So the Coast Guard, which sets pilotage rates, increased those rates in March, pushing a $200,000-a-year job closer to the $320,000 mark, still less than some pilots on the coast earn. THORP: In 2014, shipping companies complained to the Coast Guard that a shortage of pilots was forcing long waits for shippers. American Pilots are - we've been the lowest paid pilots in the country. THORP: But Haynes says they've had trouble attracting people to the Great Lakes because the pay here, while substantial, is relatively low compared to what pilots earn elsewhere. You just can't have people who are cut-rate, bottom of the barrel type. HAYNES: We need to have the best navigators on these ships. It takes at least 12 years to get certified and has been likened to nautical neurosurgery. Their jobs are at the top of the maritime food chain. Pilots board freighters as soon as they enter the St. It's expected that if every piece of equipment was to fail, a pilot could still navigate a ship through local waters. HAYNES: All sorts of cargoes get moved on these waterways on these ships that can - up to a thousand feet long. Once we get to the ship's control room, the pilot I'm with, Captain George Haynes, takes over. The boat is huge, a little shy of two football fields placed end to end. From member station WCMU in Mount Pleasant, Ben Thorp reports.īEN THORP, BYLINE: It's a 30-foot climb from a pilot boat to get onboard the Isolda, a Polish Steamship Company freighter sailing through Lake Huron on its way back from a steel delivery in Milwaukee. Industry officials contend higher wages could push ships off the waters. And they say they should be getting paid more. They navigate foreign freighters through local waterways. This story takes us to the waterways of the Great Lakes, which are the workplace of ship pilots.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |