My Career as a Pilot on San Francisco Bay

Stephen MacLaughlin was born in 1952 to a military family. They moved a lot until he graduated from high school and entered the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo. In 1973, he graduated from CMA and began working offshore on tugs that towed barges all over. With 2 months of turning 22, he became captain of an offshore tug. In 1977, he came to San Francisco to work on harbor tugs until he was accepted into the San Francisco Bar Pilots and worked there until he retired in 2016. Since then, he has been enjoying traveling with his wife of 40 years, playing golf, and pampering his grandson.