Scale: not calculated. Bag of parts from full hull model of the 'Smokey Joe', a sailing pilot cutter. Bag includes a figure of a man wearing a top hat (arm, leg, and head are detached) and some rigging with deadeyes.

In and around many ports, harbours, and navigable waters, local regulations make it compulsory for vessels over a certain size to embark a pilot, an expert navigator of that particular area. Before ships were fitted with radio, pilots would wait near the points of entry into the designated area in pilot cutters from which they could be picked up by incoming ships and into which they could be dropped off by outgoing ships. In the days of sail, pilot cutters were cutter-rigged like the one depicted here. The name ‘Smokey Joe’ may be fictitious though it is a traditional name for vessels in the US.