PEC & TRIPPING PILOTS: PROCEDURAL ADVICE

March 9th, 2010 by JCB
Posted in Articles, Technical and Training | No Comments »

What is the status of a pilot when a trainee pilot or PEC trainee is undertaking the pilotage of a vessel?

The view of the UKMPA is that the pilot must have the “conduct” of the ship, although the Master retains command. The following identifies the key factors relevant to the “tripping” situation and is edited from an opinion provided to the UKMPA by Barrie Youde.

Can a Competent Harbour Authority legally instruct an authorised pilot to lend out the conduct of the navigation to an underdraught or unlicensed pilot or any other person at any time?

• The powers of a Competent Harbour Authority (CHA) are created by the 1987 Pilotage Act. By Section 2 of the Act a CHA has the duty to provide pilotage services which it considers necessary, including the power to impose compulsory pilotage. The duty of a CHA in pilotage is limited to that of providing a duly authorised and qualified pilot.
• Although the CHA has both the statutory duty and the power to provide an authorised pilot, it has neither the duty nor the power to provide an unauthorised pilot.
• In previous cases the Courts have identified the principle that a pilot is an independent professional who serves as a principal, identified also the principle that no man can serve two masters. Thus, when a pilot is engaged by a shipmaster to serve a ship, there is nobody who has the power to relieve the pilot against his will, save only the shipmaster who has engaged him.
• Section 17(3) provides that If an unauthorised person pilots a ship within a harbour knowing that an authorised pilot has offered to pilot it, he shall be guilty of an offence. It follows that if a CHA were to order/arrange/suggest/propose to an unauthorised person that he should conduct the pilotage of any ship which an authorised pilot has offered to serve, then the CHA would be inciting a criminal offence. This provision applies in any harbour, whether pilotage might be compulsory or not.
• For all of those reasons, a CHA has no power whatsoever to order an authorised pilot to “lend out” the conduct of the navigation to an under-qualified, under-draught or unlicensed pilot or any other person.

Would an authorised pilot be acting outside the law if he were to give the conduct to somebody else without the agreement of the Master?

• During the course of training it is common practice for an authorised pilot to hand over the conduct to a trainee pilot. The basis on which he does so is one of supervision so the authorised pilot retains the conduct the whole time. In those circumstances it is a matter of courtesy for a pilot to mention the matter to the master.
• If, however, the authorised pilot were to hand the conduct to the unqualified trainee and then to absent himself from the navigation altogether without the master’s permission, then he almost certainly would be acting unlawfully.
• The legality or otherwise of handing the con to a trainee depends, therefore, upon the extent to which the authorised pilot in fact maintains a proper supervisory role. Provided, that the pilot retains a proper supervisory role over the trainee, ready instantly to intervene, then it cannot be said that the authorised pilot acts unlawfully.
• A point to note is, however, that if damage might be done or if an incident might arise at a time when a trainee has the con, under proper supervision or not, it would be the authorised pilot who would be answerable both to his CHA and to the shipowner.