Welcome to the American Harbour & Docking Pilots Association web site.

Imagine taking an ocean liner the length of three football fields, tall as a fifteen story building and moving it around on water with only inches of clearance. Now imagine doing this on a dark night in gale force wind.  Add some snow, rain or perhaps fog.  Such is the work of the Docking Pilot.  With years of maritime experience he routinely practices his profession. The docking pilot is simular to a musical conductor.  Instead of horns, strings and drums, his instruments are a radios, tugboats, and intricate knowledge of channels, shoals, water depths, currents, and tides.  Communicating by radio with his assist tugs, he calmly passes instructions to a ship's crew that often speaks a language different than his own.  With the finesse of a surgeon,  he gently coaxes the oceangoing leviathan safely to rest alongside her berth.