure - but that doesn’t happen very often.