Master Pilot Exchange
The MPX as document and as conversation: the passage plan reconciliation, the berthing and tug plan, abort criteria, and its evidential weight after a casualty.
The master-pilot exchange is the structured handover of information between the master and the pilot once the pilot boards, covering the ship’s handling characteristics and condition, the intended passage and berthing plan, and the contingencies each party expects the other to act on. It is both a conversation and a record.
The full article will cover what the exchange has to settle before the ship commits to the approach: the side to be alongside, the swing, the tug plan and the attachment points, the mooring pattern the terminal expects, the abort point, and the response if a tug or the main engine fails. It will also cover the pilot card and the wheelhouse poster as the standing inputs, the reconciliation of the pilot’s plan against the ship’s own passage plan, and the fact that the pilot advises while the master retains command.
Investigation reports read the exchange first after a berthing casualty, because a plan that was never shared is indistinguishable afterward from a plan that never existed.