Captain Frank Knowles

[Tony Morcom]

Courtesy of our friends @ gCaptain





Ship Pilot Dies in Accident off Panama City [UPDATE]

By Rob Almeida On March 14, 2013



Update 1 – Statement from Florida Harbor Pilots Association added
While boarding the Pipit Arrow, a 656-foot bulk carrier at the Panama City, FL sea buoy, 73-year old veteran ship pilot and former Coast Guardsman, Captain Frank Knowles, fell from the vessel’s jacob’s ladder and was unable to be immediately recovered in the early morning darkness.

MV Pipit Arrow via ogmoimbituba.com.br

An emergency helicopter and fixed-wing aircraft from the US Coast Guard were immediately deployed, however two hours later his body was recovered by the Pipit Arrow’s fast rescue craft.
Captain Knowles’ daughter Amanda spoke to us this morning.

“He would do anything for anybody. He was a very loving person, liked politics, especially Fox News, and was a hard worker. He would go out of his way to help anybody.”

Amanda also mentioned that this was his second fall from a ship, “but it was daylight the last time he fell, and was recovered quickly,” she added.
As a former cadet, Captain Brandon Waldrip remembers Captain Knowles as “a fantastic ship-handler, a good friend, and a huge Alabama fan.”
In a phone call with the Coast Guard, they wished to “extend their thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of the mariner who lost his life.”
Captain Knowles was a licensed harbor pilot of the St. Andrew Bay Pilots Association, which serves the Ports of Panama City and Port St. Joe, and also a harbor pilot for the Port of Pensacola. The following is a statement from the Florida Harbor Pilots Association:

“We are deeply saddened today at the loss of one of our fellow harbor pilots and a dear friend. Captain Frank Knowles has been a dedicated and brave harbor pilot since he was licensed in 1976.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife, Gail, and his family.
“Words cannot express the grief and sadness that every harbor pilot across the state feels today at this tragic loss.
“According to state and federal protocol, every accident is thoroughly investigated. Further details will necessarily have to await the outcome of that investigation.”

Captain Knowles was a 40-year veteran within the maritime industry and is survived by his wife, son, two daughters, and two granddaughters.

A sad end for another dedicated mariner. RIP Captain Knowles.

[Tony Wilding]

sad news, he must have slipped, a terrible thing to happen

[alf corbyn]

those wood and rope ladders are a death trap. it would be easy to slip from one. i have seen many near misses when a heavy sea is running and i have seen them immersed in the water.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Whilst having sadness at the death of a fellow seafarer I do think that his employers should take a step back and look at themselves for letting the Captain continue in this position at his mature years. He may very well have been a very fit 73 year old, but ships freeboards are getting larger and even if the pilot ladder is adjacent to a lowered gangway it is still a hazardous experience for a fit young man never mind a man in his seventies. And we in our seventies like to think we are as fit as we were in our fiftys or even sixtys, but we are not, our brains may fool us into thinking we are but our bodies do not react as quick as our brains when we pass that seventy mark

We would have all liked to continued in a job we did love but one has to step back and look at ones self with an unjaundiced eye and say "I must not do this any more, it is not fair on my family or my employers"

Captain Knowles may have been a forceful character and a very good Pilot so we don't know all the ins and outs and dying doing a job he loved is no solace to his family, but naturally our sympathies go out to his family and those close to him.

[happy daze john in oz]

Terrible tragedy, brings back to mind a similar sitaution leaving Esat London back in about 1693. Pilot leaving the ship missed his footin as a large wave moved the pilot boat. His body was never recovered.

[Keith at Tregenna]

Certain that is a typo ?

K.