ONE of the founding members of the Fisherman's Friends shanty group has died it has been announced by the group on Twitter.

Peter Rowe, who has died at the age of 88, was one of the founding members of the group in Port Issac who were discovered and went on to sign a massive record deal.

Their debut album "Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends" went gold as they became the first traditional folk act to land a UK top ten album.

Since then they’ve been the subject of an ITV documentary, released the hit albums One and All (2013), Proper Job (2015) & Sole Mates (2018) and played to hundreds of thousands of fans at home and abroad. They also had a slot on the iconic Pyramid stage at Glastonbury festival in 2011. They have also performed a number of times at the Falmouth Sea Shanty Festival.

In 2019 a highly successful big budget film about the group starring Daniel Mays was released, and included members of the original band as extras.

Announcing the death on Twitter the bands account issued a statement saying: "It is with great sadness that we must say farewell to our old friend Peter Rowe, who died peacefully at home on Tuesday, January 5.

“Pete was a Fisherman’s Friend from the very start, and always , always at the very heart of what we did – he lived and breathed the Fisherman’s Friends, and we have greatly missed him since he finished singing with us a few year ago.

“To many of us Pete had been an ever-present in our lives; we grew up with his children Jenny, Mark and Sarah, shopped in what we knew as ‘Peter’s’, his family newsagent business. Watched him fish for lobsters with his brother Jack in their boat the Francis Kate, and played in many football teams that he ran in Port Issac, from the under 16s up to seniors.

"Without Pete, the football club in Port Isaac would never have survived, but when it finally did fold, he was able to throw his boundless energy and enthusiasm into singing with the Fisherman’s Friends.

"From the outset (when we were nearly 20 or so in number) to his retirement he barely missed a gig. He made us a fantastic sign which he used to wheel out every Friday night on the Platt to warn unsuspecting people that we might be performing – ‘The Fisherman’s Friends at Eight Bells – Be Here Me Hearties!”

"Bound together by lifelong friendship and shared experience for more than 25 years the Fisherman’s Friends have met on the Platt (harbour) in their native Port Isaac to raise money for charity, singing the traditional songs of the sea handed down to them by their forefathers."