The pilots of the Port of London Authority are the cabbies of the Thames estuary. Based in Gravesend, 33km from the capital, they navigate some 10,000 ships into London terminals every year. Dispatched offshore on fast patrol boats, they use rope ladders to board ships as tall as buildings. Much like London's black-cab drivers, who know its 25,000 streets by heart, they must recall every sandbank and wind farm at the mouth of the river.
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