The commission shall issue to each bar pilot licensed and branched by the commission an original and a duplicate certificate of his or her appointment, competency, and authority to act as a bar pilot, and as to the extent thereof, and shall reissue duplicate certificates from time to time, as the occasion may require. The original and duplicate certificates shall be signed by a majority of the commissioners or by the chair by the commission’s direction. Each bay or bar pilot holding a license or branch shall keep upon his or her person, when offering his or her services to any vessel, his or her duplicate certificate and, upon demand of the proper officer of the vessel, shall exhibit the same and allow the officer to inspect it. Before issuing an original license or branch, the commissioners delivering the same to the appointee shall require him or her to take and subscribe in writing an oath as follows, to be administered by the commissioners:

“I, A. B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully and according to the best of my skill and judgment perform the duties of a bar pilot for the Bay and Harbor of Mobile; that I will at all times, wind and weather and health permitting, use my best exertions to repair on board all vessels which I shall see and conceive to be bound for, coming into or going out of the Harbor or Bay of Mobile, unless I am well assured that some other licensed bar pilot is then on board the same; that I will at all times make the best dispatch in my power to convey safely every vessel committed to my charge coming into or going out of the Bay or Harbor of Mobile; and will at all times well and truly observe, follow and fulfill, to the best of my skill and judgment, all such directions as I may receive from the commissioners of pilotage relative to things appertaining to the duty of a bar pilot, and I will not be a member at the same time of more than one combination or partnership of bar pilots. So help me God.”