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The short answer is: it varied.
On British ships, except for Bank Line, there was nothing to do and no-one seemed to expect the R/O to do anything. Bank Line just loved the R/O to get involved in cargo matters, whether tallying or drawing stowage plans; which was fine by me.
Once 'freelance', however, vast new horizons opened up and one could find oneself dealing with immigration, customs, port authorities and anyone else who represented officialdom. In Bejaia, (Algeria), I represented the ship before a judge because the chief steward had miscounted the cases of cigarettes in the bonded store and a customs officer caught the mistake. In Japan I used to accompany the 'sick list' to the local clinic to act as interpreter so far as I could, and do relevant hand waving when I couldn't.
Anything to help the port call run smoothly; I was never a fan of protracted shore visits.
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