A BRAVE ATTEMPT

It was 5.30 a.m. on Thursday, 13th. August 1998 aboard the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2 in the approaches to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the daily Newsheet, already under our cabin door carried the 'Stop Press'; "At approximately 6.30 am. the Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter ('Marguerite',) retired Pilot Boat which is 105 years old welcomes QE2 to Halifax."

This, to me, was the realisation of a wild and unlikely idea put to me months ago by John Steele of the Covey Island Boatworks, Nova Scotia. Apparently he had suggested to the Halifax Pilots that it would be something different to their normal routine if they boarded the QE2 from a sailing cutter in the old way, rather than from their modern motor cutter. The idea caught their imagination and it was arranged for Pilot Captain John Bell to be put aboard the liner from the cutter's punt, rowed by his father, retired Halifax Pilot Captain Douglas Bell.

When John Steele rang me with this news I could hardly believe it. What a fantastic idea - but it had to be a pipe dream. No Captain, these days, is going to stop a 70,000 ton ship just to re-enact a manoeuvre that was made redundant over eighty years ago. A great idea but it could not possibly happen. The next 'phone call came, just before we left to join the QE2, to say that it really was! I was on the proverbial 'cloud nine' and once on board, Halifax could not come up in the chart fast enough for me.

Thus, not wishing to miss a second of this momentous occasion, I made my way through a silent ship to the Boat Deck, in the company of Sue, my partner of more than forty years, fellow sailor and Pilot Boat enthusiast. It was still pitch dark to landward but we continued to gaze into the blackness until, at last, the eastern horizon began to lighten with the makings of a colourful sunrise and then -there they were! Two tiny shapes, against the grey smudge of the shoreline, which gradually resolved into the mainsails of a pair of cutters, sailing hard with a free wind over the starboard quarter. Soon we could recognise the 'Marguerite' (now with a 'T' added) with her punt in tow and the other, the 'Eleanor Mary', one of the lovely 'Westernman' cruising cutters produced by the Covey Island Yard keeping her company. Also, at a discreet distance hovered the Press and Media boat.

The 105 year-old Bristol Channel Pilot cutter Marguerite (T) With a pilot on board met the Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth 2, off Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Thursday 13th August 1998

From the height of our perch on the Liner's Boat Deck it was difficult to assess the sailing conditions but, although the wind was fresh and there was a chop on the water, it did not seem to be excessively rough and I was rather surprised that the Pilot and his Oarsman were not in the punt and ready to cast off for the ship's entry port. Instead of which the 'Marguerite' elected to round up with the punt pulled up for the Pilot to board her overside. And that is when it went 'pear-shaped', for when he put his weight on the gun'l of the punt she listed and immediately shipped a lot of water, at which the Pilot wisely hopped very smartly back on board the cutter, thus aborting the exercise. A pity, but even so, a great effort.

Captain Warwick of the QE2 had obviously allowed for possible snags because, in seconds a very modern powered Pilot launch snarled up alongside us with another Pilot, having been lurking out of sight until needed.

Even so, the attempt at boarding in the old way was by no means wasted as it was a valuable practical demonstration of the difficulties which confronted the old sailing Pilots every time they boarded a ship at sea. We consider ourselves very privileged to have witnessed it on this occasion and our thanks go to John Steele, who instigated the exercise, the Halifax Pilots and, of course to Captain Warwick without whose co-operation it could not have happened.

It is interesting that, of an estimated twelve hundred plus passengers aboard, we were the only two on deck for the occasion. So much for the degree of interest in the sea and ships among liner-cruising folk but for us it was a high peak in something like fifty years research of Bristol Channel Sailing Pilots.

Not unnaturally the event occupied my thoughts for many hours afterwards, wondering why the operation had come unstuck at the last moment but viewing it, as I had been, from a position safely high above the action, I would not presume to comment. The men involved - both the skipper and crew of the Marguerite and the two pilots were highly skilled professionals of vast sea-going experience and if the operation could have been carried out safely they would have done it, which would seem to narrow the problem down to the punt they were using. She seemed to be somewhat smaller, lighter and finer forward than the heavier boats used by the old Pilots who, after all, had to board ships in conditions far worse than those prevailing on this particular morning. But this is sheer conjecture and cannot in any way detract from the thrill of witnessing the most famous ocean liner in the world being met at sea by the most famous Pilot cutter of her own era. Frank Trott would have loved it!

By Pete Stuckey and Susan Dummett

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