Stovall was one of several pilots who spent many hours shifting goods and people around in 1998 and 1999 after the Pakistani ship Delta Pride got stranded in the Gulf for more than a year. Stovall got certificates of appreciation from state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., D-Brownsville, and from the Coast Guard for those missions. Franceschi said there s no substitute for experience when it comes to piloting ships. The more experience you have the better off you are. Although the Coast Guard licenses pilots, the state is the agency that commissions them.
Pilots don t earn a base salary.
They get paid based on a ship s tonnage and draft. Asked whether that meant a few hundred dollars per outing or more, the pilots declined to comment. Kyger said the port has been getting an average of 20 ships a month. But the coming of the gambling ship has brought additional business to the pilots. The Island Dawn makes two round-trips a day, meaning the pilots board the ship every time it goes out to sea and returns ashore.