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| Tug guiding cruise ship to port |
Cruise ship alaska |
Tug boat and Rotterdam |
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At sea, the captain is in charge of getting a ship to
various destinations, but once the ship gets within a
specified range of any port or along coastal
waters, it is compulsory for a marine pilot to come on
board and take over directing the ship. A pilot is a
highly trained, experienced and licensed captain who is
a specialist in the local conditions and marine
knowledge. It takes experience, additional training and
exams to become a pilot and then there are years of
working alongside a senior pilot before being able to
work alone.
A pilot stays on board a cruise ship or cargo/container
ship for the time it takes that vessel to transit into
or out of a port or a specified area of water. Once the
ship is safely docked or out to sea, the pilot’s work is
over. At sea, a pilot arrives at the ship by means of a high-speed launch that comes alongside and
matches its speed with that of the ship while it is
underway. The pilot then scrambles up a ladder that is
put over the side of the ship; a dangerous manoeuvre
even in relatively calm seas. To exit the ship, the
launch returns and the pilot goes down the ladder and
onto the deck of the pilot boat.
In British Columbia, there are two groups of marine
pilots: the Fraser River Pilots handle any large ships
on the Fraser River. The B.C. Coast Pilots work aboard
all large vessels on the remaining areas of the coast,
from the Washington state borders to the Alaska border.
Comprehensive pilotage in southeast. Alaska
is provided by the Southeast Alaska Pilots’ Association,
based out of Ketchikan. This group is responsible for
large vessels in the waters from Dixon Entrance to
Yakutat Bay. There is also the Alaska Marine Pilots &
Dispatch Service based out of Dutch Harbour and the
Southwest Alaska Pilots’ Association operating from
Homer.
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 Back in the age of the wooden sailing ship, a new sailor coming aboard would have to learn the names of more than a thousand ropes-and
what pulling on them did. Today
we still say someone “knows the
ropes” if he or she understands
what’s required to do a job
well. One of the first things a
new sailor learned was that the
ropes used on a ship are never
called ropes—they’re “lines.”
Today, lines are still important
on any vessel. For a giant
cruise ship, lines are used to
moor or tie the ship to the
dock. Securing a ship as large
as those cruising the Inside
Passage requires a great deal of
technical skill and expertise
since the average ship weighs
88,500 gross tonnes and is over
950 feet (290(meters) in length.
The first line to the ship is
called a heaving line. It’s a
small, light section of rope
with a weight called a “monkey’s
fist” at one end and a heavy
mooring line at the other. A
sailor throws the heaving line
to a longshoreman on the pier,
who then hauls the heavy mooring
line and attaches it to a
bollard or large metal cleat on
the pier. Other longshoremen
make sure that huge fenders are
in place so that the ship
doesn’t rub up against
pier.
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