§33-4-31. Qualifications; age limitations for apprentices.

(a) In order to prevent delays in the apprenticeship and branching of bar pilots, the commission shall when necessary maintain a register of applicants containing no more than nine applicants for apprenticeship, who must be not less than 18 years of age.

(b) Applicants for apprenticeship from the register of applicants will be considered by the commission for apprenticeship in order of their seniority which shall be based upon the date of completion of all requirements to be a bar pilot except apprenticeship, application to be a pilot, passage of the commission's written examination and branch, which requirements are set out in subdivisions (2), (3) and (5) of Section 33-4-34.

(c) No person may commence his or her apprenticeship unless the commission finds that (i) the applicant meets all statutory requirements for apprenticeship required by subsection b above, and (ii) there is a need for an apprentice.

(d) An apprentice must, in order to complete the apprenticeship, (i) complete, to the satisfaction of the commission, at least six months as an apprentice pilot or (ii) make, to the satisfaction of the commission, at least 50 round trips with a branched pilot on vessels in Mobile Bay which are subject to the statutory requirement of compulsory pilotage, whichever first occurs.

(e) No person may be selected for apprenticeship prior to his or her twenty-first birthday.

(Acts 1931, No. 81, p. 154, §10; Code 1940, T. 38, §57; Acts 1961, Ex. Sess, No. 104, p. 2024, §3; Acts 1990, No. 90-630, p. 1154, §1.)