Liverpool Retirements: Letter from Barrie Youde

December 23rd, 2009 by JCB
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S.S. William M Clarke: Cutter No4 on inspection day. c. 1937

Photo: Liverpool Pilots’ Archives

John Curry’s article on the retirement of Stuart Wood, Geoff Rafferty and John himself marks both a vintage year at Liverpool and nothing less than the end of an era in pilotage, quite possibly throughout the entire world.

Their retirement is the retirement of the last three pilots trained to the highest possible standards in a system of sea-keeping, station-keeping pilot-cutters without any assistance from shore-based launches.

Having left school aged sixteen in 1960 as John explains, he, Stuart and Geoff then served as cadets for about one year deep-sea before joining in 1961 a training-system which was then at its zenith (as it had been since its introduction in 1896) and which began a long process of decline in the following year, 1962. The key to the system was the maintenance of four pilot-cutters, three of which were permanently at sea, with one in dock on stand-by. The three at sea operated in a rotation comprised of one week keeping station at the Mersey Bar (16 miles out of Liverpool), one week keeping station off Point Lynas, Anglesey (a further 36 miles to the west) and one week on tender-duty, sailing daily from Liverpool Landing Stage to the two sea-stations in order to keep the stations properly supplied with pilots. The week on tender-duty (or on-the-run, as it was known colloquially) was served during the middle-week of the three-week rotation, the first and third weeks being served at the Bar and Point Lynas respectively.

The system originated in 1896 when the first four steam-driven pilot-cutters were introduced, replacing a fleet of twelve schooners. As the schooners had been manned on deck entirely by apprentices, the replaced apprentices became the deck-crew of each newly-commissioned steamer, regulated at ten apprentices per pilot-cutter. The system was maintained for the next sixty-six years, largely unchanged through two World Wars, although a fifth steamer was commissioned temporarily between 1915 and 1923. The original four steamers were themselves replaced over the years. By 1961 (when our heroes joined the system and found it ats peak) the fleet comprised one steamer dating from 1937 (a veteran of the Spithead Review of that year) and three diesel-electric pilot-cutters built in 1950, 1953 and 1958. All the cutters were built to the highest specifications, the last three having state-of-the-art gravity davits for the boat-work which formed the essential element of their existence. The cutters were commanded by licensed pilots as Senior Master and Second Master on permanent appointment. The Senior Apprentice (aged about 23) was Mate or Chief Officer of the cutter.

In 1962 the ss William M Clarke, Number 4 Cutter dating from 1937, was sold to the Humber and was replaced by two shore-based launches for tender-duty to the Bar station. The service of the Lynas station was maintained by overland transport. There was no longer a sea-keeping cutter on tender-duty.The oldest diesel-electric cutter (Sir Thomas Brocklebank of 1950) was withdrawn in 1974 upon the development of the modern shore-based station at Point Lynas and the later two (Edmund Gardner, Number 2 of 1953 and Arnet Robinson, Number 3 of 1958) survived in service until 1982 – when the Edmund Gardner became the prime exhibit at Merseyside Marime Museum.

John Curry, Stuart Wood and Geoff Rafferty quite possibly have honour of being the last three pilots anywhere in the world to have trained in such a system and to have served as licensed pilots in a major port while still in their early twenties. There remain of course several pilots in service today who experienced the training-system in its twenty-year decline after 1962,  but no others who had the benefit of the training-system at its peak. As a practical method of training pilots for a major port, it had no equal.

SALUTE TO THE FOUR-BOAT MEN

The last of the Four-Boat men.

The last of the men on the Run.

The red and white Flag, the pea-whistle and bag,

All cruising in Westering sun.

Who cruised through the Winter as well,

Through fog and through storm and through ice,

Who cursed and who swore bloody-hell,

Who served and who didn’t think twice.

For such was their chosen vocation.

Apprenticed in sea, ships and ropes.

In Pilotage. Keeping the Station,

In youth, aspiration and hopes:

For trade and for commerce and living,

For family matters and life.

Accepting the crude unforgiving,

To satisfy Nature and wife.

Each man bore the yoke: or he lost it.

In Pilotage, that is the way.

Professional practice would cost it,

No less than it costs it today.

Salute the Four-Boat men of Mersey,

Serving Liverpool all through her prime:

Apprenticed, in Flag-embossed jersey,

Then Licensed in service sublime.

In passing the yoke now to others,

Old men salute youngsters and then,

Acknowledging  youngsters as brothers,

Salute all the old Four-Boat men.

Barrie Youde