Multiple Choice, Single Answer
1 questions. Answer them all, then submit once for your section score.
Read the passage and answer the question.
Harbor pilots are mariners with intimate local knowledge who board incoming ships to guide them through the final, most hazardous stretch of a voyage: the approach into port. Unlike a ship's own captain, who may know open-ocean navigation intimately but has never sailed a particular harbor's shifting sandbars and currents, a harbor pilot navigates the same waters daily and can anticipate changes invisible to outsiders. Piloting is typically compulsory in busy ports, not because captains are presumed incompetent, but because local conditions change too frequently for any visiting crew to track reliably. Pilots often board moving vessels from small boats, climbing rope ladders in open water, a practice that remains one of the more physically hazardous routine tasks in modern shipping.