A professional who commands ships to steer them into and out of harbors, estuaries, straits, and sounds, and on rivers, lakes, and bays. Responsibilities include:

• Directs course and speed of ship on basis of specialized knowledge of local winds, weather, tides, and current.
• Orders worker at helm to steer ship, and navigates ship to avoid reefs, outlying shoals, and other hazards to shipping, utilizing aids to navigation, such as lighthouses and buoys.
• Signals tugboat captain to berth and unberth ship.
• Must be licensed by U.S.
• Coast Guard with limitations indicating class and tonnage of vessels for which license is valid and route and waters that may be piloted.
• May be designated according to vessel commanded as Pilot, Steam Yacht; Pilot, Tank Vessel.