August 2025 Lunch Report

This month's menu was a most enjoyable Turkey and Ham Pie with Mashed Potato and Seasonal Vegetables followed by a delightful Sticky Toffee Pudding with Toffee Sauce and Vanilla Ice Cream.

Luckily after such a filling meal we had a very interesting speaker, Captain Don Cockrill to keep us awake talking about Pilotage..

Don, a retired Port of London Pilot said that pilots are one of the oldest professions and have been helping ships to safely dock in ports around the world since the time of Homer (Iliad) and even earlier!

It is certainly a demanding and dangerous occupation and all Pilots are ex-Ship Captains or Senior Deck Crew.

Don showed us several short film clips of pilots getting off and on board the large ships in a variety of weather conditions. Needless to say nothing was easy, for even in calm weather the swell made the transfer from rope ladder to and from the pilot boat a major feat of strength and agility. When asked if they used safety harnesses Don said no, because they were more difficult to remove and also they couldn't trust the ship owners/crew to keep them in good working order (some of the rope ladders were in awful condition too).

Apparently getting the ship safely into the quayside is all a matter of physics, momentum, hydraulics, speed, distance, displacement, etc., thankfully Don didn't go into details but he did show us what happens when a large container ship went too fast! To help us appreciate the size of the largest container ships he helpfully provided a photo of one super-imposed on the map of Cuddington Golf Course.

Thank you Don for a very interesting and entertaing presentation. Pilots certainly keep the trade flowing between nations.