Former rugby rep now calling the plays at port
Former long-serving Taranaki rugby play maker Jack Cameron has transitioned from the footy field to the helm of a tug boat working the Tasman Sea.
After a successful representative career that stretched from 2007 through until 2012, Cameron has made an equally successful step qualifying for the role of tug master at Port Taranaki.
“Our name is not really known for this sort of job, our family has always been mostly carpenters or played rugby,” Cameron admitted from the helm of one of the port’s tugs as it bobbed and swayed on the unsettled swell.
But he’s right – the Cameron name is synonymous with Taranaki rugby. Dating back to the 1940s, rugby fans would remember the likes of Wally, Jimmy, Bill, Ron, Bob, John, Jamie, and lastly Jack.
Just how Jack Cameron made the move into marine work started in his previous career as a builder when he was contracted at Port Taranaki to undertake maintenance work. Part of the contract was a requirement to do a relief job on site.
“While I was a carpenter I also had to come down on to the tugs or into the rope shed or you went on to the launches with the pilot boat,” he said.
“I ended up coming down on the tugs and a couple of years later there were some full-time jobs going which I ended up taking.”
That was 12 years ago, when he started as a deckhand, while gaining his maritime tickets to be able to work out on the water.
It was the start of “going back to school” for the first five-eighth and fullback who proved equally adept on the deck as he was on the park.
“I’ve just built up my tickets until recently when there were a couple of retirements and I worked to get my tug master ticket,” he said, typically understating just how much had gone into it.
Port Taranaki marine manager Ben Martin saw Cameron work extremely hard to achieve his goal and become qualified.
“The marine team often work in difficult conditions and at unsociable hours, and the tug master job is a challenging mix of technical operations, leadership and responsibility, so it takes real drive and commitment to become qualified,” he said.
The last part of that qualification, after he had gone through a six-week course in Nelson, involved an intensive three-hour assessment during which the prospective tug master was put through his paces by three assessors.
Cameron had to show knowledge of the vessel and emergency procedures, while accurately and efficiently putting the tug through a series of manoeuvres while also recovering a man overboard in a simulated test.
Operating within the small team of tug masters, Cameron now works on rolling shifts skippering his vessel as it meets incoming vessels while working with the pilot to move them safely in and out of Port Taranaki.
It’s a job Cameron never would have envisaged doing.
“It was only when I was doing that relief work that I thought, jeez, this isn’t a bad sort of office,” he said.
“I can say I can drive a tug boat and that’s pretty cool.”