Lermontov pilot retires

Captain Don Jamison, the the pilot aboard the Russian cruise liner Mikhail Lermontov when it sank in the Marlborough Sounds in 1986, has retired.

He has never spoken of the night the 20,000-tonne vessel struck a rock in the Port Gore inlet, at Cape Jackson, and sank.

The Lermontov, an elegant 15-year-old liner owned and operated by the Baltic Shipping Company in Russia, was working Pacific waters during the Northern Hemisphere winter when it arrived in New Zealand from Sydney during what was billed as an "11-day cruise of a lifetime".

After visiting Auckland, Tauranga and Wellington, the 738 passengers and crew cruised to Picton for a brief stop before exploring the Sounds and returning to Australia.

It was while docked at Picton that Captain Jamison boarded the Lermontov.

He was to pilot her in the short sight-seeing cruise around his home waters - he worked them for 16 years - before he and his wife retired to their cabin on the Lermontov to enjoy a short holiday as the ship steamed back to Sydney.

Within a few hours of departing Picton, and after three close calls which took the ship perilously close to the shoreline, Captain Jamison made the fatal decision to take the Lermontov through a passage which had never been used by ships of its size.

The 408 passengers got off the stricken vessel alive but one of the 330 crew members, a Russian refrigeration engineer, died.

Captain Jamison is unwilling to talk about his career but said he would be "pottering around" in retirement and would probably stay in Picton.

He had been working for freight company Strait Shipping for the past 10 years. Sheryl Mateni, the company's commercial manager, said Captain Jamison had made a huge contribution during his time with the company.

His skills, knowledge and professionalism in his role as a master of the freight vessels Suilven and Straitsman would be missed.

Captain Jamison came to New Zealand from Sheffield, England. He was appointed Picton harbourmaster in August 1970 from Bluff, where he had been a pilot with the Southland Harbour Board for three years.

Before that he had been at sea for 17 years, mostly on the United Kingdom to Australia run. He had also been an executive officer with the Crusader Line on the NZ to Japan route.

He became harbourmaster and general manager of Port Marlborough Ltd in October 1988, when the company took over the commercial operation of the port from the previous harbour board.

- NZPA