pilot

pilot.
1. A qualified coastal navigator, often a master mariner, who is taken on board a ship at a particular place in order to conduct it into and from a port or through a channel, river, or approaches to a port. In the UK the jurisdiction over coastal pilots is invested in the relevant harbour authorities who specify the conditions under which pilots must be taken on board and the pilotage fees to be charged. In many ports and navigable waterways, regulations make it compulsory for ships over a certain size to embark a pilot.

Before ships had radios, pilots would wait in pilot cutters near the points of entry into pilotage waters so that they could be picked up by incoming ships; or a ship would anchor off a port and hoist flag ‘G’ of the International Code of Signals to indicate that a pilot was required. Today any ship requiring a pilot makes arrangements by radio well in advance with the pilot being picked up at a predetermined rendezvous.

The International Maritime Pilots' Association, founded in 1970, is the voice of professional maritime pilots worldwide, and has its HQ on the Wellington, a converted sloop moored on London's Victoria Embankment. Its consultative status at the International Maritime Organization ensures that the practicalities of safe pilotage are taken into account before new regulations are implemented.

Masters of cross-Channel ferries and other similar vessels which habitually navigate in pilotage waters normally hold pilotage exemption certificates from the relevant harbour/pilotage authority, and so do not require to embark a pilot for their passages. When a ship has a pilot on board, its master retains the responsibility for its safety, though the regulations require him to follow the pilot's instructions.

2. When used as a verb, the word embraces the acts of a pilot in taking a ship through pilotage waters.

3. A loose or affectionate term for the navigating officer of a ship.

4. The colloquial name for the volumes of sailing directions.

See also trinity house.