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THE UNITED KINGDOM MARITIME PILOTS’ ASSOCIATION (UKMPA)

The U.K.P.A. was founded in Bristol by Commander George Cawley in 1884. Pilots from 18 Districts attended its Inaugural Conference, its objective was to influence the development of Pilotage and Associated Regulations, including Acts of Parliament, and to help those members around the country who found themselves in difficulty .

The U.K.P.A. was involved with the development of all the Pilotage Acts from 1889 to 1987 and the Merchant Shipping Act of 1894. Other examples of matters addressed by the U.K.P.A. include a resolution at the 1934 Conference “that a Pilots’ Benefit Fund be established in every port”.

In 1942 the pilots from 5 Districts decided to leave the U.K.P.A. and joined the T&G, forming the Marine Pilots’ Branch (M.P.B.)

In 1963 the U.K.P.A. participated in the discussions which led to the formation of the European Maritime Pilots Association (E.M.P.A.), formally joining the new organisation in 1964.

In 1985 the U.K.P.A. was faced with several problems, not least that (shared with the M.P.B.) of impending radical legislation and the UKPA and MPB joined forces to become the U.K.P.A.(M), a section of the Transport & General Workers’ Union.

In  2000,  Conference voted to rename the Association the United Kingdom Maritime Pilots’ Association (UKMPA). The UKMPA retains the same day to day autonomy as had been the case with the two previous organisations, but under the umbrella of the T&G rules.

The UKMPA has its own office in Transport House, London and a full-time Union Officer, currently Mr. G. Stevenson, is the UKMPA National Secretary. The UKMPA holds an annual delegate conference where all Districts can be represented. There is a national Section Committee consisting of a Chairman, Vice-chairman, and six members (all are serving pilots), one of whom is elected as Treasurer/Secretary. Section Committee elections are held annually. The UKMPA Technical & Training Sub-Committee is a sub-committee of the UKMPA Section Committee and deals with all aspects of pilotage, e.g. Protective Clothing, Boarding/Landing equipment, Health & Safety and training etc. There is regular communication, via circulars, between the Section Committee and each Pilotage District’s locally elected District Secretary. The District Secretary is responsible for the dissemination of information to members. The Pilot magazine is published quarterly and is the official record of the UKMPA. After more than 100 years of looking after the interests of Marine Pilots, the UKMPA, which represents 98% of U.K. pilots, looks forward with confidence to the next 100 years.

Current President: Lord Tony Berkeley Curent Chairman: Joe Wilson (Tees pilot)

The UKMPA is affiliated to the:

European Maritime Pilots’ Assiation (EMPA)

International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA)

To visit the websites please click on the logos on the top right of this page

The U.K.M.P.A. is also affiliated to the I.T.F. (International Transport Workers’ Federation, Seafarers Section) www.itfglobal.org/index.cfm with access to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) where matters such as VTS, standards of ship manoeuvrability, electronic charting, passenger ship safety, etc., are discussed at an international level.

The Editor

JOHN CLANDILLON-BAKER

I am a Master Mariner and started my career as a deck cadet with Ellerman Lines in 1969. Having obtained my Master’s Class 1 certificate in 1981 I left Ellerman City Liners to work in Nigeria for Ocean Inchcape (Nigeria) Ltd as supply vessel / tug master. In 1983, still with OIL (Nigeria) I became a pilot/ loading Master at the Bonny offshore oil terminal, handling VLCC’s at the Single Buoy Mooring (SBM) facility off the Nigerian coast. In 1987 I returned to the UK and worked ashore for an import and distribution company and during this time also skippered the owner’s yacht. In 1989 I became a Pilot with the Port of London Authority where I am still employed full time as a Class 1 senior pilot, handling all classes of vessel from VLCC’s to small coasters in the Thames Estuary and the river berths to seaward of Crayford Ness. I have been the volunteer editor of the magazine since 1996. The magazine is published quarterly.

The articles and features have all either been written by me or by volunteer contributors. Whilst they are made freely available for genuine research please contact me for permission if you wish to reproduce any of the articles or parts of articles in a journal or research paper. I normally just require an acknowledgement credit to the author and the magazine.

A career in pilotage

Who or what is a pilot?
The following definition was established by the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 which states that:
“Pilot means any person not belonging to a ship who has the conduct thereof.”

What does a pilot do?
Basically the pilot is a seafarer who has detailed knowledge of a port approach or dangerous navigational area and who uses that knowledge to ensure the safe passage of a vessel through the pilotage district.

What is the difference between a Captain and a pilot?
The Captain (Master) always has command of the ship and thus has ultimate responsibility for the safety of the ship, its cargo and crew. The pilot has the conduct of the ship in the pilotage district and upon boarding a vessel provides a passage plan for the transit and directs the course and speed of the vessel to execute the passage plan.

Locations:
These are worldwide and the majority of pilots work within a specific port. There are however non-specific port areas where pilots work offshore. These areas tend to be either of environmental importance, (Great Barrier Reef) or areas of high navigational dangers (English Channel and North Sea) and are voluntary rather than compulsory areas.

Types of employment
Every port is responsible for deciding which ships are to be subject to compulsory pilotage. Pilots fall into several categories but the following represent the main groups:
· Directly employed by the port
· Self employed and contracted to provide the pilotage service to a port
· State employees.

Labour profile & Qualifications
Pilots are generally professional seafarers who have served on ships in the capacity as a deck officer. The majority of pilots serving the major ports of the world hold a deep sea Master’s qualification and have served as Captain on a merchant ship. There are exceptions to this with some districts recruiting and training pilots from the local community. An example of this is the USA where in many major ports pilotage is a family business. In the smaller ports pilots will often be recruited from those familiar with the local waters, and in many such ports it is not unusual for the pilot also to be the harbour master. Reflecting this it can be said that entry qualifications for pilots will range from a general maritime qualification to a full Master’s certificate. It is probable that an international standard for pilots and a specific pilotage qualification will be introduced in the next few years which will establish a structured career path into pilotage.

Employment prospects
Excellent! In most countries the majority of pilots will be retiring in the next 15 years or so. There is currently a world shortage of qualified junior officers and this will inevitably lead to a serious shortage of pilots in the next 10 years. Salaries obviously vary enormously but as a general guide the salary is equivalent to the sea going salary obtainable with the qualification held.

Outline of a pilot’s duties
The pilot’s main role is handling ships on and off the port wharfs and facilities and ensuring the safe transit of shipping in and out of port during what is recognised as the high risk element of a ship’s passage. The priority is the safety of the ship, the environment and the port facilities. Ship handling is obviously the prime skill required of a pilot but a competent pilot also needs to be able to monitor all the elements which may affect the passage and to adapt the passage plan accordingly. A high professional attitude is required in order to gain the confidence of the Master and to integrate into the ships bridge team. The responsibilities involved in handling vessels, sometimes with high risk cargoes or poor manoeuvrability and perhaps communications difficulties, in environmentally sensitive areas can induce high stress levels and the ability to keep a clear head and remain calm in moments of high tension is a desirable quality!
Pilotage is a 24-hour operation all year round and pilots normally work on rostered shifts. Since ships arrive off ports in a random manner the workload can lead to irregular sleep patterns although most seafarers used to on board watch-keeping will have no problem adapting to this.

Training
Again this varies widely and is dependent upon the size and complexity of the district. In the major ports training lasts from 4 - 6 months and is generally practical with trainees accompanying qualified pilots on all the different classes of ships using the port. On completion of this initial training the candidate will be examined and granted an “Authorisation” or “Licence” to pilot. The new pilot will normally be restricted to small vessels and will progress to the largest ships over a period of around four years with annual assessments between grades.

The future?
Enhanced navigation systems capable of interacting with a port’s VTS will probably result in the reduction of the number of vessels subject to compulsory pilotage in port approaches. However, I personally feel that due to the complexities involved in ship manoeuvring and close quarters interaction with other shipping in confined port areas, pilots will remain a cost effective addition to the bridge team of a ship for the foreseeable future.

Further information:

United Kingdom Maritime Pilots’ Association (UKMPA): www.ukmpa.org
International Maritime Pilots’ Association (IMPA): www.impahq.org
European Maritime Pilots’ Association (EMPA): www.empa-pilots.org

PORTS: www.iaphworldports.org
VTS: www.worldvtsguide.org

276-January-2004

Contents:

• 116th Conference 2003: Liverpool
• AIS Update
• Liverpool veterans honoured & Battle of the Atalntic
• Obituaries: Eric Jones & John Stuart Burgess

275 October 2003

Contents:

• Piloting the FPSO “Bonga” on the Tyne
• Nature of Pilotage: Michael Grey, Lloyd’s List
• Incident reports: Jody Millennium & Tai Ping
• High Lift Rudder: Becker or Lumley?
• Obituaries: D. Mackenzie, T A Hood
• Video Review: Snowbow’s “Great Liners” Vol 21: Ships to New Zealand

WEATHER

Met Office Shipping Forecast www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/marine/shipping_forecast.html

NOAA UK Buoy Wind Data: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/maps/United_Kingdom.shtml

Synoptic Charts (Plus everything else you may need!): www.itadvice.co.uk/weatherjack/wx.htm

UK Live Wind Data & predictions: www.xcweather.co.uk/

REGULATORY BODIES

MCA: The UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency: www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-home

Department for Transport (DfT): www.dft.gov.uk/

MAIB: The UK’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch: www.maib.dft.gov.uk/home/index.cfm

IMO: www.imo.org/home.asp

UKHydrographic Office: www.ukho.gov.uk/

IALA: www.iala-aism.org/

NAVIGATION ETC

Roayal Institute of navigation : www.rin.org.uk/

VTS: www.worldvtsguide.org/

VTS Information: www.maritime-vts.co.uk

GENERAL INTEREST

Maritime Blog

An interesting and informative daily blog with news from around the world: gcaptain.com/maritime/blog/

Marine Link

A US site but updated daily with World Maritime news: www.marinelink.com/main/main.asp

Maritime Log

Contains maritime history bulletin board, blogs, articles but also up to date maritime press cuttings are uploaded on this site. A very useful searchable archive facility. post.queensu.ca/cgi-bin/listserv/wa

Tugs at war

DVD containing rare footage and interviews of tugs and crews and their vital but largely ignored role in WW2. Review coming soon: www.maydaytugsofwar.com/trailers/purchase.html

Welcome to THE PILOT, the magazine of the United Kingdom Maritime Pilots’ Association (UKMPA) www.ukmpa.org

This home page contains press cuttings updated whenever I get time. I normally change the photo when I update the site content. Specific topics may be found using the search box at the top of this page.

Please Note: All the content is made freely available for research purposes but if you wish to use any content in another publication please contact me for permission from the author.

The opinions expressed in the content are those of the authors and are not necessarily those endorsed by the UKMPA

Finally it should, in particular, be noted that the analysis of incidents and investigations are my own personal interpretation and reference should always be made to the original reports via the embedded links.

John Clandillon-Baker FNI: Editor

“BIT OCTANIA”  Sea Reach, Thames Estuary photo JCB

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11/07/08 Welcome to the new Pilot Magazine website. The April issue is now on-line and I am currently finalising the copy for the July issue which should be with members before the end of the month. All the content from the old site has been transferred across to this new site except for the pdf copies of the back issues which I will be uploading during the next couple of weeks. Please let me know if you have any problems with any of the contents / links etc on the site.    JCB

URGENT!!

THE PROPOSED MARINE BILL IS CURRENTLY IN THE CONSULTATION PHASE. ALL UK PILOTS SHOULD READ THIS AND RESPOND BEFORE THE CLOSING DATE OF 25TH JULY.

THE SUMMARY AND CONSULTATION DOCUMENT CAN BE FOUND AT THE FOLLOWING LINK:

www.dft.gov.uk/consultations/open/marinenavbill/

THE SECTIONS WHERE PILOTS MAY WISH TO PAY PARTICULAR ATTENTION ARE PAGE 10 (pdf p14) WHICH COVERS THE REMOVAL OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR A PEC HOLDER TO BE THE BONA FIDE MASTER OR FIRST MATE AND

PAGE 11 (pdf p15) NATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL STANDARDS

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IMPA CONGRESS BANKOK 4TH - 8TH AUGUST 2008: www.impa2008.org/

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BBC RADIO 4 PROGRAMME ON PILOTS

www.impahq.org/

ARTICLE ON PILOTS IN THE TIMES NEWSPAPER

women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article3122236.ece

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UKMPA delegates enjoyed a succesful conference at Harrogate where a keynote speech was made by Michael Grey from Lloyd’s List which was also the topic for his “insight & Opinion” column on Monday 19th May.

A career ladder worth climbing

Monday 19 May 2008 :   Michael Grey:    Lloyd’s List

I OFTEN think about the little quirks of fate that determine one’s direction in life. They constitute a succession of ‘near misses’ that track one’s career down through the years, where the possibilities of the past gradually evolve into the realities of the present. It could be a matter of great regret that one didn’t take the career decision that would have made one’s certain fortune.

Conversely, the years might have demonstrated what a really excellent decision it had been to have invested in certain shares, proposed to a certain lady, or taken that job offer. It may seem a pointless exercise, but it is a pleasant enough matter, sitting in the garden on a sunny day, to muse what life might have been like.

I sometimes recall that period of my life when I had just come ashore, and was finding it very hard to adjust to life in what we like to call the shore-side infrastructure. I hated being in an office, never seeing the sea or the sky, and spent inordinate amounts of time applying for other jobs. Maybe I wrote an absolutely brilliant letter of application, in those days before psychologists and psychometric testing got into recruitment, because I kept getting offered virtually every one for which I applied.

But, happy as this situation might have been, there was invariably a snag attached to each of these ostensibly desirable posts. I can recall being offered the command of a small research ship, which seemed to offer enormous job satisfaction. The problem was its location, operating out of north Wales, where one’s children would be educated in Welsh when they went to school. I was offered a job as a cargo surveyor, by one of the finest firms operating out of City, but alas, accompanied by such paucity of financial award only a person of independent means could have afforded to take the position.

In one desperate week, I applied for, and was accepted as, a sort of ghillie looking after the islands of Loch Lomond for the environmental agency, largely on the grounds that I was familiar with a boat. One snag here was the almost neglible salary, but the real killer was the requirement to live in a stone croft and cook porridge on a peat fire, to which my wife made reasonable objection.

There were others which have largely faded into the memory. I was interviewed by a cheery chap for a deputy harbour master’s job in the Caribbean, and offered a mate’s job on a ferry being delivered to New Zealand. One really attractive job I recall was that of a pilot/marine officer in the great Pacific port of Suva. We were all set to go, but were warned at the last minute that it was not the place to take pregnant wives, and as I had one of these in the family at the time, we regretfully postponed the expedition. Then, blow me down, I applied to become a technical journalist on a weekly magazine, and my fate was sealed.

I had been rather disappointed about the Fiji job (although I kept it quiet from my wife at the time) because pilotage had been a job I always fancied. Shiphandling is an art, and a good shiphandler is always a real pleasure to watch.

Mind you, I have no idea how good a pilot I would have made. A few years ago I spent a couple of days at the excellent model lake run by Warsash at Marchwood and I recall the instructor telling us about the importance of spatial awareness. There were a very few shiphandlers, he told us, who were absolute naturals and, equally, a small number who should not be permitted within a mile of a ship’s bridge. Training and experience would produce very adequate shiphandlers out of the broad swathe of people who lay between these two extremes. Then, I was in a model 60,000 dwt ship and realised that there was no possibility of getting the way off the ship before it slammed into the quay I was supposed to be gently coming alongside. Perhaps I was in the latter category after all.

I have always been an admirer of pilots. I know these things come with experience, but really cannot quite comprehend how they can leap nimbly up the ladder and make sense of the often confusing scene they encounter when they arrive on the bridge. There are also ports where there are vast differences in the size and handling qualities of the ships entering and leaving their ports. Goodness knows what sort of adjustments they have to make to their brains as they move in the space of an hour from a VLCC to a 4,000 dwt general cargo ship, and back to a capesize in ballast. That, at least to me, takes a great deal of this spatial awareness.

Then there is the extraordinary sang froid of a capable pilot when all turns to ashes around him. When the engine fails to go astern, the helmsman appears to be completely deaf and the master, who has discovered the chief officer has neglected to take the lashings off the anchors, is having hysterics.

Because there is no denying that ships manoeuvring are more prone to breakdown at these times, that is, when it matters most. That is when the value of a top pilot is really demonstrated.

Good pilots are also communicators of some skill. And, let’s face it, language can be a considerable obstacle, despite all the earnest injunctions about the importance of the maritime vocabulary. Sign language, so a pilot friend tells me, can be a tremendous asset when the helm orders appear to have fallen on deaf ears and the request to take the tug on the starboard quarter results in a cup of tea and plate of sandwiches.

In all honesty, I don’t think I could have hacked it. Probably stress-related illness would have polished me off, even if I managed to avoid plunging a ship bridge deep into a concrete quay.

Because one of the most irritating things I would have experienced as a pilot would have been the constant niggling from shipowners about whether my job was absolutely necessary.

It is easy to blame accountants for this down on the pilotage profession. These are number crunchers who see any human input as a cost, rather than an investment, and say things like: “Why can’t the master handle his own ship? We pay him enough, surely.” Once such stupid statements would have been quickly refuted by a powerful marine superintendent, but too many of these people have themselves become redundant, or are so afraid of losing their jobs that they will not contradict those who handle the cash and prescribe the budgets.

Meat and drink to these people are imaginative schemes for remote pilotage, where a chap in a VTS tower can organise the detailed manoeuvring of half a dozen ships simultaneously. Are not all the tools — the radar, the radio and the automatic identification system already in place? The fact that the chap on the other end of the radio speaks no known language, and there is huge dispute, just short of fisticuffs, going on on the bridge of the ship, are contributory factors that will not emerge until the court of inquiry into the incident.

It must be a little depressing to pilots to have so many people attempting to diminish the importance of the vital job they do. But to a pilotage professional, it must also be rather vexing that there is a timelessness about these issues, which seem to be passed from one generation to the next without actually doing anything about the problem.

“Master’s orders on pilot’s advice.” This entry in a million bridge books belies the reality of so much indecision about the actual status of the pilot vis-à-vis a bridge ‘team’. A modern interpretation of the pilot’s role sees him or her firmly integrated into the bridge team, such as it is. The fact that the team members constitute the master and possibly a helmsman, if you are lucky, surely makes this integration even more essential. An interesting article by a Rotterdam pilot, which I read in the newsletter of the Confederation of European Shipmasters’ Associations, makes the analogy with aviation, where safe navigation and aircraft handling is undertaken by people who may be complete strangers, but who share language, terminology and procedures.

I think that there is a lot in this, and that it would be possible to provide ‘bridge team training’ that would see pilots integrated, and common procedures devised to eliminate as far as possible the one-person error.

But we have to be sensible in this, and not go overboard, and we must recognise that there is a plethora of different bridge situations, where there are very few different aircraft flight decks and training is type specific.

We also have to recognised the realities of crewing (which are getting more critical all the time) and the possibility that half the bridge team (the master) may be dropping from exhaustion.

But of all the things which face the contemporary pilot, that which I would have found hardest to face is the constant exposure to career-shattering blame if I made a mistake, or if somebody else thought I had made one.

Because, as every pilot knows full well, we are firmly within an era of total intolerance to accidents. Indeed the word ‘accident’ will probably soon be outlawed by the powers who govern these things. It is a funny thing. If you are a government minister, or a bank manager, or a mortgage lender, or a senior executive of a FTSE 100 company, you are permitted to make mistakes. Indeed, your accidents, stemming from the wrong decisions you have made, might have the most devastating consequences, costing billions of dollars or even lives. But they probably will not affect your career advancement, or the gigantic bonuses awarded by your friendly remuneration committee.

But if you are a pilot, handling very large ships in narrow waters, wild tides and heavy weather, you are not permitted to make the smallest mistake. A moment’s miscalculation of distance, the tide cutting in a few minutes early, the visibility clamping down or the engine failing to fire up going astern and crunch, it will be the pilot who will get the blame. There will be angry statements about pilot liability, by people who ought to know better. There will be silly things said about the number of accidents which occur with pilots embarked.

Worse still, there is an increasing tendency under many regimes for pilots to be prosecuted after accidents. Incidents which are investigated not by some professional analyst but by Mr Plod, who is only concerned with the oil in the water, or the political outrage which is demanding punishment of those responsible.

None of which is even remotely helpful in making people better at their jobs, or even encouraging them to take up pilotage. But it is a societal problem, a sort of collective madness that seems to affect all civilisations from time to time. I just think it is pretty remarkable that so many people are still prepared to take up pilotage as a career, when there are so many evident disadvantages. It ought to make us admire them even more.

On a more sobering note, this letter to LL from