When you want a job you usually have to fill in an application form and go for an interview – but that wasn't how the pilots of Hayle harbour got a job. They raced for it. Stately sailing ships and huge heavy cargo ships needed guiding safely into harbour, so they followed the deepest channels and missed the sharp, wrecking rocks. Small, speedy pilot gigs were the boats for the guide job, they did rescues and wrecking too. Trouble was there were lots of pilot gigs down Hayle harbour, so when they spotted a big ship coming into port they would race to it to claim the job. The first gig to the ship won the job of guiding the big boat, and maintaining it in port. The gigs were light, made of elm. The men were strong, Cornishmen. The race was fast, very fast, still is.

Years ago the gigs were called out to a ship off St Ives Head, first boat out the harbour won the chase, got the job. The ship was a schooner-rigged vessel, had a light over the bows, might have been a fruit boat, might have been a pirate boat, it was a fast boat that's for sure.The gig got near, and the helmsman cried 'get ready to board.' The bow man got his oar out of the row lock and stood ready to spring aboard. He could see the sailors on the schooner, and went to grab hold of the side of the big boat, but his hand found nothing solid, just thin air, and he fell – luckily one of his gig mates caught him and dragged him back into their boat. Next morning a ship called the Neptune was wrecked off Gwithian – the ghost boat had foretold her doom.

The lights on a ghost ship are called Jack Harry's Lights, after the first man that saw them. They are seen just before a gale, and foretell a wreck in a coming storm.

We got sonar and GPS now and the gigs don't work guiding and wrecking, folks row them for fun. RNLI takes care of rescues with their Shannon and rib boats, no gigs needed there.Gig rowings a sport, not work. They built a lighthouse at Godrevy to show ships where the rocks are, so boats sail safer. But no sea is safe from storm and shipwreck, and sometimes, just sometimes, Jack Harrys Lights can still be seen in St Ive's Bay.