Who Is in Charge When a Pilot Is Aboard? Master vs. Pilot Responsibility

I have been on both sides of this one. As a tanker master I watched pilots climb aboard my ship and take the conn in ports I knew far less well than they did. Later, as a Los Angeles Harbor pilot, I climbed aboard ships I had never seen, met masters I had never heard of, and took them through one of the busiest port complexes in the country.

So when a ship under pilotage hits a pier or another vessel and someone asks who was in charge, I understand why the answer is not simple.

Command and conduct are different things

The master never gives up command of his ship. When a pilot boards, the master hands over the conduct of the navigation, meaning the pilot gives the helm and engine orders and directs the tugs. But the master is still responsible for the safety of the vessel, and he keeps the authority to step in.

The pilot brings what the master lacks: local knowledge of the channel, the currents, the traffic patterns, the tugs, the berths, and how ships of that size behave in that water. The master brings what the pilot lacks: knowledge of this particular ship, how she handles, what is wrong with her, and what her crew can do.

A good passage uses both. A bad one usually starts when one of them assumes the other has it covered.

The exchange that sets everything up

The first few minutes after the pilot reaches the bridge matter more than most people realize. The master and pilot are supposed to exchange information. On the ship's side, that means draft, maneuvering characteristics, engine and steering condition, any defects, and the ship's own passage plan. On the pilot's side, it means the intended route, speed, expected traffic, tug arrangements, and how the berthing will go.

Most ports and companies use a pilot card and a checklist to cover this. Whether the exchange actually happened, and what was said, is one of the first things I look for after an incident under pilotage. A checklist signed in thirty seconds while the ship was already moving tells its own story.

The master's duty to monitor

Handing over the conduct is not the same as going below for coffee. The master and his officers are expected to keep monitoring: cross-checking the ship's position, watching the speed and rate of turn, listening to the pilot's orders and the radio traffic, and speaking up if something looks wrong.

The hard question in many cases is when the master should have intervened. A master who second-guesses every order makes the pilot's job harder and can make the situation worse. A master who sees the ship standing into danger and says nothing has failed in his own duty. Somewhere between those two is what a prudent master does, and that is what the expert has to define using the facts of the case.

What tends to go wrong

• No shared plan. The pilot knows what he intends. The bridge team does not, so nobody can tell when things drift off track.
• Language and culture. On foreign-flag ships, the pilot may give orders in English to a helmsman who understands them more slowly than the situation requires, or a junior officer may not feel free to question him.
• Speed. Ships carry more speed into channels and berths than the conditions allow, often to make a tide or a schedule.
• Tugs. Misunderstood tug orders, tugs made fast too late, or not enough tug power for the wind and current.
• Squat and bank effect. Large ships in shallow or narrow water behave differently. Pilots know this. When it is not managed, the result is a grounding or an allision.

Pilot boarding

The other common pilotage case has nothing to do with navigation. Pilots are injured, sometimes killed, boarding and leaving ships on pilot ladders. Those cases turn on how the ladder was rigged, its condition, the ship's approach and lee, and the communication between the ship and the pilot boat. International rules set detailed standards for pilot transfer arrangements, and a ship's compliance is usually visible in photographs.

Liability is for the lawyers, the facts are not

Who pays for a pilot's mistake depends on legal questions, including whether pilotage was compulsory in that port. Those questions are for counsel and the court. The facts underneath them are operational: what the pilot did, what the master knew, what each should have done, and when. That is the part a maritime expert can help with.

About the author

Captain Mitchell S. Stoller is a Master Mariner Unlimited, former Exxon tanker master, and former Los Angeles Harbor pilot. About Captain Stoller