Working at saying ‘yes’

“You’d just have to stick to saying ‘no’ to everything. However, although you could probably justify it with the rule book, you’d lose your customers and the business would go to the wall.”

The point about being a Harbour Master is that you need to work with the industry, said Captain Baker. “You need to work on saying ‘yes’ most of the time, but also know when to say ‘no’, which means you have to understand where the line is and not cross it, even though there is a lot of commercial pressure to balance with safety.”

He told MJ that after going to sea at 16 with the merchant navy and spending 15 years on worldwide trading routes, came “the exciting bit”. This consisted of spending few years in war torn African countries, getting aid cargos off the ships and into the hands of the various aid agencies.

“It was a hairy, scary time, he said. “At one point three of us suddenly found we couldn’t get out of Angola. I got my two engineers home on a military flight, but there wasn’t room for me. So, I just kept walking around the quayside and asking for a lift. Finally a Dutch coaster gave me a lift out.”

He admits that by comparison, time spent on committees doesn’t seem as exciting, but actually it may be that those occasions have done as much good work. For example, one of the biggest issues being taken up by both the port industry and the UKHMA is the qualification and certification of Harbour Masters.

“After all, historically Harbour Masters are poached from the sea but that source is drying up. So we need a certificate system that will allow us to bring in non-mariners, including people from university who might not have been to sea at all.”

He is justifiably proud that Forth Ports has already started to tackle this issue. One of his colleagues is a young woman who, after nautical college, worked her way into a marine manager role but, he says, it is “a challenge to change the way this very traditional industry thinks”.

About his own achievements he is more reticent. “If you are good at what you do, responsibility eventually finds you”, he says. Responsibility has certainly found him. Captain Baker is Chief Harbour Master for Forth Ports, he’s been a trustee director of the Pilots’ National Pension Fund, spent a while as a part of the Executive of the British Tug Owners Association and is now the president of the UK Harbour Masters Association.

He concludes, “I’ve been in the marine industry now for 37 years in one form or another, but it has to be said, the sector is synonymous with people falling away. Things chop and change and a lot of people do tend to leave, not because they aren’t competent, but the disruptiveness of the job takes its toll and longevity is quite a big part.”