Government of Bengal Proceedings of the Commissioners Conference of 1908

With the exception of the Port Officer the only gazetted officers who are connected with that service are the Medical Officer at the Sandheads on a salary of R360 a domiciled European and the Commander of the Undaunted on a salary of R400 a European officer of the local Marine whose ship is chiefly employed as a supply vessel to the pilot brigs. [...] The extreme length of the pilotage water on which the Bengal Pilot Service is employed is in the south-west monsoon 159 and in the north-east monsoon 127 miles.* The navigation presents peculiar difficulties owing to the strength of the currents the number.and shifting character of the shoals and the extreme narrowness at certain points of the channels available for the passpge of ships of an [...] The acceleration of the passage and the alteration in the construction of the larger ships which frequent the port have added to the danger of navigation in a degree scarcely less than it has been reduced by the employment of steam power. [...] The duties of the service as originally constituted were not confined to the piloting of vessels to and from the port of Calcutta and the officering of the pilot brigs which served as depots for Pilots awaiting the arrival of inward-bound vessels. [...] The result of the absence of such restrictions of the greater speed with which the navigation was accomplished and of certain privileges enjoed by the highest grade the Branch Pilots was that the service became too numerous and while the senior members earned large incomes the junior were unable to obtain sufficient incomes or to keep up their knowledge of the river.** That the system of