Maritime Voices
Whiting Chisman, President, Virginia Pilots
Maritime Voices: Whiting Chisman, President, Virginia Pilots
Every port and shipping channel has its own unique characteristics. In Virginia it’s the delicate balance of robust commercial traffic, with dramatically larger containerships, mixed with one of the world’s largest naval bases. Whiting Chisman, President, Virginia Pilots, and his team are the unseen “quarterbacks”, managing that balance to maintain safe, efficient navigation operations.
By Greg Trauthwein
For Chisman, the path to piloting began with a childhood on the waters of Hampton, Virginia. “I grew up boating and sailing and love being on the water,” he recalled. That lifelong passion carried him through Virginia Military Institute, where he first set his sights on pilotage. “Around my second year of college I started looking into and pursuing piloting as a career. I applied with the Virginia Pilot Association my senior year. I didn’t get accepted the first time, but was fortunate enough to be accepted the second year.”
His apprenticeship began in 1993. Virginia requires a rigorous five-year apprenticeship program overseen by the Virginia Board for Branch Pilots. “I became a full branch pilot in 1998,” Chisman said.
Today, the Virginia Pilot Association’s reach extends across one of the busiest and most complex port systems in North America. “We are responsible for providing pilot services for the waters of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Chisman explained. “Virginia has the second largest port on the East Coast by tonnage and the third largest by container volume. Looking at overall tonnage, we’re the biggest coal exporting complex in North America.”
That scale of operations is large, as pilots cover more than 500 square miles, navigating to 63 terminals on the Elizabeth River alone, and extending as far as Richmond on the James River and deep into the York River. The association today consists of 33 full branch pilots, four limited branch pilots, and a growing pool of apprentices.
Image courtesy Virginia Pilots
We don’t have a shortage of applicants, but workforce development is a concern for our operations center and watch standers at Cape Henry. It’s a 24/7/365 commitment—just like tugs and longshoremen. We need people willing to work those schedules.”
- Whiting Chisman,
President, Virginia Pilots
A Fleet Built for the Job
Supporting this operation is a specialized fleet of pilot launches — each built at Gladding-Hearn Shipbuilding. “We have six pilot launches, and we just took delivery of a brand-new harbor launch in March 2025,” said Chisman. “Our launch crews run 24 hours a day, every day of the year.”
Virginia Pilots has its own mechanical shop to support the vessels, with in-house engineers handling much of the maintenance, including propeller and pod changes on the Volvo Penta IPS-equipped launches.
The fleet is dispatched from a 24/7 operations center and coordinated through the Cape Henry tower, which Virginia shares with the Maryland pilots. “Our operations center is the nerve center of the port,” Chisman said. “We’re also the only major port in the U.S. that shares its main channel with the largest naval base in the world. That requires a lot of coordination, particularly after 9/11, when aircraft carrier movements required one-way traffic in the Thimble Shoal channel.”
Navigating a Unique Maritime Landscape
Virginia’s pilotage waters are as challenging as they are strategically significant. “When I started, the biggest ship we had was the aircraft carrier,” Chisman noted. “Today, we bring in 14,000 TEU container ships every single day. There’s much more coordination needed between all stakeholders to navigate safely.”
That includes the U.S. Navy, the Port of Virginia, the Coast Guard … even the cruise lines, all of whom must align their schedules for one-way channel closures. The complexity is heightened by the construction of the country’s largest offshore wind farm off Virginia’s coast. “Those vessels, when fully loaded with blades and components, can be up to 300 or 400 feet wide going down the channel,” he said.
Pilot training is equally robust to meet those challenges. Apprentices spend five years aboard ships, riding or piloting more than 2,200 vessels before qualifying as full branch pilots. Training includes ship handling courses at in the U.K. and France, coupled with continuing education simulator training at the Maritime Pilots Institute in Louisiana.
Like much of the maritime sector, the pilot profession is feeling the pull of generational workforce shifts. Chisman noted that while he did not attend a maritime academy, most apprentices today do, arriving with seagoing licenses and experience on ships or tugboats. “We don’t have a shortage of applicants, but workforce development is a concern for our operations center and watch standers at Cape Henry. It’s a 24/7/365 commitment—just like tugs and longshoremen. We need people willing to work those schedules.”
Megatrends Shaping the Future
For Chisman, the defining megatrend is clear: scale. “I can’t stress enough that, for us, it’s the bigger ships,” he said. Larger container vessels and specialized ships supporting offshore wind construction demand unprecedented coordination and precision.
Other forces loom as well. The port’s $450 million deepening project, supported by more than $1 billion in infrastructure investment, will soon bring 55-foot channels to Virginia. That capacity will only invite more — and larger — vessels. Meanwhile, pilots are working with the Coast Guard and Virginia Maritime Association to establish safety fairways around the wind farm to ensure shipping corridors remain secure for generations to come.
