 In the spring of 1617, he recruited eighteen Basque whalemen for the first Danish whaling expedition to Spitsbergen.In 1618, King Christian IV appointed him as commander of the first Danish expedition to East India with five vessels and almost 1000 men, but only one month before the departure of the expedition, Munk was relegated and replaced by the much younger nobleman Ove Gjedde.The reason for the relegation is unclear, but was most likely caused by a conflict Munk had with the Lord Chancellor, Christian Friis.