Hello Alex, > On 09/03/2020 9:13 AM Alex Goodwin <xxxxxx@multitel.com.au> wrote: > > > On 4/9/20 1:51 am, Timothy Collinson - timothy.collinson at port.ac.uk > (via tml list) wrote: > > > >> I know in some commercial ports (and other sorts too, but we're > >> talking about merchant traffic) on our seas, you can have a wait > >> if the port capacity is reached (same for lock/canal passages) > >> and one aspect of that follows with one TMLer's definition of > >> pilot as 'harbour pilot' basically... if you don't have enough > >> harbour pilots to help bring in the bigger vessels (and ships > >> crew MUST be supervised by a harbour pilot, then that's another > >> reason the port can seem at capacity (same effect, you can just > >> treat this as one of the cases of 'port beyond capacity'). > > I can verify that there where times when my four boats and the > > tender had time to loiter at sea before being brought into port > > while waiting for the local pilot to guide us in. The trip into > > and out of Rosyth, Scotland was a very interesting one. > > > > However, in Timothy's and Alex's AARs the ship's pilot maneuvers > > the craft into and out of port including landings and take-offs > > from the downport, achieving orbit/deorbiting, and/or > > docking/undocking at the highport > > > > > > That's a good point and one I slightly fudge. Having spent two years > > on a ship (please, no one search for that phrase in the archives and > > tell me how many times I've said it.... sorry), I'm familiar with > > taking on pilots and have a suspicion I've told anecdotes about such > > here previously. > > > > However, unless there was some plot point that required It (hmmmm....) > > I don't have port pilots as a matter of course, mainly because I would > > want a pilot PC to have something to do. This is a bit of a fudge and > > might be something I would revisit and think about if we were visiting > > higher tech worlds (perhaps fortunately, our corner of Aramis > > subsector isn't well stocked with them) but in general I'd say it's > > much more exciting - even if it's a relatively Routine task - for the > > pilot (or in a recent session, the Captain) to take the controls and > > have the possibility of rolling very low. > > Da Famous Tom R, Collision, et al > > I only had "port congestion requiring pilot" when The Boatload O' > Lunatics returned to Terra - upon lobbing, they found all three > highports congested and had to wait for Sublieutenant "Collision" > Collinson to lob and guide them in. > > My players were all expecting the go-fast jet-fuel type of pilot, not > the harbour kind. > > Extratextually, I was keeping my promise to the real-life Collision to > Tuckerise him, however briefly. I also didn't want to shunt a PC (Rosa) > aside. It worked out that the pilot Collinson (rather than the > librarian Collinson) gave her a boon on her piloting roll (given the > sheer amount of traffic, she needed it). > > Intratextually, things had backlogged enough that the ports were worried > about some dropkick merchant pilot doing a) something stupid and/or b) a > chunk of the AZS' work for them by causing nontrivial damage. > Pilots in the maritime setting that I have experienced and watched on the show Disasters At Sea do not take the helm from the helmsman he gives instructions/commands to maneuver the ship. Tom Rux
