Jim Blazeby recollects

"It was a period of great change. When I went there in 1970 the harbour was losing money. The harbour master was a retired fisherman who just kept an eye on things for the local authority. I applied for the job because they had advertised they wanted a commercial master mariner to get hold of the estuary and try and tidy it up in terms of making it profitable, pay the rent to the Duchy of Cornwall which owned it, and apply the harbour rules,( the 1847 Harbour Act and the 1954 Salcombe Harbour Act) to all vessels and all moorings; generally run the things as an enterprise for the good of the users of the harbour which when I started in 1970 was the third largest crab port in country.

At that time there were a load of houseboats which were dilapidated wrecks, there were some nice old sailing ships which were on moorings and had been on permanent moorings for many many years, but the condition of many of these vessels including the Compton Castle was such that they were a liability. You see if a vessel foundered in the estuary, sank at its moorings or ended up on the beach a wreck, an owner, who was 'a man of straw' could walk away, and the people who picked up the bill for sorting out the mess, dealing with the wreck, listing it, burning it, clearing it away, doing whatever was necessary was the harbour authority.

Now the harbour authority is a self financing statutory authority funded by the users, so if your liabilities were ridiculous the poor old local fishermen, small boat owners, yachtsmen who use the place would be funding to clean up the messes and everybody's unhappy.

I had the difficult job initially of turning the harbour round into a profitable concern and also insisting that the responsibilities of the harbour in accordance with the 1847 Act, (an old act which was absolutely written in stone for the protection of mariners and the upkeep of havens) were discharged to stop vessels coming in which were going to sink right in your entrance channel. The responsibilities were great, but also the powers to ensure you were able to meet the responsibility were also pretty great.

I was a young keen chap, but I also had a good committee who listened and understood. Ralph Sharpe was one of the best chairman I had, an ex main board director of ICI. He became chairman of the harbour committee about 1976. I got on well with him. He was very knowledgeable, an experienced man in business and had common sense.

The harbour master needs the backing of committee and there were some difficult decisions taken. That included putting writs on vessels, regardless of who owned it or what its background was, if it was in a condition that it might sink at its moorings. In those days to raise some of the things that were sitting in 20 ft of water, to bring craft in, raise them and get rid of them would cost many thousands of pounds which the harbour couldn't afford.

There were lots. I must have dealt with seven or eight vessels in this category. Five or six were beached and burned much to the owners annoyance and upset. We used our legal powers and insisted they were not safe to remain at their moorings. Immediately you served notices these people disappeared and washed their hands of the problem in which case we went and burned them which was an exercise in itself and a lot of work for the harbour staff. But they did it well and cleared the messes up and in place of all those old wrecks we put in decent moorings and improved things so the income went up and people could see what was happening.

All the while this was going on one of the vessels sitting quietly in the estuary on the mud at Kingsbridge, and leaning against the quay was the Compton Castle. It was a licensed tea room which meant the public had access to go on board and down into the little main hold that had been turned into a cafeteria. So I had to consider whether or not it was a seaworthy vessel.
With all the other things I really ignored Compton Castle as it was not sitting in 20 ft of water, only in about 6 or 7 at high tide, and most of the time it was sat on the mud. So it wasn't a great problem”