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Bridgewing Professionals Senior pilot Jim Naughton is well known in New York Nilsen’s arrival at the pilot's organization was key to commencement of a unique arrangement in which three of the more senior pilots reduce their own time commitment and share a single pilot position for the next year or so. Jim Naughton is one of those, which explains why he took two or three months away from piloting last fall to spend time with his family. Two other senior pilots, George Stitik and Doug Brown, are sharing the single-pilot's position with Naughton. "I think I'll know when it's no longer appropriate for me to be climbing those pilot ladders," said Naughton, speaking of his impending retirement. Capt. Naughton has seen the size of arriving ships increase dramatically over the years, and recalls how, when he was a younger pilot, it was still possible to board most ships using the 24-foot wood ladder that was standard equipment aboard most tugs. "Today you couldn't get half way up to the ship’s main deck using one of those ladders," he said. "They are mostly used for getting aboard barges today."  With ships becoming ever-larger, a pilot more frequently has to focus on air draft, said Capt. Naughton. “Air draft is a big issue now,” he explained. “The ships have gotten so large that the typical air draft is often between 145 and 150 feet. At the same time we’ve got some bridges that were built when ships were a bit smaller.” For example, he noted that the Bayonne Bridge has a clearance from the water of 151 feet at its center at normal high tide. But while ships are larger, they seem to be more powerful and more responsive, and many of the newer vessels have bow thrusters, he noted. The arrival of more powerful twin-screw, z-drive tractor tugs in New York and other ports also makes a pilot's job easier, said Naughton, but he still considers himself a "put the rubber on the steel" kind of docking pilot. "Maybe I'm an old dinosaur, but I like to push and pull rather than use a lot of the newer, fancy stuff," he explained. "But if you are coming in on a flood tide and there could be traffic delays or other problems, sometimes it's nice to be able to put that tractor tug square on the stern to act as a brake or to help with steering." It was easy to see the accumulated effect of Capt. Naughton's many years of experience on a recent ship-assist job where a 960-foot container vessel he was piloting lost engine power in the midst of a maneuver at the Global Terminal. With hardly a lifted eyebrow, Naughton held the ship steady with the efforts of two MORAN tugs and the ship's bow thruster until the ship’s engineers gave up and its captain asked that the ship be maneuvered to its dock by the same means. "This is an excellent example of how ship docking is never the same thing," he commented. "You can dock a ship at the same place a hundred times, but each situation is different – the ship, local conditions, weather – something's always different about each job. The trick is knowing your people, knowing your equipment, knowing your port and having the collective memory for the details of each situation." |
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50 Locust Avenue | New Canaan, CT 06840-4737 USA | Tel: 203.442.2800 |
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