It's early in the morning, and daylight is yet to fall on the calm waters of Auckland Harbor as a lone figure descends from the deck to the waiting speedboat. As he climbed aboard, the launch manager declared: “The reporting station has just reported that it is 14 kilometers from the buoy. We started off better. “With a moderate number of diesel engines, the pilot plunges into darkness.
With her three-man crew, the Skerry moves through the canals near the street buoy at the entrance to the harbor. She is a heavy-built vessel, about sixty-five in length and capable of exceeding ten knots. “I can already see your lights,” the captain said, and a radio message confirms that the pilot ladder is on the left side, which is aft tonight. (The back points to the time side.)
The night is calm, with a slight swelling, and soon the dark shadow of a large freighter is swinging under its navigation light. Soon the cutter approaches silently. Both boats are still moving at perhaps five or six knots (or nautical miles per hour) as the pilot climbs the rope ladder suspended in the ship's barrel and begins a climb which can be ten to thirty feet or more. On his portable radio, he asks the sailor below to "send the mail", which is lifted with a light rope. In most ports, it is a tradition for the pilot to deliver mail to the crew.
The embarkation of this port pilot does not always take place under these ideal conditions. During storm surges with rough and choppy seas, great nautical skills are needed to choose the right time to jump from the cutting pilot's descent platform onto the steps.
The third comrade and a qualified sailor help the port pilot through the bars and accompany him to the bridge. The deck and the wheelhouse are dark so as not to harm the managers, but a face lit by the light from the hallway (prop that holds the compass) is the face of the man behind the wheel, the mayor as he usually does is called. Call the merchant ships. He follows a course with the compass given to him by the ship's captain. The pilot now approaches a silent figure at the window and looks ahead. This dark figure, the captain or captain of the ship, is presented and the couple shake hands.
Distribute
This captain is Greek and boarded his ship over the Cape of Good Hope to New Zealand. He is fluent in English so there is no difficulty in communicating this time around. But on the more than two thousand ships that pilots use each year in the port of Auckland, almost every country in Zealand is represented: Russians, Scandinavians, Americans, British, Japanese and many others.
This ship experienced bad weather in the Great Bay of Australia after crossing the southern Indian Ocean eastward. The captain noted that the windlass, the anchor raising and lowering device, had been damaged. “If you have to anchor,” said the captain to the pilot, “can we only use starboard anchors? Our attraction is 32 feet behind and approximately 29 feet in front. Our engines are single-screw diesels. . . a little slow to restore, but I don't expect unnecessary problems. . . In this environment, it's generally a good direction. What about customs formalities and port health authorities? I have never been in this port. ""
With these replacements, the ship is handed over to the pilot, in this case a complete stranger to the captain, and barely visible in the darkness of the wheelhouse. It is the trust born of tradition and a remarkable consistency of international standards and protocols between ships.
“Make yourself comfortable on the move,” the driver told the man behind the wheel, intending to continue on the same route. Then "full throttle", specifies the third officer, who remained on the bridge and has the additional function of recording all the engine movements given by the driver in the event of a subsequent accident.
Connect the boat
The ship now enters the canal and the canal or buoy is close to the port. "Hard port," the pilot told the helmsman. This man repeats the order and turns the steering wheel as far to the left as possible. In fact, it ran a large steering motor connected to the rudder. This engine turned the rudder of the ship to the left. Only on small enough boats are there manually operated units with enough power to turn the rudder. The ship is a total of 550 meters long and at its draft it displaces about 25,000 tons, which, if you remember Archimedes' principle, is the weight of the ship and everything in it. . The boat initially reacts slowly to the rudder's movement. Interestingly, a ship turns about a third of its length from the bow, so that the stern travels through an area bounded by the circumference of the circle, whose radius, in the case of this ship, is almost 380 feet. . This fact is not always appreciated by owners of small recreational boats operating close to ships offshore. These vehicles should be kept free from maneuvering boats, especially when turning.
When our ship changes direction and goes in the direction we want, the pilot asks us to release the left wheel at 5 degrees. After a pause, he says "Half ship." The rudder now goes back and forth with the ship and even though it continues to turn towards the harbor, the movement slows down and at the next command, "Fixed as you go forward", the helmsman places a rudder from the clearing to stop the turn and finally put it on a new route. At the same time, we are entering shallower waters and all reactions must be followed carefully. Now there is only one meter of water below because the tide has gone out. We are in narrow waters when the canal narrows, there are "headlights" that must be kept in transit and it is not safe to move away from the specified narrow line.
The lights on an outward-facing ship appear against the city's backlight and special attention is needed to control the controls, as the two ships pass within three hundred meters of each other. A collision from negligence, mechanical failure or slow response is always a risk in such situations. We make almost fifteen knots and the outer limit is about the same. It's a tanker, partially unloaded, but full of petrol and dangerous. If a collision occurs at these speeds together, the consequences for people and property can be catastrophic. Most of us have seen the results of frontal collisions between motorized vehicles that weigh only about a ton. Even if you travel at speeds of 600 km per hour, the combined speeds will have little effect on large boats that are in contact, even at very low speeds. Unfortunately, these disasters are not uncommon in ports around the world. One such disaster occurred in Tokyo Bay, Japan, in 1974 when a 10,874-ton Liberian cargo ship collided with a 43,000-tonne oil tanker and set it on fire. In this incident, 20 sailors were killed by the freighter and five by the tanker.
Our pilot has already issued several commands and was in radio contact with the reporting station. You are informed about the availability of tugboats, harbor schooners, officers on board, stop times, etc. In the meantime, he ordered the engines to go first to "medium speed", then to "brake" and finally "slow death" as we headed towards the inner harbor. The day is approaching and the ship's captain, who has obviously always been there, is informed of the development.
Docking
Customs clearance and clearance was carried out by the respective officials who handled the launch. The first officer continues forward and the other aft to monitor mooring activities and protect the tugs. The order is now "scrolling" followed by appropriate rudder arrangements and instructions to tugs by radiotelephone when the vessel is moved to a suitable position to approach the designated dock. The pilot uses a strategy of oars, thrusters, tidal reactions and tide conditions based on training, experience and familiarity with position and situation. The possibly complicated operation will soon be completed, the moorings are in service. land and the boat is firmly anchored. "Do it fast," said the pilot, "call the engines" and we'll get to our destination. One voyage has been completed and the ship is now a problem for dockworkers and others involved in its cargo.
Why pilots are needed
The ships of the maritime nations are always on the great oceans and in the open sea, mainly thanks to the sextant, the compass, the stopwatch and the position of the sun, moon and stars. However, navigating by sea in the limited waters of ports, canals and canals requires another area of nautical knowledge: a specialist who knows the local conditions of the port or the area in which he holds a commercial license. As a harbor pilot, you must be able to maneuver a vessel to and from places in narrow waters unknown to the captain and position it at anchor, buoys or docks as needed.
Pilots have existed in nautical affairs in one way or another since ancient times, but government recognition appears to have been through the Royal Charters of England, which include corporations or associations of people of sea with the appropriate powers and privileges. The old laws place great emphasis on the need to prevent "indiscreet and incompetent persons" from imposing their services on the innocent sailor who comes from the high seas in an anxious search for a safe anchorage. Obviously during this time there must have been a real need to protect the captains from potential roving pilots and unqualified people. Their activities were not without risk to the pilot, or "pilot" as she was sometimes called, as the British Admiralty "black book" states that "if a ship is lost as a pilot's standard, the people of sea can, if they wish Take the pilot to anchor or other location and cut off his head without the seafarers having to answer a judge. "
Although there are many international maritime traffic laws today, there is no uniform code for nations defining the legal relationship between pilot and captain, nor the issue of compulsory pilot. However, the dominant view is that the pilot is an adviser to the captain of the ship and that the captain of the ship never transfers command of his ship to another.
Port pilots are the first to board incoming ships and the last to leave departing ships. Often the first to hear of the tragedy, they may receive ships damaged or paralyzed by the stress of the weather or a collision. And there are pilots who went to sea on ships that were lost before they reached the next port.
The pilot plays an important role in the endless drama of the sea. Day and night, in the ports, canals and rivers of the world, large bronze and iron propellers start sparkling awakenings in the "narrow waters" carried by these maritime guides responsible for contributing to the protection of life and maritime property.
