Wayne Pritchett on Rivers and Harbours
Then Mr Sheath came back to work after a period of time, and at that time he was coming up to retirement anyhow, and then of course he decided to retire, and it was automatic that I took over from him and I took over from him April 1984.
He’d been the Harbour Master for about 14 years and when I took the job over, as the years went by, I always thought myself, looking back, the position of Newport Harbour Master wasn’t really created until 1915 when the 1st World War was on. Before that time, it was an unusual arrangement.
You had a man called a Wharfinger who collected the Harbour Dues. You also had a Quay Superintendent who was in charge of the Quay.
Well, in 1915 they done away with that and created a Newport Harbour Master for the first time. Well, if there had been three or four after that, before they got to Vic Sheath, and the longest anyone had served was 19 years and I thought myself I’d like to beat that record and perhaps do 20 years. Well, here we are now looking at 35, and I’m still officially down there but I never thought I’d be there that long, so I certainly the longest Newport Harbour Master and I think I’m right in saying probably the longest one on the Island anywhen.
