Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
for the safe transition from harbor to open seas of the $59 million (in 2005) Southcentral
salmon catch.
And a
SWAPA
pilot is on the bridge of every supertanker in and out of Valdez, in 2006
carrying cumulatively 277,064,405 barrels of North Slope crude oil through the Valdez
Narrows, at an annual gross value of $16,623,864,300. Fifty percent of that goes into the
Alaska state treasury, which drives the Permanent Fund and the Permanent Fund
Dividend, as of 2005 representing $24,775.45 in twenty-five years of cumulative total
payments to each individual Alaskan.
Why a pilot? Why can't a ship's captain sail his own ship into port?
Because state law requires a marine pilot with knowledge of and extensive training in
local geography and weather conditions be at the helm of any vessel longer than sixty-five
feet or weighing over three hundred gross tons when arriving or departing Alaskan ports.
Alaskan ports are a constant challenge even to the experienced master, and these massive
vessels don't stop on a dime.
SWAPA
pilots are responsible for making sure they don't
have to.
How does one become a
SWAPA
pilot?
SWAPA
won't even look at a candidate until he has a year at sea with a master's license
as captain, or two years at sea with a master's license as first mate. It takes, on average,
twenty years to get a master's license.
SWAPA
pilots have an average of forty-two years at
sea, and that's not counting Captain Jack Johnson, who just retired at age 80 and whose 67
years in the maritime industry, including being torpedoed five times during World War II,
serving on the Jewish refugee ship
Exodus
and around Cape Horn in a square-rigger reads
better than a CS Forester novel.
Most
SWAPA
pilots hold master's licenses reading “any tonnage, any ocean.” They have
all earned the title of “Captain” long before they went to work for
SWAPA
. A candidate
who has amassed seniority of command in a maritime service first must be willing to give
up that command and all the benefits accruing thereto, and second must be accepted by
SWAPA
as a candidate.
Après ça, le déluge. The candidate draws by hand all the charts of southcentral Alaska
he will be servicing, a geographical area larger than any area covered by any other pilot's
