TRUBY KING, IN MEMORY OF FISHING FOUNDER
BY KEITH INGRAM W
henever a new vessel is christened and launched, the name often has family connections, or may even be somewhat obscure. Not so in the deeper south of Karitane where Dr Frederic Truby King (later known as the founder of the Plunket Society), was a prominent Medical Superintendent who started the Seacliff Asylum in 1889.
In the early days of the new colony of New Zealand, lunacy and troubles of the mind were never easy topics. Lunatics took their place alongside military deserters, convicts, delinquents, debtors, drunkards, vagrants and prostitutes. A 'lunatic' as defined in law was someone 'judged unable to manage their own affairs'. King had no control over who was committed. Aside from the genuinely mentally ill, he had to cope with the aged, alcoholics and those committed by unscrupulous families. Now days, the name Truby King is well inscribed in our annuals of history as being one of the major reformists in mental health, who along with the encouragement of his wife Bella, was the founder of Plunket following the creation of Karitane baby formula's. What is little known was that he was also the founder of the fledging fishing industry that was to develop from Karitane to support the asylum and many others struggling for good fresh food. Realising the untapped potential of the sea, he established a fishing station at Karitane, some six kilometres north of Seacliff. King set out to extend the scope of the asylum in providing food for the growing number of residents and staff. The Resident Attendant and three patients caught over three and a half tons of fish in the first year, of which half was smoked and used at
10 Professional Skipper November/December 2012
Seacliff, the balance going to other public institutions. King used his own money to provide a cottage for his fishermen. Ten years later, the fishing boat had increased in size, and the annual catch had grown to over 100 tons. This would approximate to three kilograms of fish per patient per week, so one assumes King managed to turn the other institutions in Otago into compulsive fish-eaters, all of this before the advent of refrigeration. Today the name Truby King has once again become synonymous with the home port of Karitane with the recent launching of the latest Karitane 33 from the boat builders of Careys Bay Slipways.
After watching one of the first of the Karitane class built in wood, the Storm Petrel, fishing the waters around Karitane for many years, local fisherman Allan Anderson decided that that was what he wanted. Allan and Rhonda Anderson have been running their fishing business from Karitane for over 30 years. As the family has grown so has the fleet with both sons, Brock and Trent, now working in the fishing and charter business. With the commissioning of Truby King she joins the Anderson's other two vessels: Sea Slave a jet powered Marlborough 28 and the 40ft Malcolm Tennant sailing cat Caprice.
Allan wanted a simple, no frills type of boat for the sole purpose of cray fishing and paddle crabbing and after fishing for 30 years he knew what he wanted. So together with the Careys Bay Slipways boat builder Richard Taylor, he and engineer Trevor Baines travelled to Havelock to seatrial the Observer, which is a mussel sourcing boat, a fibre glass version of the
