Houston Pilots serve as partners of The Port. As a vessel arrives at the bar and gives two long and three short blasts of the whistle or flashes on its signal lamp, a blue and gray boat approaches and a pilot boards to provide guidance through the most difficult pilotage in the world. This scene has played over and over again since 1915, when the first Houston Pilots guided seagoing ships along the long, narrow Houston Ship Channel.

“It is the most difficult channel in the world because of two-way traffic and the sheer number of tows,” says 20-year old veteran, Captain Robert Thompson, now in his second, one-year term a presiding officer. “We average about 55 ships transiting the Houston Ship channel each day.”

The above image and copy was printed in The Port of Houston journal, March/April 2007.