Earn your pilot's licence in seven weeks

The Marine Navigation course at the Bermuda College is one way to test your interest in a seagoing career.

It will not qualify you to drive large oceangoing vessels, but according to instructor, Dave Garland could serve as an appetizer to further study, learning and experience.

Merchant marine officers must have attended nautical college. Bermudians wanting to sit the local C-Pilot’s licence, however, can sign up for the fall semester’s Marine Navigation course at PACE (The Division of Professional & Career Education).

Mr. Garland is a former police inspector, who in 1962 helped Derek Jenkinson build the first police boat as a start-up for the Police Marine Section.

Mr. Garland recommended to then Superintendent of the Central Division, L.M. ‘Nobby’ Clark, that all members of the marine section earn a C-Pilot’s licence.

According to the instructor, this is now a pre-requisite.

He originally taught his colleagues on the force in classes held at the Police Training School in Prospect, but when the Bermuda College approached him in the mid-70s about teaching Coastal Navigation and the C-Pilot’s licence, it began a 32-year-long association.

“I’ve got guys driving the fast ferries whom I taught years ago. I’ve got commercial fishermen, charter fishermen, and I’ve even had two branch pilots who bring ships in, who started off with me, not forgetting my star pupil who sailed around the world single-handedly.”

Former student, Alan Paris did a 196-day solo sail on BTC Velocity in the ‘2002 Around Alone.’ He is the only Bermudian to undertake a circumnavigation.

The appetizer that Mr. Garland offered him would have been a tease that perhaps led to Mr. Paris’ choice of a main course.

The Marine Navigation course addresses the use of the magnetic compass, chart plotting, rules of the road, lights on vessels and international buoyage system.

“The course is also good for broadening the knowledge of anybody that uses the water.”

A few of his former pupils keep boats in the Caribbean.

But an island community of even non-boaters might enjoy learning the mechanisms in moving freight and people across the ocean, according to PACE programme coordinator, Carleen Place.

She said:  “When you talk about shipping, you talk about having to look at the movement of materials from one place to another… about navigating yourself from one place to another safely.” 

The comprehensive Marine Navigation course is designed for eight to 18 students and runs seven weeks. Classes meet for two-and-a-half-hours from 6pm every Monday and Wednesday beginning October 25. The fee is $450.

If interest continues as previous course history indicates, Marine Navigation will be offered again in the Spring.

Students who are serious about sitting the C-Pilot’s licence exam at the Department of Marine and Ports should not have any difficulty completing it.

Mr. Garland said: “I cover all the subjects that they have to pass for the pilot’s licence, so at the end of my course, if they’ve studied well and learned the subjects, and of course, have the required marine experience, there’s no reason why they shouldn’t pass the C-Pilot’s licence.”

Two letters of reference from individuals who can attest to the candidate’s boat handling and water skills satisfy that experience requirement.

So learn about tides, drifts and safe navigational practices. Fuel your interest in the movement of goods and people. Buy a boat. Plan a career in local waters. Join a merchant navy overseas, or consider a circumnavigation.