Dawn: 45ft Counter Stern Fishing Boat

Build Date

Boat Builder

Length

45 feet

Beam

Maurice Wells Purchases the Dawn

Dawn was a 45ft counter stern boat made of double skin kauri. Originally named Sparrow and thought to be named after HMS Sparrow.

Purchased by Maurice Wells after selling his share of the Majestic in 1947. He brought Dawn from Wellington. At the time she had a heavy steel deck-house and a 40hp National diesel engine. After Maurice brought Dawn he replaced the deck-house with a pilothouse and replaced the boats engine with a 4 cylinder Lister. This new set up was designed for commercial fishing.

The old steel deck-house was not thrown away though. Instead they used it to house fowls. However, this was not ideal as the steel heated up so much it couldn’t have been too comfortable for the fowls housed inside.

Dawn after Maurice Wells

On retiring from commercial fishing in 1958 Maurice sold Dawn. Her new owner took her down to Bluff where Dawn was used for cray fishing around the Foveaux Strait area.

Less than ten years later, in 1966 Dawn ran into trouble. She was heading to Port Chalmers with newly pulled up cray pots on board when she started to take on water. Dawn sunk in the deep water and was never salvaged. Luckily the skipper and his crew were able to launch their dinghy and several hours later were able to make to shore safely.

References

To research the Dawn we used the book Boats For A Lifetime by Yvonne M Fell .

Majestic – Commercial fishing boat built by Gordon, Maurice and Ronnie Wells

Donna Maree – 38ft trawler built by Jorgensen and Sons Ltd.

Silver Dawn – 30ft double skin kahikatea boat built by Maurice and Claude Wells

Pearl – 34ft launch built by Claude Wells