When the boat rolled back in the opposite 

 direction, Midgett was thrown overboard into 

 55 feet of water, Baily adds. "But he wasn't in 

 the water long." 



In 1984, Buddy's son. Andrew Midgett, 

 joined the pilots' association. 



"It is hard not to do it if your dad does 

 it," says Andrew Midgett. "I loved being on a 

 boat as a kid. I grew up on Bogue Sound and 

 working around tugboats. It was in me." 



Despite the pilots' training and knowledge 

 of local waters, mishaps occur. 



Two or three years ago, Baily was guiding 

 a ship that went aground. The ship's variable 

 pitch propeller got stuck in the full ahead 

 position. The ship hit a sand shoal 

 and rose out of the water eight feet, 

 he says. 



"However, within 24 

 hours, the ship was floating free 

 and fortunately had no bottom 

 damage," Baily adds. 



RICH HISTORY 



Pilots have been around 

 North Carolina ports for hundreds 

 of years. 



When North Carolina's first 

 major port development began 

 in the 1 850s at Morehead City, 

 harbor pilots began bringing in 

 ships through Beaufort Inlet. 



In Wilmington, the river 

 pilots became crucial during the 

 Union blockade of the South during the Civil 

 War. They would steam down the coastline and 

 bring back needed supplies to the port, making 

 Wilmington the last port open to blockade 

 runners. 



When the town finally fell in early 1 865, it 

 signaled the end of the Confederates' hopes. 



However, the takeover by Federal troops 

 during the Civil War and a damaging storm in 

 1 876 hampered the port development for many 

 years, according to the North Carolina Ports 

 Authority Web site. 



In the years before modem dredging 

 and channel deepening of the river, known 

 ominously as the Cape Fear, captains used local 

 pilots to maneuver the sandbars at the entrance 

 of the harbor and of Frying Pan Shoals, more 

 than 20 miles offshore. 



CLOCKWISE 

 FROM TOP LEFT: 

 Tugboat fenders 

 feature rubber tires. 

 • Harbor pilots 

 head away 

 from Morehead 

 City docks. • 

 From left, Bill Baily, 

 Bill Davis and 

 Andrew Midgett 

 all work on the 

 pilot boat • 

 Tugboats turn 

 around Navy ships. 



'Think of the captain of a large ship at 

 Cape Fear as a blind man entering an immense, 

 strange house, cluttered with unfamiliar 

 furniture and other hazards, with only one 

 entrance and one exit," writes Jim McNeil in 

 Masters of the Shoals. 



Because of the pilots' daring runs and 

 narrow escapes, they often were romanticized 

 in publications as "dandies of the town," 

 according to an article excerpted in Masters of 

 the Shoals. "They wore fine ruffled shirts, tight 

 fitting boots, long black coats and plug hats," 

 the author writes. "Every boy hoped some day 

 to become a pilot." 



20TH CENTURY 



The river pilots, who sailed schooners and 

 hung out on the Bald Head Island beach, were 



the guides to these "blind men" and kept the 

 captains from wrecking their ships. 



"Before 1921, pilots worked for 

 themselves and competed for business," says 

 Kirby. "They would race out to the ships. 

 People would shoot at one another getting to 

 the ships. It got crazy." 



Many pilots only worked part-time. 

 Competition between pilots reduced their 

 incomes to the point that they had to work in 

 other occupations to support themselves and 

 their families, according to Kirby. 



"This resulted in a system where pilots 

 would not go to ships in rough weather or to 

 small ships with lower pilot tariffs because 

 they could make easier money in other 

 occupations." 



By 1 921 , the modem Wilmington/Cape 



10 EARLY SUMMER 2005 



