plus a black mark on your record. In 1988. with the coming of Pilotage Reorganisation, everything changed. and the Humber. Ouse and Trent Pilotage services were amalgamated’ Training was undertaken and pilots from the 3 services were retrained for the whole district. 1 think then that we all began to realise that there was much more to life than we had all become so used to. I personally enjoyed the challenge of leaning two new districts, and it was to be in such a totally different environment, that the interest level was raised to new heights. Let us now examine the usual scenario. The phone tinkles delicately in your ear at around 2200, and you are awakened from fitful cat-napping to be told that you are required to be at the office an hour later to come to Spurn for boarding - and now the good news - you're bound for the Trent, and she’s maximum draft for the tide. You drag yourself into the shower and listen to the wind lashing against the bathroom windows. and it fills you with foreboding - you cheerily wave bye-bye to your wife, and tell her not to expect you back for a few days - after all the tides are dropping off now, and if you make a cock of this one you'll be aground for at least a week! You arrive at the office to be greeted by the other Pilots, smug grins on faces - all it seems bound for places in the lower river - lucky sods - they'll be back home in bed just as you run aground on the Whittons or fetch up all standing in Meredyke - still you have to give it a go. On boarding the ship at Spurn - the Master cheerily tells you that his draft is exactly 4.982 metres, which immediately makes you suspicious - they are never that accurate unless they are lying through their teeth, and you wonder exactly what the draft really is. There’s no point in going full speed as you'll have to wait for water anyway. The advent of remote reading gauges at VTS has improved the situation immensely over the past year or so. Technology has finally reached the River Humber! The main problem we have operating in the upper reaches is that things can. and do, change very quickly. Channels have been known to silt up by as much as half a metre between tides - the changes are not usually that violent but it is always possible that a reduction in available depth can catch you totally unawares. The signs of squat in these circumstances are, as I said before, many and varied. Up there in the dark and mystical world we have come to know, they manifest themselves somewhat differently. You have to remember that when transiting the channels particularly around the Brough area, you are never travelling in a straight line - the amount of cross-set is quite alarming, and the track made good bears no relation to the ship’s heading so the usual signs are not apparent in the same way - mind you there is = 52 =one sign that means the same wherever vou are - if vour wash actually overtakes you, then you know something is not quite right. Again the echo-sounder is of little or no use. The first sign that any pilot will listen for is the roar of the wash. Secondly the engines will start to labour and the speed will fall off. Thirdly the ship will start to yaw about - a note here - once above the Humber Bridge it is the practice for the Pilot to actually steer the ship himself, it alarms some strangers to the river but it is a practice that is deep-rooted and enables us to detect proximity to the bottom far more quickly than a helmsman telling us that the ship is not steering - there are other reasons that will become apparent later when | talk about Interaction. Fourthly there is the dropping of the bow. I have to say that the latter is usually just before it all goes very wrong- by that time you have reduced power, and are crawling along hoping like hell that you haven't got your sums wrong. If it does all go wrong? Well you hope that you have indeed got e spare pair of socks and underpants with you - otherwise after a while you start to eat alone in the ship's mess-room. I must emphasise here that groundings of this type do not happen very often - to say that it never happens would be being “economical with the truth” as politicians have taught us to do so well over the years! Pilots do not put ships aground on purpose - like most people they hate paperwork and it is far quicker to get it right than to spend hours writing reports. It usually comes about because of a failure of some type, be it mechanical or of the honesty variety on the part of the Captain with regards to the draft. - Brief pauses on the bottom are, however, commonplace. Ribald comments are usually passed over the air - “just doing a bit of sounding are we?” or “just paused to reassess the situation” or the favourite phrase which has a lot of sense in it - “just waiting for a bit more water” INTERACTION Enough for the moment on Squat - let me now turn to Interaction. Again the effects of this phenomena are felt in two different ways in the differing parts of the district. In the Lower River the effect is most strongly felt when actually entering and transiting a lock or dock. particularly on the “level” - you just don’t pass that close to other ships. well not intentionally anyway! In the upper reaches again all is different - channels are much narrower, the time factor is much more relevant as the ~ 53 =time “window” is much shorter. and the proximity of ships to each other is therefore greatly intensified. To illustrate the problems I will try to talk you through an outward sailing from say the River Trent. Pilots ate ordered through to the berths on the River Trent to sail ships literally when they float. They mav be afloat when you get to them, but there certainly won't be enough water in the river reaches at that moment, but by the time you are moving there will be. You let go and proceed. Problem number one - as you pass the berths where other ships are laid, you can't pass too far away from them as there isn’t much water in the middle of the river, and the opposite bank is still dry, so you are forced to pass close - and I mean close - to the ships on their berths. You feel that you must do the correct thing here and reduce speed while you pass them. Problem number two - you are fighting the flood tide in order to make sure that you “get all the way through” to sea - so you slow down to a safe speed to pass the other berths. You are now steaming backwards over the ground past the other ships still tied up. You can see the looks on the other pilots faces as they grin over the bridge wings, and you fee! rather silly, pile on the power again and crawl past them pretending that you aren't making any wash! Of course the reduction of speed followed by an increase has allowed you to drop in quite close to the other ship you are trying to pass, and you are now some 5 metres-off him with - in effect - a ten knot current running between you - ooops I here you say, what now? Well I’m afraid that there is no formula, no magic solution, you literally just steer the ship clear. I cannot say what it is that we do or exactly what avoiding ofevasive action we take, we just do it - half the time we don’t even look at the rudder indicator as there is.no time. I mentioned before that we steer the ships ourselves above the Bridge - to expect a man on the wheel to do as you ask him i. put on a lot of wheel towards a ship that is literally a few metres away, is asking too much. and the consequent delay could be disastrous - the Master would probably interfere as well and add to the confusion - we are much better being confused al] on our own without outside help, after all we are the experts! Eventually you clear the berths and you then attempt one of the bends. The tide is still coming at you at around 7 - 8 knots, and you are barely making headway over the ground. Again there is only water on the outside of the bend - and the outside of the bend is stoned to reduce bank erosion and increase the Pilots’ heart rate. You will see some alarming angles to the banks generated by the manoeuvres that we carry out - and to try to relate them to you would be folly - to be honest we don’t have time to look at the rudder indicator anyway, and because you are pulling the water away from the bank, and the old man is tapping you on theshoulder and telling you he can see the bottom of the river. well I'm afraid theory has long since gone down the Swanny. I recently watched a very ancient video at Spurn on Interaction, and the model displays were fascinating - if only I could get the ships up the Trent and Ouse to perform in the same way I would be a very happy man. There are of course general rules of thumb with regard to anticipating what may happen - the helm will always need to be towards the bank that you are close to, in order to keep the ship straight - what the rules don’t cater for is the unexpected, such as the sudden build-up of mud on a straight stretch of the river that certainly wasn’t there last tide. That could have been caused by one of the many river barges having had a “pause” on the bottom and creating a little lump. What is even more fun is that it probably won’t be there next tide, and when you sheer off the bank to avoid it, ( expert local knowledge here!! ) right into the track of an oncoming ship, the other pilot wonders what on earth you are up to. One good example is the “other ship syndrome” - the loss of control not of your ship, but of another one. As I said before the closeness is sometimes quite alarming to a stranger - as indeed it is to us, and the nightmare of an overtaking or passing manoeuvre coming to @ sticky end is always present, Ships do take unplanned sheers - usually due to the pilot treading on to the ship’s cat in the darkened wheelhouse, which then leaps on to the automatic pilot switching it “on"=of course the damned thing is not lined up and as it attempts to bring the ship on to an entirely spurious heading, all hell is let loose. Seriously - overtaking manoeuvres can be very dicey, but I hasten to add necessary if all the ships are to reach the open sea in one tide. The time scale does not allow for the niceties such as reducing speed to wait for more room to overtake - the water will be falling away at places further down the river, and in order to “make it all the way”, you just have to push on and get past the slower ships. Of course we don’t take risks but we do have to be extremely careful - co-operation between pilots is essential. To return to the more ordered world of the Lower River, Interaction is not experienced in quite the same way. Channels are wider and close proximity situations are just not generated on purpose. They do of course occur when things go wrong and as the ship sizes are larger, can be more spectacular if not handled correctly. Where we do experience the effects of Interaction is when entering, transiting. and leaving locks. The worst case is usually a large bulker for Hull or Immingham - probably maximum draft for the dock, maximum beam allowing a 15cm.clearance each side and around 200metres long. The Master will meet you with his worry beads already in his hand which gives you a feeling of real confidence, and his opening gambit will be- “Please Mr. Pilot, nodamage”. He will then go on to sav that the company is on the verge of extinction due to unpaid tug bills around the world. and can we get away with only using one tug. Usually a quick explanation that there will be about 4 - 5 knots of current across the lock when we enter. is enough to bring the Master. to his senses, and we come to a compromise that I won't bend his boat if he leaves me alone and we use the correct number of tugs! The channel to the dock is transited with the usual calmness associated with neither the Master or Pilot knowing what is in store for them, and the vessel is swung after the tugs are eventually made fast by the multi- “national,multi-coloured, mukti-tingual crew stirred inf action by the multitingual, multi-national, multi-cofoured officers all-conversing_in pidgin English (of sorts). The approach to the lock is then carried out with apparent consummate ease in a stunned silence - the Master being too terrified to interfere, and the Pilot too keen to make it look easy, when in fact he is also too terrified to say too much, and is just hoping that everything will be alright on the night. It is when approaching the dock wall that things start to become exciting - the ship will be drawn inexorably towards the wall - accentuated by the effect of the tugs working the ship into the lock entrance. Even when lined up for the entrance, the ship will sheer ebout and actions taken are too varied_and odd to be able to describe them in“any sort of form ‘that will make apparent sense, the Pilot will just drive by the seat of his pants. No two ships are alike, and even sister ships may perform in different ways in similar situations. The two vessels I had the privilege to command whilst in Hullgates Shipping were, although of supposedly identical hull form, totally different animals. The “Hullgate”, when the wheel was put hard over and the engines kicked ahead, would mhove ahead through the water before starting to swing. The “Humbergate” would do the reverse - she would swing before starting to move - so in these circumstances how can one possibly lay down strict rules. Certainly there are the expected things that may happen - and the ranks of expert boffins will be able to describe why an accident has happened. but when the chips are down it is a totally different kettle of fish. At least the experts can examine what has apparently happened. and warn others of what to expect. In this area the mutual respect that we, as the practical ship-handlers, and the theorists as advisers, have for each other is very apparent - we do not like doing damage - it is not what we are paid for, and if something is happening that we do not understand. then we turn to the experts for a calm, cool , and reasoned assessment of the problem. After all we have done more than enough panicking for both sides when it all went wrong entering the lock or bouncing over the = S6t =bottom in the upper reaches! They in turn, of course, would have little to do if we weren't here doing our, thing day in. day out, occasionally coming to grief - now there’s an admission - and between us we can help to avoid the accidents that do. inevitably. happen. - 57 -