A life story of Mate Frankovich is found in Chapter 89 in Stephen A Jelicich's book From Distant Villages. In 1921, his parents Ivan and Marija and all his family returned to newborn Yugoslavia. Mate returned to NZ in 1930. He became a well known and respected fisherman and contributed to innovating fishing trawlers with other fellow Dalmatian fishermen. In 1934, he began fishing with Fabian Yukich. In 1949, he fished for Bill Costello in Tauranga, then Frank Marks (Yurakovich) and Clive Gaelic (Gilich) He worked on the all steel trawler "Sea Ranger" for Sam Mercep and was skipper for three years. In 1948, he married Charlotte and they had 6 children. He continued fishing in the Tauranga area until his retirement.