56772
Records of Captain Donald Robert Munro
Date1925-2015Reference NumberAms 400DescriptionCollection comprises:
Ams 400/1: Biographical material
Ams 400/2: Correspondence
Ams 400/3: Ships
Ams 400/4: Cape Horners, c. 1970s
Ams 400/5: Tauranga Harbour and Port:
See also: Ams 233, Ams 309 and Ams 495CreatorMunro, Donald Robert, 1904-1995LevelCollectionLanguageEnglish
Ams 400/1: Biographical material
- Ams 400/1/1: Autobiography, typescript copy dated 17th July, 1981. Includes post-it note addressed to Max [Avery] by Tiri [Munro], Donald Robert Munro's daughter.
- Ams 400/1/2: Miscellaneous older of notes, letters, manuscripts, clippings relating to aspects of Munro's life.
- Ams 400/1/3: Obituaries from different publications, 1995, and his own thoughts about dying, 1986
Ams 400/2: Correspondence
- Ams 400/2/1: General, 1951, 1970s, 1984. Munro kept copies of letters he wrote to others.
- Ams 400/2/2: Captain Clarence James Marshall Gaby, (1895-1978). In 1975 he and Munro exchanged long letters with reminisces of ships and sailors they had known. Folder includes both sides of the correspondence; reviews of Gaby’s books; poem by Gaby, “Sixty Years Ago”; three pieces by Gaby about ships: ‘“Moana” Interlude’, ‘“Takapuna” Interlude’, ‘Last Voyage of the Four Masted Barque “Buteshire”’
Ams 400/3: Ships
- Ams 400/3/1: Two stories from the “Zingara”. Munro's first posting was in 1922 as a 17-year-old deck boy on the three-masted topsail schooner “Zingara”. The stories are “Memories of my first day at sea”, written in 1976, and “Cat Overboard”, written in 1983.
- Ams 400/3/2: Folder of ship information and pictures: “Monkbarns”, “Aristides”, “Rangi”, “Owhiti”, “Schleswig Bride”, “Ganymede”, “Dartford”, “Edwin Fox”.
- Ams 400/3/3: Folder of material relating to the four-masted steel barque “Lawhill” that Munro sailed round the Horn in in 1924, leaving the ship in March 1925. Folder contains:
-- Information about the ship (and others) from shipping registers, compiled and annotated by Richard Cookson, co-author of The four-masted barque Lawhill, Conway, 1996
-- Photocopied correspondence (photocopied Mss and typescripts) between Munro and Richard Cookson;
-- Several different memoirs of Munro’s time in the “Lawhill” (photocopied Mss and typescripts)
-- Typed copy of diary entries probably referring to Munros’s experience of rounding the Horn in the “Pommern” in 1929.
Ams 400/4: Cape Horners, c. 1970s
- Ams 400/4/1: Rules and Membership lists:
-- Material relating to the International Association of Cape Horners.
-- Rules of New Zealand section, adopted at inaugural meeting in Wellington, 10 March 1973
-- Rules of “Amicale international des capitaines au long cours, Cap Horniers”, 1976. -- Lists of New Zealand members (two typed copies)
-- Aland Island members (printed booklet, two copies)
-- British members
- Ams 400/4/2: Correspondence, 1970s-1980s. Includes letters from Murray Henderson, Secretary of the New Zealand Section of the I.A.C.H.
- Ams 400/4/3: Newsletters, reunions and congresses, clippings, photos of memorial mast. Includes ephemera relating to first national reunion in 1971, reunion 1975, world congresses 1976 and 1979. Two photos, one with measurements, of plans for Captain R. S. Carter Memorial Mast.
Ams 400/5: Tauranga Harbour and Port:
- -- Correspondence written by Munro relating to harbour issues, e.g. Pilot Bay reclamation, multi-purpose crane purchase, sewerage outfalls; also membership of Institute of Assessors and Loss Adjusters, and of Institute of Nautical Surveyors. c. 1960s-1980s.
-- Speech as candidate for Tauranga Harbour Board, October 1968.
-- Harbour Board report no. 13/67, by its chief engineer E. C. L. [Edward Charles Loftus] Otway, 1925-2015, including four fold-out charts; title unknown as first page missing.
-- Submission to the Transport Commission, June 1967, regarding “New Zealand’s overseas trade”, by Norman John Jenkins, architect, of the Tauranga Chamber of Commerce Executive Committee, with letter dated July 1967 from Jenkins to Don Munro attached.
See also: Ams 233, Ams 309 and Ams 495CreatorMunro, Donald Robert, 1904-1995LevelCollectionLanguageEnglish
Audio Visual Files
Asset Location
RoomClimate controlled room
Usage
Kaitiakitanga StatementWe ask that, in addition to normal copyright and privacy considerations, users of our heritage resources uphold the mana and dignity of the people, communities and places depicted within.Access ConditionsNo access restrictions anticipated for this collection. To be reviewed upon next access request. AcknowledgementTe Ao Mārama - Tauranga City Libraries Ams 400
Admin
Source of ContributionLibrary collection
Munro, Donald Robert, 1904-1995, Records of Captain Donald Robert Munro (1925-2015). Pae Korokī, accessed 19/03/2026, https://paekoroki.tauranga.govt.nz/nodes/view/56772
