Milford chronicle., 1928-12-28
HAVE PTLOTED SHIPS
MANY GENERATIONS
Cape May And Lewes Families
Have Furnished Delaware River
Guides Since Colonial Drys.


for Philadelphia at the Delaware
Capes, chances are that he will be &
Bennett or a Rutherford, of Cape
of Lewes, Del.
A hundred years ago, or even
two hundred, it would have been
the same, for a dozen families di-
vided between Cape May and Lewes
have been furnishing pilots for the
Delaware since Colonial times.
others of this aristocracy of the
river are the Schellengers and the
Hands, the Churches and the Ed
ridges, from the Jersey side, and the
Marshall and the Teals and the
Chambers family on the Delaware
shore. In them flows the blood OF
the men who succeeded the Nanti-
coke Indians that pilOted the first
white men up the river.
Today the Delaware Bay and Riv-
er Pilots Association has sixty
pilots and sixteen apprentices on
its rolls. OF this number approx
mately one-half are of the old
strain, whose ancestors trod the
decks of the ships of Stephen Cir
ard and Jacob Ridgway, of British
merchantmen before the Revolution
or the Dutch ships that brought i'm
migrants from the Palatinate.
In the Philadelphia Office of the
association at II S. 4th St., there is
a board on which are posted the
names of pilots in the order in
which they will take outward bound
ships to the sea. Each pilots name
is painted in white on black strip
of wood.
A glance shows the old strain is
still going strong. There they are,
a Maui, a Teal, two Virdens, a Ben
nett, a Poynter, a Schellenger, car
rying on Just as their fathers and
grandfathers did before them, some
themselves venerable old men with
forty and fifty years service behind
them.
Captain Thomas J. Virden-all pill
OTIS are captains-is president of the
association. On both his mothers |
and fathers side he is descended |
from a long line of pilOts-all pilots |
as far back as he can go.
And his father, Captain John Pen
rose Yirden, first president of the |
association when it was organized |
in 1896, is still in the service, al
though in his eightieth year. Dur
ing the winter months he lays off,
but when the warm weather returns
he plans to return, prepared to
scramble up the rope ladder to the
deck of a ship and take his chances
o. getting ducked in the ocean.
T7lo Uirdan |
bound out as an apprentice pilot
when he was fifteen. His son Thom-
as did likewise when he was fifteen.
It was hard life in those days; to-
day many of the rough edges are
rounded off by the advent of steam.
Competition, too, was keen before
the association came.
The association itself grew out of
the demands of steamships, and the
increased traffic into the port of
Philadelphia. Pilots come under the
regulation of the Pennsylvania
Board of Commissioners of Naviga- :
tion and the Delaware Board of Pill
Ot Commissioners, these two States
having jurisdiction over the river.
In addition to this regulation, the .
is limited to eighty pilots,
forty of which come under the inn
mediate licensing body of each
State. Prior to the formation of a
the Association, eight schOOners
were operated by the pilots and I
would cruise far out to sea to place n
a pilot on ship.
So keen was the rivalry between \
the schOoners that not infrequently E
one would sail as far as Cape Cod "
for boats coming from Europe, or
south to Cape Hatteras for vessels v
from the South. But when steam 81
srs gradually replaced sail the dis CT
of the pilot schoOners,
in bad weather, was ap- 8
parent, and with the amalgamatiOn n
1 steam pilot boat, which lies off
4ewes, was put in service. G.
1t takes four years of apprentice n
ship to become a pilot. All the old
raseolOgy-"bound out" freed" u
ETC., is still used when one enters 7,
he service. It means first a rigid NJ
physical and mental examination by
he State authorities and by the As r,
and then two years as a ~ ~
eck hand on the Pilot Boat Phila- ~
elphia at the entrance of the "
BAY. -,
At the end of that time the ap- III
rentice is bound over to a veteran r.
ilot and must make ninety trips up
he river before he receives a quail w
ed license which permits him to 10
irect a boat of not more than NJ
zen feet draft. A year later he is WI
lade a second class pilot and can 0.
axe ships up to twenty-three foot A.
raft. In another year he receives
full license. dr.;
The code of the river pilot is ex-
citing, as it permits no mistakes. Re
he moment he climbs on board he r.
5sumes full responsibility for the
lfety of the ship until it is docked All
inbound or out to open sea if out Br
ard bound. The run by river is wo
)3 miles, although the distance as
lie crow flies, only rs, and takes Io
ON seven to fourteen hours, de- So,
ending on the current and speed of
lie vessel.
Last year the men of the Pilots 10
brought over 5000 ships I
yer the course with but three ma 10
r accidents, and of this number, -.
70 were caused by faulty steering '4'1
EAR. At that-this figure represent IA
only forty per cent. of the river 11:, aIu
affic, coastwise trade not requir- NIL =
g pilot service. ~
"A pilot CANDLES his livelihood ma
cry time he takes a ship up the ana
ver," Captain Virden said. "If he L
responsible for a major accident Hel
will lose his license. With the h
YER traffic increasing Won can nm Hal
.4,,,d ,,,l,o4 - ,,,oov,, e., A. Ger