The Pilot's Tale

30 years later, Henry VIII made it compulsory for all foreign ships to have a pilot, with Trinity House examining and licensing pilots for the work. Since 1849, the Pilotage Act has allowed for British Masters and Mates to be examined and issued a pilotage certificate.

There are no longer any self-employed pilots on the estuary, and the service is now managed by Associated British Ports.

In 1991, after a lifetime spent at sea, Tony re-trained to be a Hull pilot. The training took six months, with 139 training trips and stiff exams at the end.


“My first solo trip as a pilot was the 'Egret'. She was 25 years old, with a magnetic compass and a great big wooden wheel! Just as she was swinging to pick me up the fog descended. Steering in fog with a magnetic compass is a nightmare.


Fortunately there was another vessel, so I stuck to her stern light and followed her up. By the time we got to where the Trent and Ouse separated, the fog had lifted. The fun still wasn't over as whilst we were still some distance from the berth I explained to the German Skipper that we would be using the anchor to swing off the berth, so please have it ready.


He dropped the forward window, that was held up on a leather strap like an old fashioned train window, and shouted instructions to his Ghanaian crew on the focsle, who promptly let the anchor go when we were going about 6 knots round a bend, still about half a mile from where we had to be!”

Tony Porter describes being run aground on the Whittons:

"On 3rd July 1991 I was on the 'Sea Medway', with a pilot in the Hawk anchorage, and we were bound up to Goole. It was my second trip of the day, having come down on a ship from the Trent.

“As part of our training, I had been out on the buoy tender previously to shift the buoys to mark the changed channel across the Whittons. I wondered at how difficult the turn would now be from Read's Island up towards Brough, especially with a tide running. It turned out to be a busy tide with many ships heading upriver, and it was dense fog.

“The pilot I was with decided to do everything himself due to the conditions, so I was a bystander. After Hull it all became a bit of a procession, with the front runners being reluctant to speed up. Along Read's Island an impatient pilot at the back decided to overtake and get to the front. All went well until he came to the acute starboard turn, 90 degrees or more as I recall. He turned too soon and caught the buoy around his rudder and propeller and dragged it out of position.

"It was then like a motorway pile up, with pilots not knowing where to make the turn and just getting washed aground. Some made it, but not us. We were there over a tide. Some of the vessels coming down on the ebb had a similar problem and ended up aground too. The Humber tug 'Riverman' helped us off the next morning.”