Tuesday, February 4, 2020 - 13:29 by ce-press
In the Queen’s New Year’s honours list, Captain Iain Dunderdale was awarded the MBE (Member of the British Empire) for services to The Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) in Invergordon and for tourism in the Scottish Highlands.
Dunderdale was pivotal in the creation of Cruise Scotland, based at the Port of Cromarty Firth, as well as the setting up of Cruise Europe in 1991, of which he was vice-chair and chair for 19 years.
After a career at sea and five years in London working in the commercial shipping and diving industry, Captain Iain Dunderdale joined the Cromarty Firth Port Authority at Invergordon as assistant harbour master in 1981.
In 1990 the port decided that, due to an over dependence on the oil industry, diversification of business was needed. In that year Gordon Ireland, tourism officer for Highland Council, and Dunderdale attended Seatrade Cruise Shipping in Miami, at that time held in the ballroom of the Fontainebleau Hilton Hotel.
“We were squeezed between a then relatively unknown shipyard - Chantiers de l’Atlantique - which was building a series of ships for Royal Caribbean, and a man marketing Karaoke machines who encouraged people, whether they could sing or not to try it out at high volume. The only other British ports exhibiting were London and Tilbury,” remembers Dunderdale.
“The next year the ports joined forces with three adjoining stands and invited everybody to ‘come and have tea with the Brits’ as we recognised we were complimentary, not competing ports. From that we decided to hold a meeting in Tilbury to outline our ideas for a Northern European Cruise Ports Cooperative and Cruise Europe was born!
“The main aim at the time was to encourage US cruiselines to come to Europe, as virtually the only one coming regularly was the old Royal Viking Line.”
In 1982 Dunderdale had become a volunteer deputy launching authority for the RNLI at Invergordon, later station honorary secretary and more recently lifeboat operations manager.
In 2018, after a career of just over 36 years with the now Port of Cromarty Firth, Dunderdale retired having been service base manager, deputy harbour master, cruise development manager and cruise manager.
Today, he says, Invergordon is one of Europe’s most successful oil rig repair & maintenance ports and a major cruise destination. Last year saw more than 167,000 passengers and 69,000 crew come into the port on 104 cruiseships, generating over £16 million (€18.9 million) to the Highland economy.
Commenting on the MBE, Bob Buskie, ceo of the Port of Cromarty Firth, said: “No-one deserved this award more than Captain Iain Dunderdale. He is a legend, not only for us, but also in the Highlands, and within the cruise industry across Europe. He played a central role in building the Scottish cruise industry up from nothing. In the last decade, the cruise industry has generated more than £100 million for the Highland economy. His lifelong commitment to the RNLI is testament to his hard work and loyalty to Invergordon and the safety of the Firth.”
Dunderdale’s citation to the MBE (Member of the British Empire) medal is: Invergordon Lifeboats Operation Manager. For services to Cruise Tourism in Scotland. He comments to CE: “I am very delighted and honoured, but want to thank you all for the help and support you gave me, when we went to places such as Hamburg, Miami, Cork, Londonderry, Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Riga, Mariehamn, Naples, Genoa, Copenhagen and many more over the years to introduce the cruise industry to Europe in the early days.
“I know it was hard work, but also great fun and it obviously worked!”
