Pilotage is the practice of a licensed maritime pilot — an expert with detailed local knowledge of a specific port, harbor, or waterway — boarding a vessel to advise on safe navigation through that area.
Why Pilotage Is Required
Ports and restricted waterways often have complex local conditions — currents, shoals, traffic patterns, specific berth approaches — that a visiting vessel’s own bridge team cannot be expected to know in the same depth as a pilot who navigates that specific area routinely. Most major ports make pilotage mandatory for vessels above a certain size.
The Pilot’s Role vs the Master’s Authority
This is a commonly misunderstood point: the pilot advises, but the Master retains overall command and legal responsibility for the vessel at all times, even with a pilot aboard. The pilot does not take over command — the Master can and should intervene if the pilot’s advice appears unsafe.
Pilot Boarding
Pilots typically board via a pilot ladder from a pilot boat, often in open water before the vessel enters the port or restricted area — pilot ladder rigging and safety is itself a regulated, safety-critical procedure (poor pilot ladder rigging has caused real pilot injuries and fatalities industry-wide).
Bridge Team-Pilot Coordination
Effective pilotage requires genuine information exchange — the pilot briefing the bridge team on the passage plan, and the bridge team providing the pilot with vessel-specific handling characteristics — rather than the pilot operating in isolation from the ship’s own team.
Exam Relevance
Pilotage procedures, pilot ladder requirements, and the Master-pilot relationship are core Ship Knowledge and Navigation topics in deck officer competency exams.