 COVER STORY


by Jessica Sabbath an


be


Bigger ships prompt calls to deepen and widen channels


anuary Collins should be nervous. In about 20 minutes, she’ll guide a ship longer than


n three football fields Ha


through the channels of Hampton Roads.


The harbor pilot leans calmly against the side of the


pilot boat, a coffee cup in one hand, as the boat zips to meet the 1,200-foot-long ship five miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The massive ship is larger and has more capacity than the largest vessel Collins has ever steered. Training, though, breeds confidence. “We did training


down in Louisiana to prepare for these larger vessels,” Col- lins says of Virginia’s 45 harbor pilots who guide ships of all sizes through Hampton Roads’ channels. The Maritime Pilots Institute gave them a feel for piloting these massive vessels through manned-scale models and simulations. That program came on top of years of extensive train-


January Collins, one of Virginia’s 45 harbor pilots, prepares to board the OOCL Malaysia to guide the massive ship through Hampton Roads’ channels.


Photo credit


ing required for Virginia’s licensed harbor pilots. Collins is the commonwealth’s only woman pilot. As apprentices, these men and women rarely leave the Virginia Pilot Association’s brick headquarters in Virginia Beach, which includes dormitories. By the time pilots become fully licensed after six years of training, they have steered or accompanied a master pilot


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