Doris: 32ft Ernie Lane Fishing Boat

Build Date

1915

Boat Builder

Ernie Lane

Length

32 Feet

Beam

unknown

Everything We Know About Doris

Doris was built by Ernie Lane in Picton in 1915. Between 1915 and 1934 little is known about Doris but in 1934 Dick Hope purchased Doris off Harry Christian a old engineer/boat dealer from Te Rawa in the Marlborough Sounds. At this time Doris had only the essentials which didn’t include a toilet! But it did include a primus oven, a plank bed in the bow and a 21 gallon stone water jar.

Dick Hope’s son Pat, fished with Doris. But Doris was soon sold to Athol Hope (Dicks nephew) and Stan Gausel also of French Pass in 1939. Not long after this they sold her to Tom King-Turner who owned Doris in the 1950s. Tom’s father and uncle undertook a major rebuild of Doris. They cut two feet off her length counter stern and fitted a false upper stern to improve her looks. They also replaced Doris’s decks, shifted her wheel house forward and installed a new Parsons Pike 4 cylinder Ford Diesel engine.

Doris ended her life stripped out on the beach at the end of Hoddy’s Road near Mapua in Tasman. How she ended up here is unknown.

References

To research Doris we used the book Voices From The Sea: The stories of some Nelson and Marlborough fishing families.

Southern Maid – 42ft Ernie Lane launch built out of carvel planked kauri with Oregon pine on the topsides and interior.

Southern Star – 38ft fishing boat built by Ernie Lane in 1935 that would end life sunk at Westport in 1999.

Sea Raider II – 36ft whale chaser and later fishing boat owned by Pat Hope.

La Reine – 44ft double-ender cray fishing boat nicknamed “canoe”.