Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1887 — Pilots. [ARTICLE]

Pilots.

•The man at the •wheel” is the moat interesting person on board to the boy who is making a steamboat excursion; for while the motion of the ponderous machinery in the engine-room fascinates him, he barely glances at the quiet man who watches and controls it. The lives of all on board are at the mercy of the pilot, who holds, therefore,, one of the most responsible positions. All coasting steamers are commanded by men wlio have licenses as pilots for every harbor along their entire routes. But there is another class of pilots who make it a business to lie outside the harbor for which they are specially licensed, to watch for sailing vessels and steamships coming from a distance, or from foreign ports. Su. h a pilot, we must explain to our inland readers, takes entire charge of outgoing and incoming vessels, until they have passed the dangers surrounding the coast and harbors of our seas, lakes, and great tidal streams. The Captain of a ship surrenders its control wholly to the pilot while he is on board, on pain of forfeiture of the insurance on the vessel in case of disaster within that time. There is no craft, perhaps, in this country which is subject to niore rigid rules than this. The pilots, for example, of Delaware Bay have for a century been governed by certain inexorable customs, as binding as laws. Their business obliges them to be sober, intelligent, keen-sighted, and readywitted men. When not in charge of a vessel they are on large pilot-boats, which lie outside of the capes, sometimes siktv miles at sea, watching for vessels.

The pilots of New York Bay and of Boston Harbor go even farther out to sea, and are sometimes met with from one to two hundred. miles from the land. They are cruising about in the track of incoming steamers, and almost always appear in ample season to offer their services. But if no pilot homes, the ship lies outside the harbor and signals for one. The corps on the pilotboat have regular turns, and the pilot to whose lot this vessel falls is rowed out to her.

He is bound to answer the signal by day or by night, in sunshine or in the fiercest storm. Nothing but the absolute certainty that the boat cannot live in the sea running between him and the vessel will release him from his obligation. A boy who wishes to learn this business must serve an apprenticeship. For Philadelphia pilots the term of apprenticeship is six years, during which time the young man lives on the pilot-boats, studying the channels, soundings and dangers. Then, after a year and a half of partial responsibility, he becomes a pilot.— Youth’s Companion.