What's the Difference between the Bar Pilot and a Ship Captain.?

Question

I heard that they are 2 different people in charge of the ship that caused the oil spill in San Francisco

Answer 1

barge pilot brings ships in and out of harbours, captain is in charge of ship when it's at sea

Answer 2

The Captain, or Master of a ship is just that, the Captain - he has the responsibility of his vessel.

A Bar Pilot will board the vessel outside the sea buoy (the outer most buoy to a channel, river, traffic separations scheme) and will guide the vessel across the bar, and into the channel, river, harbor, etc.    In some ports the bar pilot will berth the ship.  In other ports a river pilot may board the vessel soon after to guide the ship up the river or channel.  A berthing pilot may board the ship prior to berthing at a dock, or anchorage, or buoys  and guide the ship to its berth.  In some ports, the bar pilot will do it all, just depends on the port.  NOW, the captain is ultimately responsible for his vessel, crew and cargo at all times and can at anytime overrule the pilots commands.  As the pilot is just an adviser, but is mandatory in most ports depending on the size of the vessel.

In the Panama Canal, the pilot can not be overruled!  Interesting is it?

Pilots have the local knowledge of the river, harbor, bay and understand the changing currents, sand bars, rocks and can communicate with tug boats.  They are also usually better ship handlers that a ships master just due to the experience they have, maneuvering ships day in and day out in confined waters.  Good luck!

Answer 3

The pilot has local knowledge they should pass on to the person at wheel.   The captian is always in charge of the ship and can counteract what the pilot says any time he wants if he feels its necessary.   The only places this is not true is in the Panama canal and Suez canal.   Captain gets the blame for anything that goes wrong on the ship.

Answer 4

They are called Harbor Pilots. They board the ship while it is off shore and since they have "local knowledge" they guide the ship in to port and back out. At all times the Captain of the ship is still the final person in charge and is responsible to say something if he does not like the way the habor pilot is handling the ship.

Answer 5

Ok basically the bar pilot does not captain the ship on the seas. This person boards the ship when it is approaching a bay, harbour etc... the reason for this is because a ship captain cannot know all bays and harbours, so usually each harbour has its own "captain" what is called a pilot who boards the ship upon its approach and gives the captain advice etc on where to go, what manouver to do etc...

i am a part time pilot in jamaica but we do it differently, due to the reefs etc we board the boat and manouver it ourselfs to prevent confusion..

i go to school in the bay area and so far it isnt definate in what exactly happened..however to me it seems to be the captains fault as the ships crew quickly blamed mechanical failure hoping something broke in the collision, however everything was a o k. ..... unless it wass a clear "ooops, my fault!!" by the pilot. i presume there will be 3 or four people that get in trouble. the captian, pilot and deckhands who got the job to look around deck for obstruction due to the heavy fog.

Answer 6

Depending on the size of the port, there may be Bar, Harbor, and Docking Pilots.  A Bar Pilot guides the ship from sea buoy or Traffic Separation Zones across the inland boundary line.  A Harbor Pilot takes over from the Bar Pilot and guides the ship near the pier.  A Docking Pilot takes over and coordinates docking with the tugs and linehandlers.  During long transits,like with the MS River, pilots will change between geographic boundaries.