GOLDEN GATE – AK33

Today’s post has come together with the help of a bunch very knowledgeable woodys, all members of the Work Boat Study Group – Harold Kidd, Baden Pascoe, Russell Ward, Keith Ingram & Bob McDougall. The fishing photo above is from the Tudor Collins collection at the Auckland Museum, emailed to me by Ken Ricketts. The stern on photo is ex Baden Pascoe from Theo Lowe’s scrap book.

Golden Gate was built by WG Lowe Ltd in mid>late 1930’s. She measured 46′ LOA & was most likely powered by a K3 Kelvin from new, these were the engine of the choice of most of the dally Waitemata fishermen. The Kelvin would push her along at 8 knots. Most of the fleet were eventually re-powered by Gardners fitted by Shorty Sefton, the grandfather of Andrew, Cameron and Matthew Pollard.
The number ‘714’ tells us that this is a wartime photo, as these I/D numbers being allocated from 1940. During this period she was  Auckland-based & owned by a M. Modrich. There’s a good chance that the man in the photo is the owner himself, Mr Modrich.

Golden Gate was later based at Tauranga, and was wrecked on Whale Island on 1 September 1957. At the time she owned by Golden Fisheries Ltd, Tauranga.

Now there was some debate as to what she was up to in the top photo, some suggesting she was aground & about to get a tow. Keith Ingram has however voiced his opinion that she is fishing and doing beach seining, when they were allowed to do it in the Gulf. The bow will be on the puddy and the tide coming in. If you look closely the engine is ticking over ahead. The skippers mate will be on the other end of the net on the beach. You had to haul the ropes by hand.

The cool thing about these ‘old’ work boats was that while they were ‘commercial’ they had style, something that is missing from most of todays ocean harvesters 😦

01-10-2016 Input from Harold Kidd – ex Paperpast, the headline answers the engine questions.

02-10-2016 – Perhaps the mystery is solved. Baden Pascoe sent me the photo below (Tudor Collins again) that shows the Dalmatia about to tow Golden Gate off the sand/mud. Baden commented that a couple of things in the photo lead him to believe that it is a tow job –  the weight of the line, this is too big for seine coil. The other thing is that all the fishing gear is aboard. They could have well got into this situation from doing what Keith says above. Baden advised that Dalmatia is still around.

17-02-2026 INPUT ex JO EVANS – photo below of GOLDEN GATE and DALMATIA (no. 299) at Leigh Wharf. (photo probably Tudor Collins)