CLASSIC WOODEN LAUNCH MELVILLE — WHAT CAN WE DISCOVER ABOUT HER

Earlier in the week the classic wooden launch – MELVILLE popped up on the ‘Old North Auckland’ fb feed.  Suzanne-Richards Osborne posted the above galley of photos.  

They are from several sources eg the top two are from early photo postcards of the Mangamuka Gorge, Hokianga area. These prompted Suzanne had, to do some online research that hit the jackpot in the Auckland Libraries Heritage collection.            

The last image comes to us via a glass plate negative and the photographer is tagged as C. Dawes.

Can we learn more about the launch MELVILLE, seen in the photos.