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Amongst other contributions, this article contains extracts from FIBIS member [[ImageUser:PilotsPass.jpg|thumbSage|PilotSage's Pass c.1890s]]unpublished manuscript of records for Genealogists interested in India.

== Introduction ==According to Massey ,^{[[#References|1],]} <blockquote>

Was formerly styled the Bengal Military Club, the members of which were limited to the I.C.S. and military services. As time, however, moved on and things changed they found that this particular form of exclusiveness was rather an expensive luxury, and very wisely threw open wide the heavenly portals and admitted within their celestial and sacred precincts members of other government services, save and except those of the Bengal pilots. Why the club ever made this invidious distinction, of course I cannot say, but at a later period, recognising possibly the injustice of their action, they rescinded their prohibition, and now the pilots sit in the seats of the mighty amongst the members of the other services. "</blockquote>

Brice and Labey ^{[[#References|4] ]} give a date of 1651 for the foundation of the service, but according to James Prinsep's Chronological Tables ,^{[[#References|3], ]} the service dates back to 1669:

 The Bengal Pilot Service was abolished on the 15th May, 1948. ^{[[#References|4]]}

This table shows the number of pilots of each rank in the service in 1853. (Source L/MAR/8/9)

The following comprises extracts from my unpublished manuscript of records for Genealogists interested in India==Records===== National Maritime Museum (Greenwich) == =

a. '''THS 12 ‘The ''The History of the Bengal Pilot Service’ Service'' by Brice & Labey.'''

This is a unique unpublished history of the Bengal Pilot Service in the Historical Manuscripts Collection of the [[National Maritime Museum]]. It covers a wide range of aspects to do with the service and its employee's e.g. Appendix G ‘Obituaries’ comprises information from various sources for men of the Pilot service and their families.

b. [['''The Percy-Smith Collection]] (MS 88/006)'''

Item (18) Bengal Marine ‘Particulars of certificates granted by The Percy-Smith Collection is not held in the Government of Calcutta up to December 1902 to Masters, Mates and Engineers in Mercantile Marine’main [http://www.nmm.ac. These records are uk/researchers/library/ Caird Library] of particular interest the Museum - access to persons looking for River Pilots who were born in India who were the items must be requested a week or so in service in the 1890’s and at the turn of the twentieth century. The entries include the person’s name, date and place of birth , class of certificate, certificate number and its date advance of grantinga visit.

*Item (18) - Bengal Marine ‘Particulars of certificates granted by the Government of Calcutta up to December 1902 to Masters, Mates and Engineers in Mercantile Marine’. These records divide into:are of particular interest to persons looking for River Pilots who were born in India who were in service in the 1890’s and at the turn of the twentieth century. The entries include the person’s name, date and place of birth , class of certificate, certificate number and its date of granting.

:These records divide into::Colonial Certificates of competency; Local (Foreign Trade) Certificates of competency; Local (Home Trade) Certificates of competency; Local Certificates of Service; Local (Inland) Certificates of Service; Local (Inland) Certificates of Competency

*Item (29) - Index Cards : Bengal Medical (1740-1914, surnames A-H only); Bengal Orphans (1780-1840); Bengal Marine and Bengal Pilots (1700-1914)

The [[Percy-Smith === Asia, Pacific & Africa Collection]] is not held in , British Library (India Office) ===There are many records of the India Office at the main [http://www.nmm.ac.uk/researchers/library/ Caird [British Library] of the Museum - access ] that pertain to the items must be requested a week or so in advance of a visitBengal Marine and Bengal Pilot Service.

== Asia, Pacific & Africa Collection, British Library Records marked (India Office#) ==should appear on [[LDS]] microfilms: 2028922 - 25; 2029155.

{| border="1" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0"!Shelf Mark!!Dates!!Description|-|L/AG/20 & 21 ||1814 - Post 1947|| Includes records of leave and service pensions|-|L/AG/21/9/151-157||1920-1968||Bengal Pilot Fund pensions paid in UK|-|L/E/6-7 ||1880-1924|| Pilot service recruitment information for this period contained within these papers.|-|L/MAR/8/1-20||1793-1880||Various lists of employees and volunteers in the Bengal Marine and Pilot Service |-|L/MAR/8/9||1853-||Quarterly Returns of Europeans in their Order of Station in the Pilot Establishment|-|L/MAR/C/689||1794-1830||Appointments to Bengal Pilot Service |-|L/MAR/C/704 #||1858-61||Indian Navy, Bengal pilots|-|L/MAR/C/755-756 #||1848-60||Europeans in the service of the Bengal marine|-|L/MAR/C/760-761 #||1824-64||Bengal marine civil and marine casualties |-|L/MAR/C/762-763||||Bengal Marine records of service|-|L/MAR/C/855 #||1821||Seamen in the Bengal marine who have claims on the company for wages, see L/E/6-7 for later recruitment’s|-|V/12||1896-1926||Covenanted pilots are included in the Bengal Histories of Service.|}

== = Society of Genealogists ===Information available at the [[Society of Genealogists]] ==:

Bullock’s ‘Directory ''Directory of Non Official Europeans in India (1780-1820) – lists of Europeans and Anglo-Indians not in the King’s Service’Service''. The information extracted from the East India Register and similar publications for Bengal.. Includes a number of Free Mariners/ Country Traders/ Free Merchants, Indigo Planters and River Pilots. However persons in many other professions are included, also some women and children.

* [http://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_browse_sources.php?mode=browse_dataset&id=86&s_id=189 Appendices From M.H. Beattie] on FIBIS Search (see details below)

== Published Works works == Beattie ‘On The Hooghly’ (1935): This is a personal account of the Hooghly Pilot Service, the author served 1878-1913. Of particular interest to family Historians are the appendices: Appendix A comprises a list of serving Branch Pilots (1847-1888)  Appendix B comprises a list of men joining the Service as Licensed Pilot or Covenanted Pilots (1858-1876) and men who joined the service as recruits from the training ships Worcester and Conway (1877-1893)  Appendix C comprises a list of men joining the Service (1893-1916)

# [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/12617 ''Recollections of Calcutta for over Half a Century''] by Montague Massey

Len Barnett’s *[http://www.barnettmaritime.co.uk/index.htm British Maritime History - Realistic genealogical guides to surviving records and more] , Len Barnett’s site, has a section on Bengal Marine [http://www.barnettmaritime.co.uk/mainbengal.htmBengal Marine].

*[http://www.telelib.com/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/LandandSea/unqualifiedpilot.html "An Unqualified Pilot"] by Rudyard Kipling. An interesting and informative short story depicting the work of a pilot on the Hooghly.