the ocean pilots and deep sea divers of new york have one thing in common; both object to taking apprentices, and in the case of the former, at least, there is good reason for this, since they have been, for generations, the aristocrats of their calling. the pilots who sail out of sandy hook are no hardier than their rugged and fearless fellows of the north sea, but they subject themselves to greater dangers by their long cruises, and rough, indeed, must be the weather that can keep them in port. they cruise night and day, in search of incoming craft; their torches' flare lights up the snow and sleet of winter storms and contends with the darkness of summer fogs; and they speak and board[pg 150] in all sorts of weather and at all seasons the fleet liners that cross the western ocean in less than a week. and these pilots of the new york and new jersey shores are a revelation to the tourist, who, having never heard of them, sees them for the first time. the latter, in most cases, expects to watch a rough-and-ready sort of fellow in homespun, with a swaggering air and a boisterous manner, climb from the pilot's yawl up the black hull's towering side. instead, he sees a man of modest and pleasing address, about whom there is little to indicate his calling, and much that bespeaks the merchant or clerk one meets of a morning on lower broadway. there was a time when our pilots indulged in the luxury of a high silk hat when boarding vessels in sunny weather, but they are not so fastidious nowadays, and use derbies instead.
prosperous as a class, the pilots of new york pay dearly for their prosperity by the most arduous sea labor. since 1853 more than thirty-five boats have been sunk and wrecked in various ways, and twice that [pg 151]number of pilots have lost their lives. there are at the present time upward of 160 pilots cruising from the port of new york. they are subject to the supervision of a pilots' commission of five members, named by the governor of new york, and each pilot is appointed after a long and severe apprenticeship. he must first serve, boy and man, before the mast until he masters every problem in the management of every form of rig. then he must contrive to obtain the position of boat-keeper or pilot's mate. in that capacity he must serve three full years before he can be admitted for his examination for a license. after this he must pass a most rigid examination on all points of seamanship and navigation before the board of pilot commissioners, and show complete and exact knowledge of the tides, rips and sands and all other phenomena for many miles out from the piers of the east and north rivers.
but even after the candidate has received his license, he is sometimes forced to wait years, until some pilot happens to die and[pg 152] leave a vacancy for him. the first year of pilotage he is granted a license to pilot vessels drawing less than sixteen feet. if he gives satisfaction, the following year he is permitted to take charge of vessels drawing eighteen feet. if he passes a satisfactory examination the third year, he then receives a full license, entitling him to pilot vessels of any draught, and is then first called a branch or full pilot. on receiving his license, the pilot must give bonds for the proper discharge of his duty, and he is liable to heavy fines if he declines to fill a vacancy or board a vessel making signals for a pilot. pilots are paid for their work by the foot, the charges varying according to the draught. for a ship drawing from twenty-one to twenty-eight feet they receive $4.88 a foot, and for one drawing six to thirteen and one-half feet $2.78 a foot, these rates being slightly increased in winter.
a cruise on a new york pilot-boat, however brief, is an experience sure to be remembered. when a pilot-boat starts out on a hunt for[pg 153] ships, it is decided in what order its half-dozen pilots shall take the prizes, and the man who is to board the first one is placed in command. the other pilots, meanwhile, take their ease as best suits their taste, the seaman's work being done by a crew of sailors hired for the purpose. one pilot, however, is always on the lookout for sails, and a landsman is compelled to marvel at the certainty with which these ocean scouts discharge the task of sighting vessels, for often they are able to tell the name of a steamship before unaccustomed eyes can discern aught but a waste of waters and a wide expanse of sky. still, a part of this skill may be due to the fact that pilots are always posted before going out as to what vessels are expected, and from what direction they are coming, the watch being made all the keener by the fact that the bigger the ship the bigger is the pilot's pay. a ship, moreover, must take a pilot going out from the same boat that furnishes the pilot going into port, while if a captain refuses a pilot he must pay full pilotage,[pg 154] and thus contribute his tithe to the support of the system. this latter rule seems, at first glance, a curious provision, but it is defended on the ground that without it the business would not be remunerative enough for really competent men to engage in it, and that with unskilled pilots the annual losses would be greatly in excess of what they are at present.
when a ship is sighted by daylight, a long blue burgee is hoisted to the peak of the pilot-boat, which means, "do you want a pilot?" if there is no responsive signal, it is taken for granted that the answer is "yes," but if a jack is hoisted the watchers know that the vessel has already been boarded by a pilot from some boat that has sailed farther away from port in the hunt for a ship. when a ship is sighted at night she is signalled by means of a torch charged with benzine and giving forth an intense light. seen from the other vessel the effect is startling, the white light illuminating every sail and spar of the pilot-boat, so that it stands out, its number[pg 155] clearly visible upon the mainsail, a gray specter against the night's background.
should the answering signal be favorable, there follows a scene of great excitement on the deck of the pilot-boat. at first sight of the ship, the pilot due to take the prize dives down to the cabin, sheds his working clothes and dons a suit of sober black, and by the time it is known he is wanted, he is ready to be transferred to his charge. taking on a pilot is not without its perils. the yawl nearly always pitches and tumbles in most uncomfortable fashion, while the ship is rarely if ever brought to a full stop, and the pilot, watching his chance, must grasp the rope ladder let down its side, and scramble aboard as best he can. sometimes he gets a ducking, and if the weather is tempestuous he is pretty certain to be drenched, but for that he cares not a jot, and he is sure to show a smiling face to captain and passengers when finally he sets foot on deck. dropping a pilot from an outgoing vessel is often more hazardous, especially in stormy weather, than his[pg 156] transfer the other way. then he must descend the rope ladder and jump for the boat in the nick of time, for to miscalculate in the least the position of the little shell means a ducking almost certainly, and possibly a watery grave.
a peril, however, more feared by pilots than the one i have been describing, is the dreaded lee shore; and with reason, as a story told by a veteran ocean pathfinder will show. on a still afternoon in midsummer the crew of a pilot-boat sighted a ship off fire island, some five miles away. in the dead calm prevailing the only way to board her was to row over the distance. there would be little danger in doing this if the wind did not spring up and the ship sail away, so the yawl was lowered and headed for the distant merchantman. but as night was closing in, and ere the yawl had come within hailing distance of the ship, of a sudden the breeze sprang up, and the vessel making sail, glided slowly over the horizon line. the breeze grew into a gale, and in the gathering storm and gloom[pg 157] the men could no longer discern the whereabouts of the pilot-boat. nor, there being no compass on board the yawl, could they determine the direction in which they were being blown. the nearest land was miles away and the only thing that could be done was to keep the boat's head to the wind and wait. thus the minutes lengthened into hours. toward dawn, when the night was darkest, they heard the thunder of surf on the reefs, and a little later felt the yawl lifted up on the crest of a mighty breaker rushing swiftly toward the land. there was a deafening roar, a crash, a whirl, and a torrent of foam. in a twinkling the boat was capsized and the poor fellows were struggling in the surf. one struck a rock and was killed. the others, freed from the receding wave, ran up the beach, and by digging their hands into the sand to escape the deadly undertow, finally got ashore, drenched and exhausted.
in the main, however, the system i have been describing has now become a thing of the past. potent causes have contributed to[pg 158] this result. formerly pilot-boats had no particular stations assigned to them, and boats have been known to cruise as far north as sable island, a distance of six hundred miles, in order to get steamers taking the northern courses. in the same way pilot-boats cruised long distances to the southward and straight out to sea to meet the incoming steamers and sailing vessels. thus, unrestrained in its movements and left to seek out its own salvation, each boat sought to outdo the other in securing work, and all sorts of strategic devices were brought into play in order to first gain the side of an incoming vessel. pilots took advantage of fog and night in order to slip by a rival, while jockeying for winds and position was indulged in to an extent that would be counted extraordinary in a yacht race.
competition, however, cut down earnings to such an extent that there came a time when many of the boats were no longer able to pay expenses. then it was that some of the long-headed among the pilots, casting about for a[pg 159] remedy for this evil, came to the conclusion that one steam pilot-boat would be able to do the work of three or four sailboats. it was accordingly decided some years ago that steamboats should gradually replace the existing fleet of sail. with this innovation came restrictions regulating the cruising grounds of the boats. instead of cruising about indiscriminately as formerly, each boat is now assigned a certain beat. an imaginary arc has been described extending from barnegat to fire island, a distance of seventy-five miles, and all pilot boats are expected to confine themselves within this line. four pilot-boats patrol this line, each covering a beat of about nineteen miles. inside of the circle are stationed two more pilot-boats, while still further in is a boat known as the inner pilot-boat. just off the bar another boat is stationed to receive the pilots dropped by outward-bound vessels. when a boat in the outer circle becomes unmanned or disabled, a boat from the inner circle takes its place, while a reserve boat occupies the beat left vacant on the [pg 160]inner circle. in this way all the beats are constantly patrolled in an efficient and economical way. each pilot takes his turn at the service, and is on board a boat cruising on the stations three days in seven, a moving contrast to the offshore service of other years, when a boat and crew were frequently compelled to remain at sea for weeks at a time.
indeed, under the new system of pilotage, battles with cross-seas and gales and exposures to snow, cold and sleet, while cruising for vessels hundreds of miles off coast, are fast becoming things of the past, and for stories of collisions, wrecks, narrow escapes and strange mishaps, one must now hark back to the records of former days. here, however, he is sure to encounter many a tale that quickens the pulse and stirs the blood. take the case of the columbia, run down by the steamship alaska, off fire island. when the alaska was sighted, the pilot-boat was head-reaching to the north on the port tack. the wind was blowing a gale from the northwest,[pg 161] and an ugly sea was running, with the weather clear, but cold. she plunged deeply into the heavy sea, and heeled to the force of the wind until her lee rail was awash. the wind whipped off the top of the waves and filled the air with spray. when the steamship sighted the boat off fire island, her course was changed to make a lee for the boat's yawl. she seemed to stop when the yawl was launched and two men and a pilot went over the side of the boat and dropped into her, but ere the yawl had fairly started on her way the liner, of a sudden, and without warning, forged ahead. the surge from the port bow of the alaska, as she pitched into a big wave, capsized the boat, and threw the men into the water. before anything could be done to save them the bows of the steamship rose and fell again, and, hitting the pilot-boat, cut it in two and crushed the decks and beams to bits, the broken timbers being swept under the bows and along the sides as the steamship again forged ahead and passed over the spot. not a man on the columbia was saved.
[pg 162]
the sandy hook pilot, however, never quails in the face of danger or even death, as was proved at the stranding of the packet boat, john minturn, almost within a stone's throw of the new jersey beach during a frightful hurricane in february, 1846. there were fifty-one souls on board the minturn, and of that number only thirteen escaped to tell the story of that fearful night. its hero, according to the evidences of all, was pilot thomas freeborn, who to the very last struggled manfully to succor the hapless women and children who clung to the deck around him. it was bitter cold, and every wave that washed over the stranded ship left its coating of ice on deck, rigging, passengers and crew. freeborn and brave captain stark, who was forced to see his wife and children freeze to death without being able to render them assistance, gave up their own clothing in a vain attempt to protect the weaker sufferers, and when days afterward the pilot's body was found washed up on the beach it was almost naked, while that of a woman, which[pg 163] lay near-by, was carefully wrapped in his pea-jacket.
it has been three-score years since the wreck of the minturn, but in every year since then there has been numbered among the members of the sandy hook pilot's association scores of hardy men, who, should need come to them, stood ready to risk their lives and die as bravely as did thomas freeborn. pilot henry devere proved that he had the same heroic fiber in his makeup when he sailed in the james funck, before the civil war. a brig under shortened sails was sighted one day, and when the yawl of the pilot-boat drew alongside, devere hailed a boy at the wheel. the boy seemed to be stupefied, and the pilot was obliged to hail him several times before he started up, leaned forward into the companionway, and called feebly to somebody below. then a gaunt man came on deck and said that the crew had been stricken by fever. most people in the face of a menace of this sort would have turned back, but devere was not that kind of[pg 164] man. instead, he went on board, and, with the help of the mate, headed the vessel toward sandy hook. the captain was ill in his stateroom. the body of a dead sailor found on deck was tied in mosquito netting and dropped overboard. the boy died in the lower bay, and the captain off the battery, leaving the mate as the sole survivor of the crew. the pilot helped to furl the sails and make the lines fast, and only left the stricken vessel when she had reached her moorings.
the stranding of the jesse carll in 1889, illustrates another of the dangers with which pilots sometimes have to contend. the boat, having discharged one of her five pilots, was standing off shore near fire island, when she began to feel the force of an advancing southern cyclone, and early in the evening was in what sailors call "nasty weather." at midnight a violent thunder-storm burst overhead, and the increasing wind raised a furious sea, but pilot gideon mapes, in charge of the vessel, had her under double-reefed sails, and standing up against the wind and waves in[pg 165] fine shape. then came a deluge of rain, and the wind increased to hurricane force. soon a thick mist covered the water and shut out everything in sight. the boat reached off and on, expecting to keep out of shoal water, but all efforts failed. her signals of distress were seen by the life-saving crew on the beach, and before daylight the ten men on board were taken ashore in boats. when morning came an effort was made to pull the boat off, but as she shifted into deeper water she filled, a hole having been made in her bottom. then the pilots abandoned her, but she was raised and repaired a few weeks later.
stories like these are what the pilots tell in their idle hours. searching for them at such a time, one is most likely to find them at the pilots' club, a flourishing social organization, which has roomy quarters just under the roof of a big office building within hailing distance of the battery. here at all hours of the day a score or more of pilots are sure to be sitting about spinning yarns, playing cards and checkers and reading the [pg 166]newspapers and magazines. their well-furnished clubrooms contain a great number of precious curios—relics from all quarters of the globe. there are firearms of curious antique pattern; autograph letters by such famous sea-dogs as macdonough and porter; a tiny chest of drawers carved from one of the timbers of john paul jones' ship, the bon homme richard; a portrait of washington by stuart, surrounded by two large american flags, and a model of the pilot-boat stingaree, which was built in 1810, and was one of the most famous crafts of her day.
this model shows that the years have wrought great changes in the building and rigging of pilot-boats. in old times the boats simply carried mainsail, foresail, and forestaysail and jib. they had no foretopmast, and on their maintopmast carried a flying gaff-topsail, which was hoisted from the deck. now the boats have both fore and maintopmasts, and each carries a mainsail, foresail, forestaysail, jib, jib-topsail, maintopsail and staysail and fore and main standing-gaff [pg 167]topsails, which give them an immense spread of sail, compared with that used by the boats of earlier times. a schooner-rigged pilot-boat costs from $15,000 to $16,000. that was about the cost of the caldwell h. colt, a good example of the typical pilot-boat. she is eighty-five feet long with twenty-one feet beam, 61.43 tons, custom-house register, and a rig as trim and jaunty as that of an ordinary yacht. the pride, however, at present writing, of the new york sandy hook fleet is the new york, built of steel, propelled by steam, and able to stand as much buffeting in cyclonic seas as the stanchest of the liners. she was built on the delaware from designs by a. cary smith, is 155 feet long, 28 feet beam, 19 feet 7 inches deep, and is driven by a compound surface-condensing engine of 100 horse-power. her pole masts are of steel, and she spreads on them enough canvas to steady her. the new york has accommodations for twenty-four pilots, who fare more luxuriously than they ever did on any of the old sailing craft. they have a smoking-room in a separate steel [pg 168]deckhouse, aft of the engine-room, fitted up like a similar room on an ocean steamship, while the lifeboats in which they leave the new york to board incoming vessels are hoisted and lowered by a steam derrick in less than a minute. it is intended that in a few years the entire fleet shall be made up of vessels equal if not superior to the new york.