Bells, flags and cork lifejackets - our pilot boats of the past bristled with old technology

WEDNESDAY, NOV. 30: The radar screens and turbo twin engines on board the new St David are a far cry from the wooden pilot boats of yesteryear.

In the 1920s, pilots would be rowed out to incoming ships.

While in the ‘50s the pilot boat crews relied on bells, flags and their own sea experience to get the pilots safely on board the approaching vessels.

Often they and the branch pilots had little in the way of safety equipment apart from a cork lifejacket.

Harold Millett, a branch pilot between 1954 and 2000, helped visiting tankers and container ships to negotiate the reefs and get into Hamilton Harbour safely.

He said: “Back in the ‘50s everything was based out of St David’s. All the pilot crews were from St David’s and a lot of them were sailors who had reached the retiring age.

Invaluable

“They were invaluable to the pilots — not just in getting them out to ships but in their knowledge of the sea. It could be a very dangerous way of life.

“Pilots could fall into the sea or get their legs crushed between the pilot boat and the ship. It was a very eye-opening experience going out on the pilot boats.

“In those days we had no radio or any way of communicating when we were out at sea. They would use flags to send messages to the ships.”

Errol Minors was 29 when he first started working on the pilot boats in 1979.

He’s been a Pilot Boat Captain for 29 years now and still remembers the days when the coxswain would ring a bell on deck to tell a man in the engine room what gear and speed he required.

 Captain Minors said:  “We had two wooden boats when I started out, the St Brendan and the St David.

“There was a five cylinder engine on each one and they were controlled by a man below deck in the engine room.

“It would take us about half an hour to get out to the ships.

“The coxswain would ring a bell from up top to tell the engine man what to do. One ring was forward, two was neutral and three was reverse.

‘The boats were rimmed with old car tyres all the way around to protect them when they came alongside the ships.

“It was a lot different back then — we did not have radars and we would simply get our instructions from Bermuda Radio.”