This section sets when a vessel owes pilotage or half pilotage, when it does not, and when a pilot may recover offshore-service compensation.
Sec. 64.003. PILOTAGE LIABILITY. (a) A vessel that declines pilot services offered outside the bar and enters the port without the aid of a pilot is liable to the first pilot whose services the vessel declined for half pilotage. (b) A vessel that, after being brought into port by a pilot, leaves port without employing a pilot is liable to the pilot who brought the vessel into port for the payment of half pilotage. (c) A vessel that declines pilot services offered outside the bar, comes into port without the aid of a pilot, and leaves port without employing a pilot is liable to the pilot who first offered the pilot's services for the payment of half pilotage. (d) A vessel that is not offered pilot services outside the bar and both enters and leaves the port without a pilot is not liable for the payment of half pilotage. (e) At a port where vessels receive or discharge cargo at an anchorage outside the bar, a vessel: (1) is liable for the payment of pilotage to the anchorage at the rate provided by Section 64.002; and (2) is not liable for the payment of pilotage from the anchorage to the open sea. (f) A vessel bound from the open sea to an anchorage outside the bar that, while under way, declines an offer of pilot services and afterward receives or discharges cargo at the anchorage is liable to the first pilot whose services the vessel declined for the payment of half pilotage to the anchorage at the rate provided by Section 64.002 but is not liable for pilotage from the anchorage to the open sea. (g) The consignee of a vessel is responsible for the pilotage of the vessel. The liability of each consignee is joint and several. (h) A pilot who takes charge of a vessel 20 miles outside the bar and brings the vessel to the bar is entitled to one-fourth pilotage for offshore service, in addition to what the pilot is entitled to recover for bringing the vessel in. If the vessel declines offshore service, the pilot is not entitled to offshore-service compensation. Acts 1995, 74th Leg., ch. 165, Sec. 1, eff. Sept. 1, 1995.