Calling it a day after long service
Andrew Munson (left) with Gilbert McCabe, chairman of the commission.
The Cornishman
STEADFAST and loyal, leading for 35 years by example and service, Andrew Munson has retired as Harbour Master at Newlyn, one of Britain's top fishing ports.
His personal 24/7 dedication to the harbour and its fishing industry, has embraced its nautical and maritime life and heritage, from Penlee lifeboat to Seaman's Mission, 'The Ship', the Christmas harbour lights and the giant Fish Festival that has become a national bank holiday attraction.
Born on Christmas Day – he will be 61 this month – Mr Munson has played a major part in Newlyn's high profile in the UK while maintaining a spirit of friendship and unity.
He has welcomed Her Majesty the Queen, Princess Diana and many other members of the Royal Family to celebrate the port's expansion and retained his unique personality partnership of modesty and immense knowledge of the whole complex and vital multi-million pound industry.
To mark his retirement he was surrounded by colleagues and friends, former and current harbour commissioners and many others, for a presentation by chairman of the commission, Gilbert McCabe, of a Bernard Evans painting of the harbour, including the new pier and mooring structure, that he played such a major part in developing.
And he joined the audience at the mission in thanking his wife Carol for her unstinting support throughout his career. The daughter of a former mission superintendent she was presented with a bouquet.
They have three children, Sam, a sports coach in Wales, Fiona who works for the Border Agency at Gatwick airport, and Heidi, who is running a children's orphanage in Uganda. There has been no lack of drama in West Cornwall waters during Mr Munson's term including the Penlee lifeboat tragedy when many of his friends were lost: from 1989 he has been launching authority and honourable secretary. Last year he was awarded the Gold Award for services to the RNLI, being appointed to the Penlee branch in 1969.
His services to the French maritime services led to the award of the Chevalier dans l'Ordre du Merite Maritime (knight of the maritime merit order) last year following his appointment as French consular agent for Cornwall seven years earlier. Of course he can point to contrasting moments when he was trapped by a bull in the corner of a Trewidden field while inspecting the harbour's reservoir tanks that provide a pipeline supply of clear spring water to Newlyn.
And he laughed as he recalled his 'near arrest' at the harbour when he went down the quay in his van to assist a 100-ft beam trawler that had asked for a berth. There were eight tons of cannabis on board and police had been keeping a long and close watch on the vessel!
Mr Munson, who has lived in the village for almost all his life, joined the harbour commission as trainee clerk in November 1969 after spending much of his childhood around the harbour, becoming clerk four years later and adding the harbour master role in 1979 when he was also elected to the Mission's local advisory committee.
In 1970 he helped in the restoration of the harbour Christmas lights, becoming chairman in 1982 and two years later was appointed to the British Ports Association fishing committee, as well as to the Penwith police consultative committee in 1985.
He became a founder member of the South West ports association in 1992 and of the UK harbour masters association two years later.
A steady burden of duties and responsibilities ... as well as guiding he fortunes of the busy Newlyn harbour and fish market and carrying out the decisions of the Commissioners whose chairmen during his career have included Sir Edward Bolitho, Jack Stephens, Simon Bolitho, Charles le Grice, John Laity and Bill Stevenson.
Current chairman Mr McCabe paid generous tribute to his conscientious efforts at the presentation when Mr Munson thanked all who attended.
"My association with the harbour started at an early age when we played at the old quay, on the canner's slipway and the rocks in front of the 'Great Grimsby' stores, often getting stained by the 'barked' pilchard nets hung on the railings to dry," he remarked. The thrill of sculling a punt, of helping to unload the fish and learning to tow the shellfish storage boxes moored in the harbour to the waiting vivier boats. In the evenings he went feathering for mackerel and working pots. But seasickness remained a problem and the only cure, the doctor told him, was "to sit under an oak tree".
A very full and practical introduction to the career that lay ahead!
On 3 November 1969 he started work for the Commissioners and when he became Harbour Master in 1978 was the youngest in the UK ... and until now the longest serving.
He officially retired on December 1 after 35 years and is succeeded by Rob Parsons, from Plymouth, whom he knew from Royal Navy visits when commanding officer of HMS Gleaner, a coastal hydrographic vessel. Mr Munson will continued in an advisory capacity until Easter.
When he began work the mackerel fishery was in its heyday, with the local fleet expanding in number and size, so a harbour expansion scheme began, with visits to London and arranging grants and bank finance. The Queen came to open this new Mary Williams pier in 1980. Later came an extension and a new market with the official opening by Princess Diana in 1988.
"The construction of the pontoons is the culmination of the major projects that I have been in and, in some ways, probably the most difficult," Mr Munson said.
Finally, in a 48-hour burst of negotiation and contract, he wrote and co-signed his "largest cheque" for £1million.
He described the many local nautical dramas with the loss of the lifeboat 'Solomon Browne' with its eight men, the most tragic.
That night he walked with pilot Mike Sutherland along the road from Newlyn to Mousehole, "calling for the lifeboat on the portable VHF. Nothing was heard and we later identified the wreckage when it started coming ashore at Lamorna".
Following the long industrial dispute in the 1960s he helped revive the harbour lights display – with a highlight for him being the electronic complications with the performing seals.
"Unfortunately every movement meant a relay working and all this affected every television in Newlyn!"
He remained as chairman for 30 years.
The Commission is recognised as a 'competent harbour authority' as regards pilotage and he gave anecdotes of what this could bring.
"On one occasion the Isles of Scilly freighter was towing a 3,500 tonne cargo vessel into the bay following an engine breakdown in a north-easterly gale, when the tow broke.
Memories
"Conditions were such that they could not reconnect the tow and as we were on scene in the pilot boat to help the vessel into Penzance, we ended up all night towing her towards Penzance, eventually getting her into the wet dock – stern first – with just six inches of water under her on a dropping tide."
He also recalled a small luxury cruise vessel calling for pilotage assistance when coming into the bay.
"Known for her luxury and sometimes chartered by the Queen, she was on a repositioning voyage and called in the bay owing to bad weather.
"The Captain told me that he needed an alongside berth and that he could not take the bottom.
"Arrangements were made with Penzance harbour for her to come alongside the lighthouse pier and, on making the approach, a very heavy squall rapidly set her down for the middle of the pier head. On asking for two rings astern both engines, the Captain added "and a prayer Mr Pilot". When we were alongside I was asked if I would like a look around the ship. On noticing the menu for the day I was amazed to see that the only food available was sandwiches. When I enquired as to why, with passengers paying up to £400 a day, the reply was that, apart from himself and two or three of his crew, the rest of the crew and passengers were all suffering from seasickness."
Mr Munson spoke of his enjoyable relationship with the other Cornish harbour masters and of his pleasure in working with many commissioners and chairmen, thanking them for their support.
"After 35 years it is a great wrench to leave the job despite all its trials and tribulations," he added, "but I am sure Rob is the man for the job and I wish him well and hope that the harbour continues to improve and flourish.
"Without my wife Carol's support and understanding and that of the children over the years, I would certainly not have been able to devote my working life for Newlyn harbour in such a manner. I now hope to spent more time with them and the grandchildren."
