WW1 Mystery Launch = Stanley

wellington-ww1

WW1 Mystery Launch – Stanley

The photo above was taken in Wellington during WW1. Sent in by Baden Pascoe who has offered up a copy of his book ‘Launching Dreams – Percy Vos – The Boats & This Boys’ to the first woody that can ID the launch (middle) tied up along side the wharf. Entries via the ww Comments section. Its not an easy quiz but the prize deserves a toughie 🙂
Copies of Baden book can be bought direct from him – contact badenhp@xtra.co.nz the perfect woody Xmas present.

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The answer is – the launch is called Stanley, see below zoomed in photo. No winners 😦

12 thoughts on “WW1 Mystery Launch = Stanley”

The Otago Witness pic is the very same day and very same place as your pic including the Port Levy boat STANLEY. Merry Christmas.

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Harold could well be correct with the Port. Some of the photos one finds online have the incorrect captions. Those shelter sheds are a give away. I’m sure there could be photos of the port taken about this time to do a match.

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Definitely LYTTELTON; see https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/OW19151124.2.89.5.27?query=lyttelton%20wharf

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Make that April-May 1915!

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PS The vessel to the right looks very much like TAHITI which is one of the Transports that took the Canterbury Regiment from Lyttelton to Suez in late 1914. Note the fore and aft creased hats rather than the later four-crease “lemon squeezers”. The picket at ease in the foreground seems to have an SMLE but I suspect there would have been a lot of MLE (“Long Toms”) amongst the others waiting to board. A much higher resolution pic would have been useful.
Understandably there as little in the press about these events!
These were the guys that took the full force of the landings at Gallipoli in May 1915, six or so months later.

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Well REREMOANA was a 55 footer built in Rotorua by Robinson & McIntosh in 1907 and spent her entire life on Lake Tarawera. STANLEY was a 28 footer built for Pegley of Port Levy in July 1912 by Collings & Bell and never left the Banks Peninsula/Estuary/Lyttelton area. She had a Stanley engine, hence the name. LION never left Lake Wakatipu since she was built by Jas McPherson of Dunedin in 1912.
This image is clearly at Lyttelton, NOT Wellington. It looks as if STANLEY had a group of people aboard from Port Levy to see the troops embarking. A little research on the NZ Military Transports, the mark of Lee Enfields and the uniforms will provide the date. Not enough time before Christmas though!
Initial guess, an early shipping of a Canterbury Regiment, probably for Egypt/Gallipoli.

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I don’t reckon it’s at Wellington. STANLEY was in Lyttelton from 1912 and right through WW1.

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Boats aside, it’s rather sobering to imagine that all those young men in the photo naively went off to war, most of whom tragically were never to return. And those who did would have been either physically or emotionally maimed for life.

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