HE STARTED his career in the port at 9.15am on July 29, 1963 and now 54 years later, shipping agent Richard (Jim) Hardie is retiring.

His long association with the port began at the age of 16 when he joined shipping agents Thomas Meadows as a junior.

His role included filling in customs forms for export and he stayed with the firm, rising up the carer ladder as it expanded and merged to become Rockwood International.

“One of my strongest memories is of the Union Castle boats.

They would arrive on a Monday at 7am and take a week to unload and a further week to load again. On a good week 12,000 tonnes of cargo would be loaded.

“Nowadays with containers they load and unload thousands of tonnes in eight hours – everything is so much faster.

“They were forever painting the ships in this distinctive purple colour and I can remember you could see the paint in the water off Western Shore,” he said.

When Richard’s boss retired in 1983, he took over as office manager and also took over his role as Swedish Consul.

In 1997 he was made Knight First Class Royal Order of the Polar Star by the king of Sweden in recognition of his work and in 2007 he was made Knight Commander – the equivalent of a

CBE.

In 2002 he was officially appointed as the Norwegian Consul, having covered the role since 1999.

In 2011 he received the Knight First Class Royal Norwegian Order of Merit.

Since 1993, Richard has run Tidal Shipping and as he winds down, Richard said he is looking forward to spending more time with his granddaughter and visiting family in Australia.