jrc1983
Well-Known Member
Even those ports we're intimately familiar with we invariably have a Pilot, more due to local regulations (compulsory pilotage) than anything else and in some places the 'need' for a Pilot is somewhat contrived in any event.
For those places we visit where no pilot is available then again there's no great drama, as on the bridge there's always a minimum of 3/4 people anyway - helmsman, lookout, Master, OOW. Master does the driving with OOW doing the navigation, unless it's a regular run in which case the Old Man will invariably carry on himself with the OOW cross checking positions etc.
Back in the dim and distant, I worked for a company which visited many out of the way places, e.g. up creeks in West Africa, the Far East or Pacific Islands, for which there were invariably no charts available, no pilotage and certainly no services like VTS or tugs. In those places it was normal practice to anchor outside and then launch one of the lifeboats for the Master and 2nd Mate to have a scoot around with a leadline and construct a rudimentary chart of the river. Then you'd creep up river, very carefully, and either anchor midstream and load via barges/canoes or pull yourself into the river bank and make fast to tree stumps (I kid you not). For departure it was normally usual to turn by nudging the bow into the river bank if there wasn't enough room to swing, during such manoeuvres it wasn't unusual to collect branches/chunks of tree in the superstructure and rigging, often with attendant wildlife; I well remember it being normal to find big hairy spiders in all the dark nooks and crannies for some time afterwards. We used to this on ships in the 10-15000grt range. Any ex Palm Line/Elder Dempsters men will have had similar experiences down West Africa (aka white mans graveyard), as will any Bank Line types.
Great fun of course, but no longer a practical proposition in these days of instant litigation, ever increasing regulation and environmental concerns.
