pilot

noun, a person qualified to take charge of a ship entering or leaving harbour, moving through dangerous waters, etc. (COD)

“He worked putting pilots on the boats when they used to go by here.”

“I didn’t become a Seaway pilot. I piloted the island boats in the Thousand Islands, and a tug and other stuff.”

“For years after you quit sailing, they’d honk their horns when the boat went by, eh?”
“Some of them used to, yeah. The pilots, yeah.”

“Young Tom Smith, he was a pilot.”

“He also had the pilot boat for awhile that would put the pilots on and off the lake boats.”