Apparently, the Italian ones have been sounding their horns all day and leaning out of the bridge swearing.
I believe the pilot advises the captain of the ship, but the responsibility for the ship remains with the captain, there have been a few incidents where a pilot has suggested that the manoever may not succeed, the captain has insisted on his rights, and the demolished jetty was proof of the pilot's advice.
Yes you do. Even for a small mine hunter we had to take one. I cant remember if the Suez pilot was any good or if we even bothered to listen to him. One of the canals Suez or Panama insist on the pilot having control but as a warship we usually did our own thing as much as possible and monitored them closely. From what I remember he was more interested in seeing what he could get by way of freebies you know cigarettes, whisky.
I know, I rashly took a couple of hours off from my permanent vigil of TLB to clean out the fish pond! I hope my punishment won't be too severe and I must point out at this time what a wonderful job our fabulous mods do. God bless 'em!
