Hi, GB!
I plead guilty.
All my own work.
As to Summer Evening, I recited it once at a lunch of the Master Mariners' Club -following which a member complained that I had not mentioned Manchester Liners. The splendid Canon Bob Evans (then aged 83) leapt to his feet and said "And Manchester Liners from Montreal, coming home with bugger all!"
As to whether or not the pilot might have any say in whether or not the ship should dock in all the circumstances, of course he does: that is what he is paid to do. It is his function to take the conduct of the ship (nothing more, nothing less) . This calls upon him to say "No" sometimes. The shipmaster who ignores a pilot's advice (and carries on, against a pilot's advice) leaves himself answerable to his owners and his insurers, to say nothing of any third party. Very few deep-sea shipmasters are willing to take the risk. Of course, the Master might be the first to say "No". The upshot is that before any deep-sea ship moves in pilotage waters there is invariably agreement between pilot and shipmaster that she should do so.
Damage was often done when docking in bad weather. It was part of the process of keeping shipping moving. Teams of men would attend at the lockside, equipped with portable fenders, to prevent damage as far as poosible. Crates of fenders were maintained at the locksides, painted in company colours. (No doubt you will have seen them.) Head Line retained their own Pilot (John Snowball) until the company ceased trading. They would not have done so unless they had every confidence in him and accepted any damage done as a price to be paid in their own commercial interests. All who knew him had confidence in him.
v best
BY
ps 28.07.10
A further factor in the question of whether a ship should dock in bad weather is that any harbour authority has the power to close its port (i.e. prohibit entry) to any ship. The power needs to be exercised properly and is rarely exercised: but it is exercised sometimes. It clearly was not exercised in any of the Head Line cases which you mention.
The commercial pressures upon any ship to dock on schedule are great. Shipowners, shippers (i.e. the owners of the cargo) and harbour authorities all wish to see things kept moving as a matter of profit. On the other hand, none of those three parties has the conduct of the ship. The conduct of any ship is with her Master, who remains free to accept or ignore a pilot's advice, even in circumstances where (as at Liverpool and most large ports) pilotage is compulsory. As mentioned above, the Master of a deep-sea ship will very rarely over-ride his pilot, if only on the principal that you don't keep a dog and bark yourself. Any shipmaster (anywhere in the world) is heavily obliged to heed the best local advice available, as given to him by his pilot. There is nobody else who is qualified to give pilotage advice. The pilot gives his advice in the form of helm orders, engine orders and all other aspects of navigation; and thus has the conduct of the ship.
In those circumstances, the first person to be looked to for a decision as to whether or not a ship should dock in bad weather is invariably the pilot.
As to law, it was settled in the House of Lords as recently as 1988 that a pilot is an independent professional who navigates as a principal: and not as the servant of any harbour authority. By the provisions of successive Acts of Parliament, the pilot is the servant of the ship, even though he is not a member of the crew. In a later case in 1993 (confirming the 1988 decision, but under a new Act of Parliament) it was observed that because the pilot is the servant of the ship he cannot at the same time be the servant of any harbour authority, on the Biblical principal that no man can serve two masters (St Mathew Chapter 6, verse 24).
Hope this might clarify things a bit.
Best
BY
