Topic starter
08/12/2007 5:56 pm
Greetings Form New Orleans ,
I am not sure if many on this web page have been keeping up with the chain of events that have occured from the time the San Francisco Bar Pilot clipped the Bay Bridge and created a huge oil spill to the present , but from what I am hearing every regularatory authority in the state and in the country are waiting in line to get a piece of this pilot . In his defense I would like to offer up a few things that most may not be too familiar with . First of all , I believe I can speake with some authority on this issue , after having been in similar situations myself . First of all , as some may attest , the media is in the business to sensationalize the facts inorder to sell papers , receive higer ratings and to capitavate and encourage the public outcry for justice and restitution and resiprosity . Secondly , from what I am hearing from non biased sources , this particular pilot was placed into a situation where the ship's on board radars had failed and all he had left at his disposal to navigate through the bridge was the ships electronic chart which does not always give an accurate real time position . So before we , the Coast Guard , the NTSP , the US Congress , and Nancy Pelosi rush to judgement hopfull all the facts will come out and this man is vindicated for what he had to deal with . Also , I believe that other actual working pilots that frequent this web page will also offer up their own experiences where they too were placed in awkward positions where they had to navigate in fog inorder to keep the company off their backs , keep their jobs , and to make miles . I remember what Capt. Howard Tate telling me that the worst thing the company ever did was to place a radar on the Delta Queen . When I asked why , he told me , " Well , @!*!@ , Ted , now the company will expect us to run in the fog now " !! So damed if you do and damed if you don't and most times fortunately when you do you are successful at this task and some may just consider you a HERO , but if you do operate in the fog and there is a mishap , then your the GOAT and something obvisioulsy needs to be done to teach you a lesson !! Just food for thought .
Smoothe Sailing !
Ted Davisson
09/12/2007 3:33 am
Right you are, Ted. I now speak from the enviable position of working for a company that has NEVER, not once, questioned my decision to not run under what I felt were unsafe conditions, and believe me, it is a wonderful feeling. And I'm talking about being tied up for 4 full days in fog, never moving a bit.
I remeber once we were at Houmas House tied off in fog on the DQ, and a certain master wanted very badly to get underway to make the schedule back to NOLA. Capt. Tate said he wasn't going anywhere until it cleared, and told the Captain, "If you'll put in the log book that we're leaving in the fog, under my protest, them I'll take this sumb_ _ _ _ _ to the moon if that's what you tell me to do!". We didn't go until the fog cleared.
I don't know what kind of pressure the San Francisco pilot was under from his office, the agent, ship's owner or Master or whomever, but I think if it were me I would have to stand up for principle and do what I thought was the right thing. That said, though, I have (and I'm quite sure many others have in similar situations) gone on, thinking, "Oh. well, I can do it" and though I have never had an accident as a result, I have been in such a pickle after "going on" that I would pray that if God EVER let me get out of that situation, I would never, ever, do it again! And yes, I've gone on to do it again.
09/12/2007 10:07 am
Fred Way described the master versus pilot relationship best. My version of what Fred wrote is wrong because I am too lazy to look it up.
Pilot: "Cap, that's a mean looking cloud over there. We'd better find a good tree."
Master: "Aw it don't look too bad. Let's keep going."
Right then and there all responsibility was lifted from the pilot's shoulders and assumed by the master. It worked both ways:
Master: "Look at them whitecaps! Maybe we'd better choke a willow."
Pilot: "Naw, Cap, I've gone through worse."
At that moment, in Captain Paul Underwood's words, the pilot "bought the boat."
It worked in the engineroom, too. When an operating board member tried to order Kenny Howe about his engines, Kenny refused. The board member said, "I'll have you fired!" Kenny responded, "You can fire me when we land, but right now, get the hell out of my engineroom." He didn't lose his job.