They used a pilot ladder to lower themselves to a rescue boat.

You go up that pilot ladder, get on that ship and tell me how many people are still on board.

One was unwinding a pilot ladder from the gutter and dropping it over the side of the hull.

There is a pilot ladder.

Pilotage for commercial shipping was carried out from open boats with the Pilots boarding the ships via a pilot ladder.

"I scrambled up the pilot ladder and onto the deck, and for several hours just stood there and watched," Langewiesche writes.

De Falco: "I understand that, listen, there are people that are coming down the pilot ladder of the prow.

They swam to Nicosian and attempted to join the six-man boarding party by climbing up her hanging lifeboat falls and pilot ladder.

Get on that prow of the boat using the pilot ladder and tell me what can be done, how many people there are and what their needs are.

A Pilot ladder is a highly specialised form of rope ladder, typically used on board cargo vessels for the purposes of embarking and disembarking pilots.

Climbing the pilot ladder can be dangerous, even more so in rough seas considering that both the ship to be piloted and the pilot's own vessel are usually both moving.

Because the decks of most commercial ships are far above the waterline, pilots and others who need to come aboard at sea can usually only do so if a pilot ladder is put out.

Normally the pilot joins an incoming ship at sea via helicopter or pilot boat and climbs a pilot ladder sometimes up 40 feet ( 12 metres) to the deck of the largest container and tanker ships.