The pilot is a paid advisor period, the onus is on the OOW (Officer of the Watch) to provide for the safe
navigation of the vessel. The Master is ultimately responsible. I have made a few passages through the Suez
canal as a helmsman on a container ship and as far as I am aware there is no overtaking allowed in the
canal. The pilots should have been in contact well before they reached the intersection and the ship entering the canal should have slowed to allow the ship already in the canal to pass before entering. One instance, I had a pilot give me an order to make a turn the would have caused a
collision with another ship if I had executed the turn, I shouted the order loud enough for the Master to hear me ( he was on the bridge wing at the time), but did not execute the turn, the Master came rushing into the bridge and looked at the
rudder angle indicator and saw that I had not made the turn and after a quick word with the pilot, the pilot countermanded the order and set things straight. There will be plenty of finger pointing to go around in this instance. If there was a
rudder failure then that will certainly put a different light on things, I am still not understanding why there was such a close quarters encounter in the first place.
Linear Mode
Recent Discussions