Who steers? Captain or Pilot?

Just wondering.... I know we pick up a pilot at various points to take us in to port. When we were in Glacier Bay, the Ranger said thanked the Captain and said over the PA that was the closest he had ever been to Margerie Glacier, and complemented the captain. (It WAS a great trip).

My question is, when there is a Pilot aboard, WHO steers the ship? Is it the Captain? The Pilot? Or does the captain just oversee and act as final authority and someone else (such as a junior officer) steer? Was the ranger following polite protocol in his comments???

except in the Panama canal, the Captain is always in charge. Its his decision and responsibility. Who actually steers the ship is the helmsman-which can be the captain or someone he has delegated this to but on most ships this is done by computer-watched over by a junior officer on watch.

It almost never is the Pilot(except in the Panama canal where the Pilot is totally in charge)

A couple trips ago, the gal at the rental counter asked if my wife was going to drive the rental car... I replied that she does MOST of the driving... all I do is steer! Poor gal tried not to laugh, out of feminist solidarity, but finally snorted a chuckle and apologized to DW .. said that was the first time she'd heard that one.

So.... might be either the pilot or the captain up there steering... but look for the woman who is actually doing the driving *L*

A helmsman steers the ship.

The Captain gives orders, the Pilot gives advice.

Check out Captain Albert's blog on the HAL blogsite. He has a number of entries where he explains how the pilot system works in detail. It varies a lot depending on the port. http://www.hollandamericablog.com/albert/

The actual steering of the ship (when it isn't on auto-steering (aka auto-pilot) is done by a helmsman, who is a trained and qualified "rating" (non-officer). This individual responds to steering commands given by the person who has the "conn". That may be the officer of the watch, the captain, or a pilot. There is a clear, verbal transfer of who has the conn so that the helmsman knows who to listen to and all know who's in charge of the navigation of the ship at that moment.

Hand steering is done in poor weather or when close to land. In confined waters, the captain usually assumes the conn from the officer of the watch until the pilot boards. When the pilot boards, he will usually take the conn, at least until the docking, when the captain takes over again to bring the ship alongside (and on modern ships, at this point the captain is effectively steering with thrusters, engines/azipods, or the joystick to control all of these things. On older ships (15-20 years or older), he might have control of the engines and thrusters but he still needs to give steering commands to someone else).

Except in the Panama Canal, the captain is ultimately responsible no matter who has the conn. In other words, if he thinks the pilot gave a bad steering order, he can counter-mand the order with one he thinks is appropriate.

In large ports, pilots are very competent, often former ship captains themselves, who typically conn the ship with no question. In very small, backwater ports, the pilot may be someone with local knowledge who has the captain do the conning while he might point out things like "watch for that sandbar 2 points off the starbaord bow" and offer little else other than collect the pilotage fee and drink the free coffee on the bridge!

...and offer little else other than collect the pilotage fee and drink the free coffee on the bridge!

Or help the Captain collect dents in the ship's hull...