Pilot-boats.
Every pilot-boat must be of at least forty tons,
painted in a particular manner, and have on board,
besides a complete equipment of spars, sails, and the
ordinary stores and provisions, "two punts for boarding
vessels, a good telescope, two lanterns, a swivel
or other small gun, and a supply of rockets and blue-*lights
for making signals; also a sufficient number
of life-buoys and life-belts," as well as an approved
chart of the Bay of Liverpool, and charts of the
latest survey of the various places under the jurisdiction
of the Board, or which its pilots are required
to frequent. Each pilot-boat has a master, second
master, and third master, and ten apprentices, who,
with the other pilots on board, are to take charge of
vessels in rotation, according to their respective
grades and qualifications, so that every man has a
fair proportion of labour, the master in command
always having a discretionary power to set the
turn aside in peculiar cases, the circumstances of
every such case being duly entered in the log-book,
and reported to the Pilotage Committee when required.
The earnings of each of the pilot-boats,
which, by the way, are private property, licensed
by the Board, are divided into shares and distributed
in fixed proportions among the owners, masters, and
crew, according to their class. Seven separate
stations are allotted to the boats on the look-out for
inward-bound vessels, which must be strictly kept, so
that it is hardly possible, even in the thickest or most
stormy weather, for any ship approaching the banks
to miss a pilot-boat, if the captain adopts the most
ordinary precautions, and the means readily available
