Some years ago, the organisers of the Galway Oyster Festival phoned the harbourmaster in a panic. A south-westerly gale was blowing, a spring tide was running and there were fears for the safety of the marquee tent near the Spanish Arch.
Would it be flooded? Would the angry seas rise up over the quay wall? Capt Frank Sheridan knew it was already high water and responded: "Well, I am the harbourmaster and I can do a lot of things, but I can't turn the tide . . ."
Sometimes droll, sometimes fiendish, all who knew him would agree that he had an engaging sense of humour. It was one of Capt Sheridan's many qualities, as recalled by a close friend and colleague on the Galway inshore lifeboat , Paul Carey, last week.
Mr Carey was speaking at the funeral service of the former harbourmaster, who died suddenly at the age of 65 just over a week ago.
Born in Achill, Co Mayo, and educated at the Royal Hibernian School, Capt Sheridan joined his first ship at the age of 16 in Birkenhead, and worked with the tanker division of British Petroleum for many years. He was 30 when he became ship's master, and he subsequently took up a post with the Commissioners of Irish Lights on its tender, Granuaile.
As Mr Carey recalled, he came ashore in the early 1970s and took over management of the terminal for Tynagh Mines in Galway. In 1978 he became harbour pilot in Galway, and then harbourmaster, a position he held for over 22 years before retiring several years ago.
It was a demanding post. A combination of a narrow channel, lock gates and the location of the River Corrib makes for a difficult approach. Many was the night that the harbourmaster got out of his bed himself to take ships in.
During that time, Frank Sheridan indulged in his passion for sailing. He was also a founder of the Galway inshore lifeboat, and was instrumental in securing the site for the boathouse which was donated by the Galway Harbour Commissioners.
Mr Carey recalled how he took part in a call-out with the captain one night, to rescue two young men who had taken a boat out from the Claddagh and got into trouble. Few words were said and Carey remembers how calm and secure he felt with Frank Sheridan on board.
The harbourmaster would often take a transit from the steeple of St Nicholas's Collegiate Church in Galway, and it was here that the service was held last Wednesday to mark his passing. The coffin bore a white flag with the international maritime code for "pilot on board".
Mr Carey told the congregation how he broke the news of the sudden death to his own five-year-old son, Oisín. The boy asked "Daddy, did he go to heaven in his boat?"
Capt Sheridan is survived by his four sons, Stephen, Paul, Robert and Brian (who succeeded him as harbourmaster in Galway) and his many grandchildren. His body was cremated in a private ceremony in Glasnevin, Dublin, last Thursday and his ashes will be scattered off Mutton Island in Galway Bay.