Baltimore bridge crash puts new focus on role of ship pilots [Video]

From the Puget Sound Pilots headquarters in downtown Seattle, with a view of Puget Sound as a backdrop, Capt. Ivan Carlson Jr. walks Scripps News’ Vanessa Misciagna through an unfolding situation: A cargo ship loses power and a pilot is turning the boat around to safely dock.

“I love ship-handling,” said Carlson, a maritime pilot of 18 years. “When you do a good job and you just walk away and the captain says, ‘Good job, pilot. Thank you.’ Right? And so it feels good to do it right.”

Carlson is also the executive director and president of Puget Sound Pilots, an organization of marine pilots that work in Puget Sound, a 95-mile-long body of water in the heart of Western Washington State.

However, the role of a pilot is one that many people outside the world of mariners do not know exists.

“They’re high-level maritime professionals who have received very specialized training, making them local-knowledge subject-matter experts for inland waters,” said …