The point here is wrt the use of mitigated speech. Another article here Mitigated Speech in Leadership
For the OP I should have said the Columbia River pilots are very good and are probably the pilots I most enjoy working with, except for the long transit. Which is true.
I didn’t use mitigated speech at the time because I was caught by surprise.
This is from the NTSB’s report on the El Faro:
The concept of mitigated speech is common in a hierarchical system, such as on the bridge of a ship. If a member of the bridge team disagrees with the captain and takes action to defy or challenge his or her authority, that is considered insubordination, which could result in disciplinary action.
In this case the pilot can’t exactly take disciplinary action but they can cause a captain a lot of trouble. In this case it was just a condescending remark. The pilot had a quick change in attitude when he learned there was an electronic record of our track.
Pilot loosened up after, we chatted a bit, turns out we both made our first trip on that river with the same tug captain.