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The wooden fishing
boat Sea Raider arrived at Wellington in
May 1997 from Napier. She had recently been
owned by J.R. Jensson of Napier, but was
sold in 1997 to Turnagain Trawling Ltd.,
of Hastings, and her port of registry changed
to Nelson. She commenced fishing out of
Wellington from mid-1997.
She was one of a numerous class of 75 ft.
Admiralty Type Motor Fishing Vessels (MFVs)
built in U.K. during World War II for use
as tenders, of which some were used as minesweepers
in 1945-46. They were required for attendance
on ships and crews engaged in war operations,
and were designed with a view to being suitable
for post-war fishing. Other classes were
built to a so-called 45 ft., 61.5 ft., and
90 ft. design, but the other three types
were of stated length b.p., and were actually
49ft. 10in., 64ft. 6in. and 97ft. 2in. length
overall, whilst the 75 ft. class were 69
ft. 2 in. length b.p. and 75 ft. 7 in. length
overall, with a beam of 20ft. A single-screw
Lister diesel motor of 160b.h.p. gave a
speed of 8.5 knots. A total of 227 of the
75 ft. class were ordered, of which eighteen
were cancelled. Thirtyfive were reported
to be still in service in 1963. They were
named (or numbered) MFV 1001 to MFV 1258,
which does not quite tally with the 227
ordered or the 209 actually built. Sea Raider
was built in 1944 by Philip & Co., Dartmouth,
England, and is of 91 gross tonnage, and
23.11 metres length overall. When built
her number was one of the following: 1083,
1084, 1135-1138, 1175, 1176, 1207, 1208,
1239,1240.
She was first registered in New Zealand
at Nelson on 8th November 1951 by her then
owner, Albert Douglas Tregidga, who renamed
the vessel Betty T after his wife. He had
purchased her in 1949 as H .C. Danavick
at Sydney from the N.S.W. Government Fisheries
Agency, who had been using her for some
type of fisheries research. She was brought
to Westport, a large freezer was installed,
and she made her first trip south in pursuit
of crayfish over the 1949-50 Christmas period.
She trawled for crayfish until about 1952,
after which she switched to crayfish potting.
She was sold in November 1959 to Nelson
Fishing and Cool Store Ltd., went north
to Napier in April 1960 and in June 1960
was sold again to Wally Watson of Direct
Fish Supply (Napier) Ltd. Her original Lister
Blackstone engine was replaced in 1964 by
an eight-cylinder General Motors Detroit
diesel of 227b.h.p. In 1979, she ran aground
on the Wairarapa coast and required repairs,
and in 1987 she was renamed Sea Raider.
The Royal New Zealand Navy considered buying
three of the 75 ft. class MFVs, 1045, 1096
and 1135, from Singapore in June 1946, but
with HDML's available, the plan was dropped.
In 2000, she commenced
a long refit at Welington still incomplete
in 9/2001.
NZ Marine News Vol. 46, No.4
The May 2006 NZ Gazette advised that the
Betty T Fishing Company was seeking to go
into liquidation.
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