Pilot Associations merge

Submitted by Susan Hardee Steger

March 22, 2016 6:28 a.m.

Captain Tim McGill, president of the St Johns Bar Pilot Association announced that Fernandina's Cumberland Sound Pilots have merged with St Johns Bar Pilot, Inc. under parent company St Johns Bar Pilot Association. Cumberland Sound Pilots will now operate as Fernandina Pilot, LLC.

Hardee Kavanaugh, son of senior pilot Bill Kavanaugh, disembarks from a ship onto the Fernandina Pilot Boat.

William "Bill" Kavanaugh will remain as senior pilot in Fernandina Beach. Fernandina pilot Brian Seuter is now training in Jacksonville waters and four Jacksonville pilots are training on the Fernandina bar.

Records obtained through the Florida Memory project indicate the Cumberland Sound Pilots Association was organized in 1831 by George W. Latham.  The association is one of the oldest businesses in North Florida.