Video Shows How San Francisco Bar Pilots Help Steer Large Ships Into the Bay

The article was originally published on https://sfist.com/2025/12/08/video-shows-how-san-francisco-bar-pilots-help-steer-large-ships-into-the-bay/A new video documents the fairly unsung work of the San Francisco Bar Pilots, an elite group of local maritime experts and ship captains who board huge container ships and cruise ships to help them safely navigate through the Golden Gate. If you haven't heard of the San Francisco Bar Pilots, you're not alone. They're a team of 60 skilled maritime pilots who are part of an organization that dates back to 1850, essentially to the founding of the city itself. For as long as ships were traveling into San Francisco Bay, ship captains without the specific local knowledge of currents, winds, and water depths — particularly around the channel leading int