200528 Pilot Ladder Rigging

Pilot Ladder Rigging
MARS Report 200528

I am a British Deep Sea Pilot and I have recently experienced two cases where pilot ladders were not rigged properly partly because of ignorance and partly due to lack of supervision by a responsible Officer.

1. A tanker in ballast with a freeboard of 11.5 metres rigged a ladder but no accommodation ladder (combination). The excuse I was given was that the pilot station had told the vessel "rig your pilot ladder on the port side" so they did just that. The pilot station did not mention anything about a combination. It is quite difficult to judge whether or not a ladder is more than the statutory 9 meters, especially at night, so the pilot only discovers the height after climbing the ladder.
2. A partly loaded tanker:- the pilot office told the vessel " rig your gangway on the starboard side" so they did just that- i.e. they did not rig a pilot ladder at all, only the gangway because that is what they had been told to do by the pilot office.

These two cases serve to illustrate the poor training and lack of basic seamanship now displayed on vessels of most nationalities - the vessel in case No.1 was XXXX and the vessel in case No.2 was YYYY. I would have thought that, in case No.1 the Master would have known the freeboard and insisted that a combination be rigged. In case No.2 I would have expected the duty Officer to have had more common sense than to expect the pilot to jump, at night, from the boat to a gangway platform.

Readers' Feedback on MARS 200528 - Pilot Ladder Rigging

The 'British' (what's that got to do with anything by the way?) deep sea pilot can't have it all his/her own way. He/she complains that ships rig improper pilot ladders but admits the instructions were precise and unambiguous and followed to the letter. There could have been all sorts of reasons why a pilot would want to override the regulations and just have a ladder or just have a gangway. You can hardly be cross if you tell the ship to do something and then it does it. We live in an odd world where 9m is safe but 9.25m isn't. If you're going to get hung up on the detail at least make sure that's reflected in the signal.

Response to the above feedback 1

In reply to the feedback published in August MARS, I have to inform the writer that, to my knowledge, there are no female Deep Sea Pilots. The watch Officer on the ship that I boarded (gangway rigged but no pilot ladder) received a loud reprimand from the Master for not having had the common sense and good seamanship (seawomanship?) to know that a ladder is always rigged for any boarding or landing. The Chief pilot at Cherbourg has stated that he would not allow any boarding or landing from just a gangway - it is too dangerous - a pilot ladder must always be rigged. In the context of pilot boarding arrangements the terms gangway, accommodation ladder and combination are synonymous and are only misinterpreted by those with language difficulties, those who are lacking in basic knowledge of seamanship and those who think they know better.

It is an IMO regulation that pilots, world-wide, should not climb more than 9 metres. The final decision as to whether the pilot should risk life and limb to ascend a suspected poorly-rigged or illegal ladder/arrangement obviously rests with the pilot himself, not with the ship, not with the Port Authorities, not with the IMO and certainly not with casual readers of nautical magazines.

I would invite the writer to come with me seven miles out to sea at night in bad weather, pouring with rain, in a small pilot boat and then climb 10 metres up a greasy ladder with tilting steps, wearing foul weather gear and a lifejacket. Failing that I would ask him/her to accompany me out in a pilot boat and then try to leap from the bow of the boat to a gangway platform with a 1.5 metre swell running.

Response to the above feedback 2

We are constantly being presented with poorly rigged and maintained ladders. Perhaps the next time the writer of the feedback on MARS 200528 is home on leave he should climb fully clothed, in wet weather gear with lifejacket and bag, to the nine metre diving board at his local pool then fall flat on his back to the water. Perhaps his contemptuous smugness will be modified by the experience (provided he survives it). Knowledge without understanding is of little value. Unfortunately, as shown by this feedback, this appears to be becoming the norm in the sea service.

More Feedback

I read MARS Report 200528 - Pilot ladder rigging and the readers' feedbacks on the same with a lot of interest, I think the issues here are -

1. Communications problems
2. Lack of knowledge (on the part of the ship's officers)

I fully sympathise with the Pilot's viewpoint. However, it is easier, faster and more practical to rectify the former on our own and allow the latter to be taken care of by respective flag states. As a mariner, one often encounters Pilotage authorities of different kinds. Pilots in the Suez Canal always insist on the gangway only, irrespective of the freeboard. Many ports in Taiwan prefer the gangway to the pilot ladder.

In some cultures, asking a question is thought to signify a lack of knowledge - this could be the reason why the ship's officer may have hesitated to ask if the pilot wanted "only the pilot ladder"? Hence, in my humble opinion, just adding a few words to the VHF conversation on the part of the VTS, viz - Question - What is your freeboard? Answer - xxx, VTS Then please rig a combination of the pilot ladder and the gangway on the port/starboard side" would prevent reams of paper being spent on this topic. As the good old adage goes - "Prevention is better than cure".

Incidentally, one of the best places where I have seen this effective communication is in Japan (where conversational English skills may differ, a lot of use of drawings are used by pilots regarding his name, names of tugs, side alongside, the long list of flags to be hoisted and the route that the pilot will follow) and Singapore (where VTIS very patiently and clearly explain to each mariner what is being conveyed and ensure that it is understood).

Alas, the days of good English are went!!! (pun intended).