e,
and his owners will have trouble with the insurance companies. So the law
is acquiesced in, perhaps not very cheerfully, and there have grown up at
each American port men who from boyhood have studied the channels until
they can thread them with the biggest steamship in the densest fog and
never touch bottom. New York as the chief port has the largest body of
pilots, and in the old days, before the triumph of steam, had a fleet of
some thirty boats, trim little schooners of about eighty tons, rigged like
yachts, and often outsailing the best of them. In those days the rivalry
between the pilots for ships was keen and the pilot-boats would not
infrequently cruise as far east as Sable Island to lay in wait for their
game. That was in the era of sailing ships and infrequent steamers, and it
was the period of the greatest mortality among the pilots; for staunch as
their little boats were, and consummate as was their seamanship, they were
not fitted for such long cruises. The marine underwriters in those days
used to reckon on a loss of at least one pilot-boat annually. Since 1838
forty-six have been lost, thirteen going down with all on board. In late
years, however, changes in the methods of pilotage have greatly decreased
the risks run by the boats. When the great ocean liners began trying to
make "record trips" between their European ports and Sandy Hook, their
captains became unwilling to slow up five hundred miles from New York to
take a pilot. They want to drive their vessels for every bit of speed that
is in them, at least until reported from Fire Island. The slower boats,
the ocean tramps, too, look with disfavor on shipping a pilot far out at
sea, for it meant only an idler aboard, to be fed until the mouth of the
harbor was reached. So the rivalry between the pilots gave way to
cooperation. A steamer was built to serve as a station-boat, which keeps
its position just outside New York harbor, and supplies pilots for the
eight boats of the fleet that cruise over fixed beats a few score miles
away. But this change in the system has not so greatly reduced the
individual pilot's chance of giving up his life in tribute to Neptune, for
the great peril of his calling--that involved in getting from his
pilot-boat to the deck of the steamer he is to take in--remains unabated.

[Illustration: THE EXCITING MOMENT IN THE PILOT'S TRADE]

Professional pride no less than hope of profit makes the pilot take every
imaginable ris