MICHAEL WALSH ON THE WHEEL OF THE RMS BRITANNIC 1929~1960: The use of radar in the White Star liner’s wheelhouse was an eye-opener.

This experience was made even more special as under direction from the Mersey pilot the MV Britannic made its way up the River Mersey to pass first the Rock Lighthouse at New Brighton and then to its anchorage situated off the Pier Head.

The pilot was charged with partnering with a ship’s captain when bringing their vessel into the Port of Liverpool. The pilot was a qualified ship’s captain, was highly knowledgeable about a river’s course, its twists, turns, shipwrecks, shoals and points of danger.

He and other pilots would be accommodated on the Edmund Gardner pilot vessel. The pilot ship was named after the chairman of the Mersey Docks & Harbour Board 1948-1950.

The Edmund Garder Pilot Vessel

From the Edmund Gardner, launches picked up and dropped off those pilots serving the liners and freighters that ply the tidal and treacherous River Mersey.

The only way an approaching vessel could be boarded by the pilot was by a rope ladder slung over the vessel’s side. Maritime pilots are everyday heroes and deserving of the highest praise.

This is especially so in the case of wild and stormy tidal estuaries like the surging River Mersey. The 70-mile-long river has Britain’s second-most tidal range in the UK.

The Incredible Daring of Ship’s Pilots

Their courage is a byword, especially as few pilots, if any, are athletic or young. Some pilots are getting on in years and can be portly. Nevertheless, their job often entailed living and sleeping for long shifts on a wind and rain-swept pilot transit boat.

At the approach of a designated vessel, the pilot, whatever the weather and regardless of it being day or night, would leap from the pilot boat into a service launch.

His only link between life and death was his orange-coloured high visibility kapok-filled life vest. Kapok or Java fibre is a cotton-like natural floating aid.

The pilot’s launch would make its way to or from a departing liner or freighter through often ferocious windswept tidal seas. Boarding or disembarking from a vessel during the hours of darkness was par for the course.

Soon, the exposed pilot’s launch would reach the heaving sides of the freighter or liner being met.

A Scene from Hell

Imagine the hellish scene: it is a stormy, windswept night as a small pilot’s launch closes in on the approaching colossus. The incoming vessel will have heaved to (stationary) or be travelling at reduced speed to enable it to contend with weather and tide.

Viewed from a launch, a vessel’s hull is a formidable wall which wallows and rolls to tide and wave. It is a particularly hazardous operation if the rendezvous takes place after nightfall.

A clash of hulls occurs as the craft carrying the pilot makes contact with the incoming freighter. High above and usually out of sight, two seamen will have already made fast the lines holding the rope ladder earlier slung over the approaching vessel’s hull.

A Leap for Life

At this point, the pilot has to time his leap from the storm-tossed launch to the freighter’s rope ladder. Thereupon, he will clamber up the swinging ladder striking and bouncing off the ship’s hull until he reaches the ship’s deck. Then, he will be assisted aboard and directed to the wheelhouse by the ship’s crew members.

Michael and his shipmates were impressed by the courage, strength and agility of a boarding pilot, especially when the weather was foul.

Harsh Winter Weather

One had to be a separate species to time the leap from the pilot launch to then catch a rung on a rope ladder during a gale-force wind, especially at night during harsh winter weather.

Surprisingly, few if any of these incredibly talented ex-ship officers appeared to be athletic in appearance. When ashore, decked out in their raincoat and trilby hat, one could not tell a ship’s pilot from a city clerk.

For those less acquainted with river estuaries and port approaches, shipping lanes can be as busy and as hazardous as fast-moving motorways.

Harbour Lights

Set out at sections along the approaches are strategically placed light buoys and fixed light placements.

These twinkling lights, especially when camouflaged by a backdrop of shore lights, appear bewildering, especially so during the hours of darkness. These were, however, as good a system as there is on any road network.

Vessels approaching the port do so by using the river’s right-hand (starboard) side whilst outward-bound ships use the channel on their starboard side.

Green lights were over to the right (starboard), and red light buoys were regularly placed to the forbidden (port) left approaches. The occasional blinking white lights indicated their position according to the period between flashes.

Finally, tugs would approach the incoming freighter or liner when it reached a designated position in the river.

Whereupon, the vessel would be assisted to its anchorage or berth. This might be in one of the networks, 7.5 miles of docks or moored at its berth on the Pier Head. Well done, pilot, officers and helmsman. NOTE: This story is one of 68 stories to be enjoyed when you purchase a copy of BRITANNIC WAVES THE RULES by ex-mariner Michael Walsh.

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK AND PLEASE SHARE OUR PUBLIC INFORMATION STORIES

Michael Walsh Books. To SAVE Click the ORDER NOW Button. https://michaelwalshbooks.wordpress.com/