Delaware Pilots
Lewes * Maritime History Trail
Marine pilots know the shoals, lumps, and ledges of the Delaware intimately. They know the bends of the dredged channel, the characteristics of every lighthouse and range light, and the location of wrecks. They understand tides and currents and the weather at sea. And they can put it all together to safely guide ships 100 miles from the Atlantic Ocean to the ports of Wilmington, Philadelphia, and Trenton.
It is a demanding, tiring, and dangerous job at which men and women risk - and sometimes lose - their lives for the safety of others and the protection of millions of dollars of shipped goods.
Many of the first Delaware pilots were Native Americans. Then Europeans learned the secrets of the Delaware and turned piloting into a formal profession. Early on, pilots competed for business, racing out to sea in small schooners to be the first onboard an inbound ship. But over time, they began to cooperate, and in 1896 The Pilots' Association for the Bay and River Delaware was formed.
Pilots now motor out from their headquarters just west of the ferry terminal in the safety of a sturdy launch and climb on ships still underway in the pilot boarding area east of Cape Henlopen point.
Marker can be reached from U.S. 9 north of Cape Henlopen Drive.
Courtesy hmdb.org
