Picking up the pilot.

 I  always think of the famous Punch cartoon by Sir John Tenniel  about Bismarck when I see the pilot launch on the Clyde nuzzling up to a ship arriving or leaving.

That was called "dropping the pilot" but today I saw this ship picking up the pilot as it slowly left Greenock, bound (I discovered later) for Belfast.  You can just see the pilot on the deck of the launch and the ladder lowered for him to climb up. 

The ship is the pallet carrier Trans Dania and is just one of the vessels that was on the Clyde this evening as I came back from Glasgow.   

The comings and goings from a port are constantly fascinating, at least to me.