Trawler sets out for New Zealand. The following article appeared on Reuters in 1965.........A 100 ton trawler, 88 feet long, sets off today on a 12,000 mile trip to New Zealand. The skipper-owner, Mr Walter Holmes, of Cleveleys, Lancashire, is 68 and thinks he is too young to retire. "Prospects are better in New Zealand for small trawlers," he said. "This is something I have had in mind for many years."
The trawler, LOCH LEIN , will carry sufficient food for 100 days and will refuel at Las Palmas, Panama and Tahiti on her nine week trip. Mr Holmes" son, Walter, aged 37, flew from New Zealand for the voyage. The other four members of the crew were selected from scores of applicants.

"Fly" Holmes aboard LOCH LEIN

The following is from an article by Marjorie Holmes

In 1985 LOCH LEIN was carrying fuel and freight to Kawau Island. We hadn"t seen her for over 10 years. She had been out of our family ownership since 1970 and during those years she had been used for fishing by JBL and then, amongst other things, used around the Hauraki Gulf as a freight boat. So we made a special effort to see her when she made one of her trips to Kawau.

LOCH LEIN was built in 1947 at Bremerhaven in Germany, one of 4 for the Irish Government. In 1962 she was for sale in Lowestoft, England and my father in law, the late Captain Walter Holmes Snr. bought her for £16,000. He had returned to Fleetwood from New Zealand some years previously to take several new trawlers out on trials for the Boston Deep Sea Fishing Company. He had owned many fishing vessels in the thirties and forties and was his latest and last. Although retired and in his mid sixties he could never sever his connection with the sea and ships.

He put a skipper and 5 crew in her and she fished out of Fleetwood, fishing mostly the Minch and north of Scotland. In the middle of March 1965, he was phoned with the news that she had caught fire whilst in Ayr harbour. He drove up to scotland immediately to find the crew gone with the exception of the engineer. LOCH LEIN'S wheelhouse was almost gutted and the electrical wiring all but destroyed by the fire. So he, and the engineer, with the aid of torches and oil lamps and a borrowed steering wheel sailed her down the coast to Fleetwood.

For two years my father in law had been trying to obtain an import licence to bring LOCH LEIN to New Zealand. He wanted to resettle there and wanted to bring his ship with him, but it was not easy obtaining the licence in those days and it was through our efforts with the then Ombudsman Sir Guy Powles that it was eventually granted. The fire held up her leaving Fleetwood and also meant that his son, Walter, had to go to England to help him with all the added work to prepare her for New Zealand. This took about four months of hard work and lots of headaches.

There were about 100 applicants answering the advertisement for a crew of four. The ones taken on were...George Gill (navigator), Ken Fraser and Bill Parkinson (deckhands) and Mike Bellinger as cook. George, a ticketed fishing skipper, turned out to be a first class navigator. Mike was a big and likeable Canadian actor and casino croupier amongst other things. In spite of his impressive cooking references, Mike's term as ship's cook was short lived. After sampling his efforts, all on board unanimously voted that he be banned from the galley and Ken Fraser took over from him. But Ken's temper was failing and, about halfway through the voyage, it got the better of him when his anger and spite caused him to throw a drawer of cutlery over the side.

When LOCH LEIN was ready for her voyage, a fishing crew was engaged to take her on trial for two weeks and fish the north of Scotland. She had all new electronics and it was a good opportunity to test the equipment. It was a shock all round though when, during the dark early hours of the first morning out, she came to a grinding and shuddering halt.

Of course, there was the usual pandemonium when it happened. It was dark and hard to see at first, everyone was suddenly up on deck and the first thing that the crew did was to inflate the liferaft and throw it over the side followed very quickly by the four men who called out to Wally and his dad urging them to follow. It was a bit easier to see by this time. Wally went to the side of LOCH LEIN and, looking over, could see a shingle beach. He grabbed a ladder, put it over the side, and climbed down on to the shingle, all the while hearing the men on the other side calling out. He couldn't help feeling a bit devilish when he walked around the side of the boat and called out to the men bobbing about in the liferaft. They had beached on the north east coast of the Isle of Man. There were a few red faces but they all agreed how lucky they were when they refloated with the rising tide with no obvious damage done