Horace Morgan owned Amokura from 1960-69.

He had a distinguished career as a civil engineer, and was profiled in New Scientist in 1959.  This was shortly after he had become senior partner at Sir William Halcrow & Partners, a leading firm of consulting engineers which still exists today as Halcrow, part of CH2M Hill.  During WW2 he led projects to build underground defence bunkers for the government and install floodgates in the London Underground network as a precaution against bomb damage.  After the war he had a succession of overseas assignments, then in the 1950s designed UK power stations and invented a new method of underground tunnel construction.  He used this technique in the construction of the Potters Bar railway tunnel and the London Underground Jubilee Line.  British Transport Films later made a series of films about the Jubilee Line project referring repeatedly to Morgan’s innovative construction methods, which are understood to have reduced the construction cost by around £3 million.

Morgan then spent much of the 1960s in the highlands of Scotland working on hydro-electric power projects, and for much of this time Amokura was based at Corpach near Fort William where she was used by Halcrow staff as well as Morgan and his family.  The 1960s redrawn plans shown on this website are tracings of Fred Shepherd’s original plans, most likely completed by trainees at Halcrow during idle periods (see cabin sections, stem and keel drawings & beam plan and rigging & sail plan)

As well as sailing Morgan enjoyed fishing, shooting and – like the owner of Amokura who preceded him, George Millar – foxhunting.  Around 1950 Morgan fractured his skull whilst hunting – coincidentally Millar had also suffered a hunting injury which he described at the start of Oyster River.

The Institute of Civil Engineers published an obituary to Horace Morgan in its journal Proceedings (Vol 49 p 590).  Unfortunately this is not currently available online.

The video above shows Amokura departing from Mallaig in the 1960s, possibly en route back to her mooring at Corpach.  The ferry which appears in the video is the Loch Seaforth which ran between Stornaway, Mallaig and Kyle of Lochalsh.