On an interesting side not, cruise ships that depart from New Orleans are always piloted by local river masters. As soon as they leave the mouth of the river, they hand control back to the cruise pilot and literally jump off onto another boat and go back to shore. Every time I cruise, I watch them jump off. Strange....

Not strange...this routine is a fixture of harbor/inshore navigation of large ships around the world whether Nawlins, the Columbia River, Le Havre, the Panama Canal, Puget Sound, or wherever. My friend's neighbor is a pilot in Alaska. Great job.

I can't help but paste a snippet from the history that we encouraged my Dad to write out a few years back:

During 1941 I was employed as a welder in the body shop of Fords assembly plant in Somerville. Following Pearl Harbor the plant was shut down and I was again out of work. Too bad, as I was making $1.25 per hour.

...I then went to work as Apprentice Pilot for the Boston Pilots on the schooner "Pilot" and "Roseway" from 1/6/42 to 3/7/42. World War II had started, business in the port of Boston died, and the pilots had to cut expenses. I was the last in so I was the first laid off.

The Boston Pilots were a family affair and not inclined to accept or hire Catholics. As it turned out I was only the second Catholic employed there and I was advised by the first Catholic in never to deny I was but never to brag that I was.

Later on in the spring I was offered the chance to go back as apprentice with the Boston Pilots but I declined as I had already signed up to go to school for my license. Also bearing in mind it was a ten-year apprenticeship starting at $55 per month.

All of my employment up to this point was work at $55. As the saying goes everything works out for the best.

Meaning that he passed for a license and went on to make a bit more money elsewhere (without the 10-year apprenticeship!) And, yes, a schooner. A typical pilot boat in that era.