Captain Jo Cox: Profile of the new Falklands Harbour Master

Written for the August 13 issue of Penguin News under the headline “Captain Jo Cox: From sailing reservoirs in the Midlands to the globe in a year.”

Captain Joanna Cox, known as Jo to her friends, arrived in the Islands in June 2021 to take the role of Harbour Master for the Falkland Islands Maritime Authority. The authority deals with the safety of vessels in Falklands waters and flagging of vessels and maritime operations in the harbour. With her feet on the ground Penguin News spoke to Jo about what led her to the Islands and what has driven her during her career at sea.

Most recently, before moving to the Falklands, Jo has been driving ferries across the Solent.

“Back in 2019 I’d had enough of deep sea life; packing my life away and putting everything on hold for two months at a time had lost it’s appeal after doing that for 20 years.”

With a desire to remain on the water though, Jo made use of where she was living.

“Where I happened to be living in the UK was the perfect place for Southampton, Portsmouth, and the cross-Solent ferries gave the opportunity to do a job that still involved working on ships, all the fun bits of manoeuvring ships...” without any of the moving about.

Prior to her work on Solent ferries Jo was the master on the Royal Research Ship Discovery.

“I took command of her back in 2014 - the ship was only 18 months old, so I saw her very much from the start of her science life.”

Jo spent the next four years in command of the RRS Discovery “to bring her to full speed and science capability” before taking her to sea to undertake scientific work, including what Jo described as the, “opportunity and privilege, and highlights of my seagoing career to take her into King Edward Cove on South Georgia where I’d lived previously.”

Jo during her time on South Georgia as a government officer

On this journey she also brought the RRS Discovery into Stanley for a port call, one of several passes through the Falklands Jo had during her time at sea.

It might be expected, with Jo’s extensive seafaring career, that she came from a port town. This wasn’t the case, however. “I grew up as far away from the sea as you can humanly get [in the UK]” near Sulihull in the Midlands.

Jo still managed to get experience on the water through sailing on reservoirs and ponds in the Midlands, which she did with her father, who was in the Air Force and sailed yachts, having been taught to sail by his father.

“When I was growing up as a service child he taught me and both of my sisters to sail, I loved it, they didn’t quite so much; and sailing became quite a big part of my life.”

Jo obtained her first experience offshore with the sea cadets at 13, when they had a trip on a coastal patrol vessel. She described it as being, “just amazing to have the freedom and scope, and for sailing to become a means of getting somewhere and seeing places.”

With sailing developed as an interest Jo left school to study engineering for five years, which gave her the opportunity to be sponsored to go tall-ship sailing, where she met members of the Merchant Navy.

“I was a sea-cadet; I’d heard all about the Royal Navy, but I’d never even heard about the Merchant Navy growing up in the Midlands.”

Spending the time on the tall-ships, and realising that opportunity was present, Jo set off to work in the Merchant Navy. “It was a career move I’ve never looked back on, it was amazing to be able to go away and start doing a job I just passionately enjoyed on all levels.”

Among her extensive travels Jo said: “The Falklands and the Antarctic are the bit that’s really driven my seagoing career. I was exceedingly fortunate as a cadet to sail on the James Clarke Ross, that this key turning point in my career.

“I ended up staying on her for six months as a cadet and just absolutely fell in love with the science work and logistics work she was doing.”

Jo’s time on the James Clarke Ross led to her being offered work with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on completion of her cadetship, which she accepted, spending 10 years working with BAS – during which she worked up to Chief Officer and got her Masters Ticket – before spending three seasons from 2012 on South Georgia as a government officer.

Asked about where during her travels has been especially of note Jo said it was difficult to narrow it down.

“In terms of my cadetship I circumnavigated the globe. I joined a general cargo ship in Europe and went out through the Panama [Canal], did lots of South Pacific Islands, and then transited back up through the Far-East, Suez, and back to Europe. So literally all the way around. And with BAS I’ve been from 82 degrees north to 63 degrees south, actually all in the course of a 12-month period.”

In addition to the inspiring locations which Jo has visited, she described working with “a couple of really, really, pivotal people.”

“I was very, very, fortunate in my time with BAS to sail with two particularly inspiring masters. Chris Elliott, who is a BAS legend. Chris served with first as a cadet, and it was Chris who gave me the self-belief that I could really do this.

John Harper, the second inspirational figure during Jo’s career “was predominantly master on the Ernest Shackleton. It was John who further down the career path gave me the confidence and the self-belief to progress to the higher levels.”

Since Jo has moved away from deep sea work she’s been able to have more time on land and she has been able to meet a lifelong goal.

“I desperately wanted a dog forever, and by moving onto the ferries I finally had the opportunity to settle down and get a dog. So my dog is currently on the FIRS and he will be here around the 20th of August.”

Jo told Penguin News that as well as being important to her home life, Finn the Jack Russell cross Cavapoo will be a part of her work team.

“He will be a really key component to my life down here, and a key member of the maritime authority team.”

In addition to looking forward to getting out for walks with Finn the dog, and planning to get involved with local sailing opportunities, Jo said she hopes to get out to the west during her time in the Islands.

“I’ve never been out in the west before so we’re looking forward to some leave where I can just jump on the ferry and go exploring out on the west” as, although Jo has been through the Falklands some 20 to 30 times with time at sea, she has been unable to get much time on land.

Additionally, Jo said she has enjoyed being able to get involved in communities more while not doing deep-sea work, and hopes to be able to find that here in the Falklands.

Looking ahead to her work she said “we can shape our own future, which people don’t often get the opportunity to do. And in doing so we can hopefully drive up standards, improve safety, and make the maritime zone a safe place for everyone who works in it.

“The Falklands are surrounded by water on all sides. It’s where most of our income comes from, and we’ve got these obligations. But over and above that we’ve got people who really care. I think everybody wants to see the shipping side run as safely as it can, as environmentally protective as it can, and that’s where our role comes in.

“If we can drive up all the standards then everybody wins.”