As the son of Scotland’s last lighthouse keeper, Tom Hutchison’s life has always revolved around the sea.
Aged 16, he left the Orkney Islands to become a deckhand, and at the age of 25 he achieved his life’s dream – to become captain of a vessel.
Since 2000, Tom has been based in Montrose, first working as a harbour pilot and, since 2019, chief executive of Montrose Port Authority.
Tom, 58, recounts his passion for the sea and ambition to create hundreds of jobs for Angus.
Tom Hutchison – childhood dreams of life at sea
Born in Inverness, Tom’s childhood was spent between Caithness and Stromness on the Orkney Islands as his father, Angus, was in charge of different lighthouses.
His father was the last lighthouse keeper in Scotland, based at Fair Isle South lighthouse until it was automated in 1998.
Tom, who describes himself as a half Highlander and half Islander, always saw his career at sea.
He said: “I used to sit and look over the walls at the lighthouse and see all these ships going past. I just always wondered, where are they going? I always wanted to be a captain.
“As soon as I could, I went to sea with an Orkney company, Denison Shipping, as a deckhand, or deckboy as it was called then.
“It was a tough learning curve from being spoiled at home to having to look after yourself.
“My sailing was all near continental and a bit of the Mediterranean. To a young 16-year-old, who’d hardly been out of the Orkney Islands, it was actually fantastic.
“You sailed with other young lads as well and we had good fun. We didn’t get paid an awful lot, but we had a lot of laughs.”
Jobs varied from maintaining the ship to unloading cargo to long nights looking out into the darkness to help with navigation and collision avoidance.
Hard work and long hours, but Tom felt right at home.
From master at sea to coming ashore
He next worked for a company called Streamline, which operates containers from Aberdeen, Orkney, Shetland and Norway.
Tom became a master aged 25, achieving his ambition of being in charge of a boat. After seven years working for Hay & Co, in 2000, aged 34, he came ashore to take up the post of harbour pilot for Montrose Port Authority.
“I loved being a ship master, but it is a very tiring job and you never go home to your own bed.
“After 18 years at sea, it was time to have a better work-life balance.
“Being a harbour pilot involves going out to meet the vessels coming into Montrose, boarding the ship and helping the master berth.
“The pilot is really there to take away a lot of that stress and paint a picture for them as they’re coming up the river.
“It can be challenging, risky work at times, because you have to get off the pilot boat onto an old rope ladder on the side of the big ship.
“Montrose can be a tricky wee place, it’s quite strong tides. The South Esk is the second fastest river in the UK.”
Rejoining Montrose Port to make a difference
In 2012, Tom briefly left Montrose Port Authority to concentrate on his own business venture, Montrose Marine Services Ltd.
Using an old lifeboat, he did environmental surveys for various wind farm developers.
These relationships helped when he returned to the port as harbour master in 2015 and was then appointed chief executive in 2019.
Tom, who is married to Fiona, said: “I care about the port a lot and I felt I could make a difference and inject a bit of ambition to the port.
“Setting up a really robust, confident, professional marine team was my goal in 2015.
“We did that and built relationships with chain and anchor inspection companies Intermoor and First Marine Solutions.
“I basically convinced them that we could take everything out of Aberdeen.
“We now have acres and acres of chain – 99% of the moorings for the UK continental shelf is in Montrose. It’s something we’re pretty proud of. It’s been a lot of hard work going into it.”
Montrose Port benefitting from offshore wind developments
Offshore wind has been another area of growth, with Montrose ideally placed geographically to play a key role in the sector.
Seagreen selected Montrose for its operations and maintenance (O&M) base which Tom says has “changed the conversation” about the port.
It has subsequently been announced that it will play a similar role for the Inch Cape project. This will involve an investment of more than £5m and create 50 jobs.
“Winning Seagreen was absolutely huge for Montrose and we have a lot more ambition in this sector.
“Seagreen means there will be continual business with a crew change every fortnight for the next 20 or 30 years.
“Inch Cape coming as well will be two massive wind farms operating out of Montrose.
“Because of the geography, we have ambitions to be the biggest O&M port in the world.”
Tom Hutchison on future ambitions for Montrose
Such is the belief that more wind farm work, with associated supply chain companies, will want to come to Montrose, Tom is planning ahead.
The port has acquired and is renovating the former Custom’s House building in the town into office space.
It has also acquired the former Petrofac site in the town, which adds 45-acres of industrial land.
Montrose Port Authority’s success at winning work and ambitions for growth saw it crowned Business of the Year at last year’s Courier Business Awards.
He adds: “This new site will give us a bit more flexibility. It means we can also attract new business. We hope supply chain companies will start to gather in and around Montrose.
“It also gives our current customers the option of taking more space and expanding.
“The site is a bit of a blank canvas at the moment but will soon start erecting warehouses. It’s a multi-year project but we’re not wasting any time. I want to get started in the next few months. I’m not renowned for my patience.”
Benefits for whole of Montrose
As a trust port, another element that gives Tom satisfaction is the amount it gives back to good causes each year. Last year around £160,000 was given to more than 70 different charities.
This ties in with Tom’s goal for the port to play a key role in positively impacting the whole town.
He adds: “The more success we have, the more we’ll pass that success to the charities and local good causes.
“We believe there is the potential to create hundreds and hundreds of jobs, which can only help the whole town.”
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