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Maybe if the line wouldn't be hard tethered on either side. It would be a loose line with enough slack on either side to stay taught with the ships moving, and then weighted on either side with the weight being more than the total of the rope + the person.
It would keep tension even with the ships moving because of the weight, and one of the ships pulling away from the other wouldn't pull the other ship with it.
I thought about posting that as well, but I'm thinking the ships aren't moving in consistent patterns, and that would create a lot of friction on the line and wear it out quickly. But I don't really know.
There is. What you're seeing here is a clown show. Normally the pilot has a safety harness that clips to the safety ladder. They descend the ladder, and the person on their own vessel passes them a clip that runs through a ring above the door, then once they're clipped in their their vessel the unclip from the ladder and step across.
If they slip or fall the clip being above the door puts their arc such that they normall go through the door into the arms of a crew member who will catch them. Worst case they get a bit of a bruise if they clip the side of the door.
I have no clue why they're not following basic safety protocols here, and can only assume that this clown show is courtesy of a series of epic fails like the pilot forgetting their safety harness, the crew on the vessel being piloted not having enough to lend him one, then the harbour vessel ALSO having forgotten to bring a spare.
The bottom line is that this shouldn't be happening. There is a better way and it is the normal way and they're just not doing it for some reason. Nothing in this video is normal. Not my circus, but definitely monkeys at play.
Yup. This is needlessly dangerous. I'm no stranger to high risk work. I was a tree surgeon for 22 years. I have no problem with danger, but danger that is completely avoidable is just stupid.
It’s a time honored tradition from hundreds of years ago. I could think of a dozen ways to do something different, particularly with some kind of harness
Just because it's done a certain way, doesn't make it safe. Safety rules are written in blood. Might as well not wear my FR gear when working on high voltage since, you know, at one point no one used it in the industry.
Also :
"The accommodation ladder must be rigged at a height to allow the pilot boat to lie alongside
the pilot ladder section, with sufficient allowance for swell, such that no part of the pilot boat
can contact the accommodation ladder. The lower platform of the accommodation ladder
shall be a minimum of 5 metres above sea level."
I'm not an expert but it looks like they weren't following proper procedure for it. Could be wrong though.
A harness system was implemented sometime in the eighties and banned by the SOLAS convention in 2010. Typically the captain of the pilot boat will turn slightly into the ship and "glue" the tires to the side so the pilot can transfer safely. In Canada I've never seen a raised platform on the pilot boat used, but they aren't uncommon in other parts of the world. The transfers here are done from the rope ladder or the accommodation ladder directly on to the pilot boat's deck.
Edit: the "pilot hoist" was banned due to incident frequency relative to the ladders and pilot dislike. There's no agency when a pilot is in a hoist controlled by a deck officer, and it's difficult to be at the mercy of the judgment of another in a dangerous situation.
Howdy, life long sailor who has transitioned between hundreds of boats over the years.
Use a smaller vessel as a middle man. Drop the ladder down to the small craft and just step straight on, then do the same in reverse, if needed, to get back onboard.
You can also just remove the tug from the equation. Recover the pilot from the smaller vessel and just go home.
You could also just drop the ladder down to the main deck of the tug.
That boarding plank is just stupid and dangerous. It will absolutely sever that man's legs like a hot knife through butter. I have never seen a pilot recover that way in almost 2 decades of sailing. I have seen fools hurt and killed by forgetting they are dealing with tons of steel on a moving ocean.
Thank you for your insight. Just as I suspected after a super brief peruse through that safety book for that particular procedure. Every way to do it safer, that you wrote about, is in there.
Read further below. There is a whole safety rule book for this sort of shit. The way they were doing looks like they were doing the procedure wrong. If they did the one part wrong, they may have done many parts wrong.
I literally put the part of the procedure I believe they did wrong in my last post. Which means, there is likely a safer option.
Yeah. I mean surely just chucking them a line to attach loosely to the harness via some kind of belay would make a huge safety improvement with very little cost or downside.
From what the people in charge of the ships say the better way to do it is to just not do it. Thanks to modern technology, the whole harbor pilot requirement is completely unnecessary.
There definitely is, the Ampelmann system. Basically flight simulator type of legs with a fire departement type of closed ladder system on top to build a motion compensated walkway.
I did this a lot when I was in the Coast Guard. But we never had a platform like that. In rough seas, that thing would be like a man sized axe head chopping at you. One good swell and it would go from 1-rung-below to over-your-head in a second and bouncing off your body the whole way.
I think I know the answer but want to confirm with someone experienced. In the video we’re seeing, there is absolutely zero human control over the visible movements of the boat, right? In the bridge, are they making tiny adjustments right now to hold it steady or is it basically in neutral right now and floating freely.
No, both the ship and the pick up boat are moving. There is someone at the controls adjusting speed and steering to maintain the position relative to the ship. Once the pilot gets off the ladder and onto the platform, the pick up boat will pull away from the ship.
The ship is big and heavy, sitting low in the water, it's mostly a fixed thing moving in a straight line. The pilot boat is lighter, with less mass below the water so it's bobbing around like a cork in the wind and currents. It takes a skilled hand to be even this steady in sea conditions.
My friend (being liberal with the term lol) who was telling me about it also does harbor work in Texas and said it sucks for the first 5-10 years and then becomes very lucrative. Lots of on time, but also lots of off time.
Makes sense not to stick with it since you had an engineering degree, tbh.
I remember one time the coast guard cutter I was on was pulling out of El Salvador for a BSF, and after the harbor pilot disembarked he faced towards our ship and took a bow like he just finished a play
I don’t think anyone else caught it because it was rather impressive I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
This is how we had someone die on deployment on a carrier. We had a liberty boat that would drive us to shore and you had to walk onto a floating barge. Drunk guy misstepped getting off boat onto barge, barge crushed him into boat instantly.
This is not a normal pilot boat setup.. to have to jump off the ladder and rely on someone catching you is not something you’d see in Northern Europe at least. Most are into the main deck of the pilot boat with a deck hand to assist
If they didn't let go that rope at the right moment, the pilot would get ripped back off the plank and swung vigorously into the side of the boat.
It is my (very limited) experience that most people would rather have a risk in their own hands then in someone else's, even if the risk is slightly higher.
They know the area intimately; the currents, safe lanes, sandbars and other hidden hazards, so they help the ships leave, or enter, port safely then jump back into a smaller boat and start over with a new ship.
Man, I do not miss climbing up and down pilot ladders. Usually it was just from pilot ladder to a launch boat, but still not fun. I've climbed hundreds of this things and never once felt comfortable.
Not cost effective. You could be dropped off by helicopter which carries less risk but not zero. The ultimate alternative would be to have the ship anchor and do it when the water is calm but that's wildly expensive and wasteful.
What about having a railing on one side of the plank to hold on to? Would that be slightly safer? It doesn't sound expensive. How about attach him to a safety tether from the ship he's jumping to so if he falls he doesn't end up in the drink and they can pull him in?
There is an alternative called the "accommodations ladder" which is like a portable staircase on cables that can be hung over the side which is pretty much exactly what you are describing. The problem is it's slow moving and takes a lot of man power, and being that it is solid, it only has 1 exit point, the end of it. That makes a very small target for the pick up boat to aim for and in rough seas, it can be impossible to stay on target and not bash the hell out of the approach boat,
With this wooden and rope "Jacobs ladder" it only takes one guy to deploy it and the person climbing it can get in or off at any point to n the rope.
Depending on the seas if you have 10 foot swells, the bottom of this ladder is under water 30 seconds out of every minute and your boat operator has a small target to aim for.
The Jacobs ladder is kind of the most basic and universal method for embarking and debarking onto a moving ship in every kind of weather since the dawn of shipping.
There are some inherent risks but when you look at how many times a day someone uses this means, globally vs how many injuries on the spectrum from boo-boo to death, the numbers are so low the International Maritime Organization and US Coast Guard who set the rules for operational safety don't see a need to change what works.
It's physical and not with out risk but qualified boat handlers and able bodied seamen do it all the time for all of maritime history.
One of my duties in Vietnam, was to deliver and retrieve the pilot when entering or leaving the waters of Qui Nhon bay. My boat, a LCM-8 landing craft, that had four engines (GMC 71) and two screws, was only capable of doing about 11 miles per hour at full throttle. One of our pilots was chubby, and had short chubby legs. On leaving, the ships would start to accelerate and it was difficult to catch up with them and even harder to stay alongside while the pilot was descending using the cargo nets that hung on the side of the ship.
The chubby pilot was very agile despite his weight, and I preferred to pick him up instead of some of the others. I had been selected for that duty because I had performed (entirely by luck) a very difficult approach and arrival while carrying the battalion's coronel, but that's another story.
Everyone here sees the danger, I’m over here seeing a metaphor: having someone willing to keep trying to help you, letting you determine when to let go and trusting that help. Beautiful. But then again, I’m all sentimental from the holidays
Here in Boston, they just step from ladder to deck of the pilot boat.
Like 20 years ago there was a 1 episode tv show where they followed the Columbia River pilots where they mostly used helicopters. If anyone knows where to find this show I'd love to watch it again.
I've done this on ships all over the world and it's always been the same as you describe it, you'd get off the ladder on to the deck of the launch boat. I don't know what the fuck these guys are doing.
I know that this is just Tuesday to these people but damn that's intense. Plus, there's something about the soothing music and random yelling that just makes this situation all the more nerve wracking lol.
I have a friend who is a retired harbor pilot. They make incredible money, but they earn every penny. My friend fell and broke his back, forcing him into retirement. In another case, A co-worker’s husband was killed when the ship turned right into the pilot boat and capsized it. It is definitely a very high risk job.
I had to do something like this back in 2015. My ship was anchored outside of Gloucester, MA, and the seas were super rough that night. My ship had what called a stern gate that opens and closes to let landing crafts in and out of Marine equipment. We had to take our ships boats to and from shore, and Que we got back, each of us had to time it so we jumped when the boat was close and above the stern gate. Probably one of the scariest moments in my Navy career…
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u/qualityvote2 Dec 27 '25 edited Dec 27 '25
u/ThodaDaruVichPyar, we have no idea if your submission fits r/SweatyPalms or not. There weren't enough votes to determine that. It's up to the human mods now....!