[2] This was a role of some responsibility requiring above-average literacy and numeracy skills and would have provided Tucker with intimate knowledge of the behind the scenes logistic workings of the Royal Navy.
[8][9][10] In 1828 Tucker was the purser aboard HMS Icarus, an 18-gun brig-sloop which was then part of the Royal Navy Barbados Station in the Caribbean, undertaking anti-piracy and anti-slavery patrols.
[11][12] In 1840 Tucker was the purser and paymaster on HMS Buffalo, which whilst anchored in Mercury Bay off Whitianga, loaded with kauri spars, was wrecked in a storm on 28 July 1840.
Records show that Tucker as colonial storekeeper was purchasing all manner of goods including tents, blankets, stationery, printing supplies, building products, animals and feed.
[18][19] This was seen as an unpopular move and was questioned by the newspapers of the day, as Tucker was a popular individual in the community, and especially in the light that as soon as he was made redundant, a Mr Leach was appointed, under a different job title to the office of Colonial Storekeeper.
Late in 1846 Tucker returned to England, where he was shortly afterwards appointed Paymaster and Purser of HMS Acheron, a Hermes-class wooden paddle sloop of the Royal Navy.
Having been so recently on active service and a much respected public figure in the colony, Tucker's funeral was a martial affair: the coffin, covered with the Union Jack, and surmounted with his hat and sword, carried to the grave by a party of blue jackets landed for that purpose from HMS Fly.
The funeral party included his son, the Governor of the New Zealand Colony, senior military officials and a long and highly respectable train of civilians and former shipmates from HMS Buffalo.