Welcome to Driver's Ed...For Supertankers

It turns out that supertankers and cruise ships have valets. They're called maritime pilots, and they're among the most elite ship handlers in the world. So where does one go to learn how to park the largest ships in the world? To the Maritime Pilots Institute in Covington, La. There, they use mini-versions of the behemoth boats to teach the basics. All aboard!

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[canuck]

I love these sort of videos where something completely unknown to the general public is shown and to be discovered.

[djecoed]

Years ago I was in the US Navy. When our ship sailed to another country Navy officers conned the helm all the way until we put to port. Once my ship, the USS Canopus, put in to Lisbon, Portugal. We awaited the arrival of the Lisbon harbor pilot to guide us in. He arrived on a small boat, no more than 20 feet, and turned out to be a wrinkled and sun-burnt Portuguese gentleman in loose pants and a button-down shirt who looked like your image of your grandfather. He nodded to the assembled officers--of the greatest maritime power in history---took command and directed the helmsman to our slip without one extra word. Job done, he nodded again, and departed. I learned a lesson about authority and, well... authority.

[Dan-friend.of.the.forest]

It's videos like this that get me wishing I was super rich. If I was Warren Buffet, I'm pretty sure I would have a miniature seaport filled with these tiny vessels.

[cletusofeckitall]

Am I the only one who wants one of those mini tankers as a fishing boat?

[shellbacksclub]

surprising how informative these vids can be in such a short amount of time. Still tho, I wish they were longer.

[freshbru]

I love these little peeks into the lives and profession of people that this channel provides, also the cinematography work is amazing.

[duncanm]

Well what a funny time for this to be recommended

[ldwithrow]

Reminds me of the Navy Shiphandling school at Little Creek VA back in the 70s. It was a huge indoor pool with a whole scale modeled harbor complex and radio controlled models of every type of ship the Navy had at the time. I took my training as a harbor tug master there.

[sadface]

When I was at college, they had a building specifically for maritime training. They have everything from the classroom level all the way up to a full size lifeboat simulator.

They also have a replica ship bridge with about 320 degrees of surround projection. It takes up an entire room and requires a whole sever room to power it.

I studied computer networking but we got the chance to play in the simulator as part of our course on severs and distributed computing. It was pretty cool.

[THUNDERDOME]

The little anchors 😂 never thought a ship could be adorable

[philchia]

I think every sailor stands in awe of the professionalism of the Pilots. Their skill and instinct is vital. Further the fact that most people don't know of them as it is one of the professions where mistakes are that are known.

[mojojojo]

Wow this is the exact reason why YouTube is so cool... these sort of videos are priceless

[michaelharrison]

Very serious training for a very serious job.
But this video just made me smile

[ibetrollintheybehatin]

Where are the Somali pirate simulators?

[shantytownshipwright]

"Drop anchor captain, we're having tea."

[justinl]

When I hear supertanker I though
"Are they going to drive a Maus? Better start with the Mauschën."

[Hannodb]

Those training models is so I'll pay just to play around with them.

[Infamouscoma]

.4hp? What are they using a guy blowing air into the water?

[Barsabus]

Now I want to see a giant person riding around on a full sized ship

[fty]

Best part about this is that I live not even 10 minutes from where they train on the smaller scale boats. It’s actually in Bush, LA. Just north of Covington out in the country.