Captain Donald Ronald Munro presented his collection of nautical books to the Tauranga District Libraries before his death in 1995.
Born in Hawera, Don Munro was the son of a farmer. At the age of 11 his father gave him a copy of R.H. Dana's "Two Years Before The Mast" and from the moment he read the volume, there was no doubt in the young Munro's mind about his future career.
At the age of 17 he served upon his first ship, the first of many vessels. During his lifetime he made four voyages around Cape Horn.
After the Second World War Munro went commercial fishing out of Tauranga. He made Tauranga his home port with an interest in a slipway and boat-building business. But the sea was still in Captain Munro's blood, and he returned to it for a time before he "swallowed the anchor" in 1961 to begin a cargo-surveying business at Mount Maunganui.
His collection of books is of interest to anyone researching, or with just an interest in, nautical history.
View the Munro collection