Section 40 of the Pilotage Act 1983 requires every licensed pilot to be furnished with a copy of this Act as amended for the time being, together with a copy of any relevant local Pilotage Order and by-laws. These two volumes, each of which sets out in full the text of the Pilotage Act 1983, is clearly intended to meet this requirement, and to find its way into the little black bag so often carried by the pilot when he comes on board. The authors of each volume have, however, approached the subject from a different point of view.

Geen and Douglas’ rather more elegant volume tackles in a practical way the often delicate subject of division of control as between master and pilot. Two particularly interesting sections of this book are entitled “The Master’s View” and “The Pilot’s View”, which suggest that the authors have practical experience of each viewpoint. The relationship between master and pilot underwent fundamental changes when the Pilotage Act 1913 abolished the defence of compulsory pilotage following the report of the 1911 Departmental Committee on Pilotage and the 1910 International Convention on the Law Respecting Collisions. Geen and Douglas follow the judicial development of this relationship since 1913 to the present day. It is noteworthy that the Pilotage Act 1983 does not deal with the relationship between master and pilot and indeed does not contain a definition of the words pilot and pilotage. Geen and Douglas remind us that the 1983 Act has “borrowed” certain interpretation provisions from the Merchant Shipping Act 1894, and Appendix B to The Law of Pilotage helpfully reproduces those definitions. Appendix A sets out the Act verbatim but without comment.

The Modern Law of Pilotage, on the other hand, is a slimmer, lighter volume (possibly an advantage when climbing a pilot ladder) but approaches the subject from a more lawyer-like point of view. The Law of Pilotage is summarized in a mere 47 pages of text which cover the subject comprehensively, if a little less nautically than Geen and Douglas. The subjects of salvage and limitation of liability are dealt with more comprehensively by Rose.