Category Archives: Designers & Builders

Memories of Supreme Craft

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My Memories of Supreme Craft by Ben Hipkins
Story & photo sent to ww by Karen Moren/Lyn McGeady ex Ben Hipkins

(Disclaimer: Story as from memory)

This is a great read & compliments all the recent McGeady/Supreme posts on ww – read on & enjoy Ben’s story. Alan H

Mac McGeady – (A good Boatbuilder and Designer)

“I first met ‘Mac’ in 1955 at his boat factory in 1A Summer Street, Ponsonby. I was 16 years old and I now know he would have been 55.

‘Mac’ was a very intimidating looking man to me and I had a daunting job to convince him that I was the right boy for him to apprentice.

When I started work (at £2-16-0 a week!), the staff comprised of five men. Mac, Barney Glasgow, Peter Williams, Bluey Jacobsen, Graeme Kitchen and me.

Graeme Kitchen had been in the same class as me at Takapuna Grammar School and had started with Mac McGeady as an apprentice a couple of months before me. He had suggested that ‘Supreme Craft’ was a good yard to work in and to ask Mr. McGeady if I could work for him. It took some time to wear Mac down but eventually he took me on.

The first boat I saw in the boat yard was AQUARIUS, a game fisher for a Bay of Islands client. She was 38ft with twin gray marine engines and capable of 16 knots on trials.

The second boat was AUSTRALIS 42ft twin screw launch for Jack Plowman.

The third boat was ASTRA 30ft launch for Mr. Percy Ward.

The fourth boat was AMARYLLIS 40ft twin screw for Mr. H.T. Morton.

The fifth boat was a 38ft launch for Mr. Stan Suter. I can’t remember the name of this boat.

Graeme Kitchen had left by this time and did not complete his indentures. Bluey Jacobsen and Peter Williams had also left.

Mac had sold his twin screw launch AQUILA to Mr. Chub Sibun.

At this time 1959, Mr Norman Fairly came into our lives. He owned a 26ft plywood boat named REEL EM IN built by Don Norton and used to game fish from Tauranga and up to the Poor Knights area. He convinced Mac McGeady to skipper this boat to Mercury Islands and Mercury Bay area. Fairley and Bert Jones were car dealers and visited our boat factory quite often.

Mac had decided to build a boat for himself and designed a forty foot launch for this purpose.
At this time, only Barney Glasgow remained in the work force and myself. We took on a new apprentice, Gary Wheeler, a good keen boy.

When this boat was planked and ready for superstructure and decks to be constructed, Mac and Mr. Fairley agreed for Fairley to purchase the boat and for it to be finished to Fairleys’ requirements. This boat was named CHALLENGER. At this time it was noted that neither Lila or I knew of this ‘deal’. Mac seemed confused about this whole episode.

McGeady had been a good boss and a fair person but now seemed to be confused and unable to work effectively.
The after work drink session would become an ordeal as Mac would not leave until all the alcohol was gone. The business was failing and many of the suppliers were concerned.

Another boat was built (by me and Gary). This boat was 38ft designed by me. She was called WAIMARU and owned by Mr. A.C Gray.

On the shakedown cruise of this boat, Mac acted very strangely, staying at the helm exclusively, not sharing the controls at all. At the conclusion of the trip, we entered the boat harbour of Okahu Bay in the dark when Mac opened the throttle to full speed. The speed limit in this harbour was 4 knots – no wash.
Fortunately we, crew removed Mac from the wheel and no damage was done. All on board were most concerned with Mac’s behaviour and all agreed he needed medical help.

We received an order from Mr. Wal Brebner for a 30ft launch which Gary Wheeler and I built.

Our accountant Athol Nigro laid down the law regarding SUPREME CRAFT. He stated that I must make Mac work, must stop him drinking and smoking or have him retire and buy SUPREME CRAFT myself. What choice!!! I couldn’t make him work, I couldn’t make him stop drinking and smoking. I could leave……….. so I did.

I worked for Alan Williams yard at Milford. This was a good change for me and I was well respected.

After a year or so it was 1961, I received an offer from Mac to return to SUPREME CRAFT and receive a 50% shareholding and ran the factory; this I accepted.

We received an order for a 43ft motor launch from Mr. Stan Horner. This was a twin screw bridge deck boat with a fly bridge. The name of this boat was ALTAIR and was launched in November 1961.

Mac’s condition deteriorated and he was very confused and at this time we received an order from Gordon Collie for a 48ft bridge deck motor launch.
Mac still had the ability to design the hull. This boat was too big to build in the factory in Summer Street, so we built the backbone and frames in the factory and built the boat in a shed supplied by Mr Collie on a poultry farm at Pakuranga.

Gary Wheeler and I built the hull up to deck level and Gordon and his cousin Ralph laid the decks and built the superstructure and furniture, a truly excellent job. The name of this boat was RANGIORA.

By this time, Mac could not drive and was incapable of getting about. Lila was his carer.

At the Accountants insistence, I bought the remaining shares and Mac retired. He and Lila went to Snells Beach to live.

Mac’s career with SUPREME CRAFT began in 1936 and ended in 1962. He was a skilled man and good designer.
There are many mysteries regarding his early years and his birth in Pilliga NSW, his time in Fiji, his time in the motor business and the formation of SUPREME CRAFT in 1936.

The future of SUPREME CRAFT is a story that needs to be told.

After RANGIORA was completed, Gary and I returned to the factory in Summer Street to begin work on a 36ft launch which had been ordered by Mr. Len Buckby of Fodenway Motors at Penrose. This boat was powered by a Foden engine.

As construction proceeded the owners were most interested in the progress and quality of materials being used. This boat was called WHITE CLOUD.
Mr Buckley and his accountant called on me and announced that he would like to become owner of SUPREME CRAFT with Fodenway Motors supplying engines and me building the boats.

I thought this would provide stability and security for the future and agreed to the proposal. Almost as soon as this was done, the factory building in Summer Street was sold and we had to move!. We rented a factory in Archers Road, off Wairau Road, Takapuna.

We built a 36ft motor launch for Mr. Stuart Dalton in this factory. This boat was called, SCEPTRE. We also built a 36ft sister ship for Mr. Fred Bales called VENTURE.

Our relationship with Fodenway Motors grew and as they were situated at Penrose, they were keen to relocate SUPREME CRAFT closer to their business of truck assembly so we were moved again and rented a shed at the Lane Motorboat site at Panmure.
There we built a 34ft Express Cruiser for Mr John Furley. This boat was called, NIKASIA. Fodenway Motors had orders for a 43ft passenger launch and a 36ft cruiser.

Decimal currency was coming to New Zealand and disaster struck with a financial downturn. Fodenway Motors two orders were lost and they decided to liquidate SUPREME CRAFT.

I then took up a position in a ship yard in Suva, Fiji and after this, moved to Australia where we still live”.

Little Tasman

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LITTLE TASMAN
details from Russell Ward

Russell was the bearer of some great news last week – the Colin Wild built Little Tasman, has found a new owner. Over the last few years numerious woodys have sent me photos of Little Tasman hauled out at Point Wells. I’m told a while ago a 4sale sign appeared, now I wish I had know – there are a few woodys out there that would have snapped up a Colin Wild built launch with the provenance that LT has. Wild built her for Albert Spencer & she was called Tasman & was a trial for his next (larger) boat also called Tasman so #1 then became Little Tasman. In the sepia photo above she looks to have a good turn of speed – I don’t imagine Albert Spencer would not have been chugging around the harbour at 7 knots 🙂

I’ll let Russell time his tale about Little Tasman.

“My memories of her go back to the mid ‘60s when all was Radio Hauraki, psychedelia, Beach Boys, Strolling Bones and Beatles. Oh and sheilas. Boats were somewhere in there and Bon Accord harbour was the stage. Mansion House was still privately run and the authorities didn’t know about the “Snake Pit”. There were usually several mullet boats nosed into the beach and crews in varying stages of recovery/rehydration. You couldn’t get your anchor to hold reliably in the bay because of all the bottles on the bottom!

The Kawau Yacht Club was pretty moribund, although the AMYC were making preliminaries to taking it on (my old man was on the committee of AMYC) so we had great hopes.
Mrs Lidgard was in residence, Skip Lawler had the Fairmile Ngaroma alongside the wharf for a while, and the Comettis had a fantastic garden. My potted history of the Christmas holidays.

The Ward family (no relation) had Little Tasman at that time and it was party time. If I said that one of the mullet  boats that had rafted alongside one memorable noisy night, was pushing off at just before sunrise because “they didn’t want to get us mulletties a bad name”, you get the picture.

But enough of that (it was just to get the old salts of Cobweb Corner reminiscing about their misspent youths). I have always been keen on machinery and when Harold Kidd mentioned that Little Tasman had a Stearns, I wondered what sort of engine they made. No pictures in my books. It was pretty obvious that there must have been classy because they were going into classy boats. American of course. And Stearns Knight made sleeve valve engines for their cars, the assumption that there was a connection was there. But no, no relation.

I contacted an old colleague in the US to see what he could find. And Richard Durgee sent me a raft of pics and adverts (refer below). They are 1924 and 26 so just right timing. I am fascinated that they have an amazingly modern head. Prod rod of course and the combustion chamber apparently in the piston.  You remember –what the Chrysler invented in the ‘70s for the Chrysler Hemi! Nuthin’ new out there, son. ’S all been dun before apart from nukes. Most marine engines were side valve –slower flame propagation and plenty of low down torque”.

Remember click image to enlarge

The Birth Place of Many Woodys

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Freemans Bay c1961
Baileys Yard c1961

The Birth Place of Many Woodys
photos ex Chris McMullen ex Gilbert Littler

The two stunning aerial photos above of the Beaumont Street boatyards, taken in the early 1960’s by Whites Aviation, were sent in by Chris McMullen via his friend Gilbert Littler. These days Gilbert lives in Boston, USA but in the 1960’s worked at the Baileys yard (2nd photo above) as a boatbuilder. Gilbert was back in NZ recently to sail on Chris Bouzaid’s Rainbow II during the ‘One Ton Revisited Regatta’, which they won.

Chris commented that back in the 1960’s when the photos were taken, any interested young boy could go into a boatyard and watch what was going on. No health and safety regulations. An older guy told Chris one day “Don’t be a —— boatbuilder sonny ‘’  “Better to be a builder.” He told him the boatbuilding industry was too unreliable, hard dirty work and way under paid. Well Chris says he was right, but he ignored the old boys advice and some how survived, with no no regrets.

There are a lot of woody’s in the photos. Lots of history too. Lowes old yard is just south of the Atlantic oil depot. Chris’s old firm, McMullen & Wing Ltd, set up a travelift operation there to replace the St Marys Bay haul out, taken by the Harbour Bridge approach.
Chris commented that they filled the site with brick and concrete from the Union Steam Ship building. The date about 1980.  The site was leased from the old Auckland Harbour Board and had some very restrictive conditions over activity and building on the site.  It was too tough and Chris got out and left it with his business partner the late Eric Wing. He sub leased it to Kip Kempthorn who eventually bought the lease and managed to change the terms through negotiations with the new land lord  “Ports of Auckland “. Chris isn’t quite sure how he managed that but it happened. What is on the site now would never have been allowed under the original lease.  The McMullen & Wing site was next to the old Harbour Board slip and is now called Orams number two yard. As an aside Chris recently bought back their original travelift that has been worked flat out for over 33 years.

(remember to enlarge a photo, simply click on it)

Port Ligar

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PORT LIGAR
photos & details ex Peter Mence

Todays post is a wee bit of a hybrid – her previous owner, Paul Hastings, purchased a 1940 hull of approx. 22′ length & commissioned Bruce Askew, the well know Wellington base yacht & launch designer,  to design a new topsides. The work was undertaken by Evans Bay Boatbuilders in Wellington. The combination of Askew’s eye & the craft of the builders have produced a very salty craft.

She is powered by a Isuzu diesel which pushes her along at a comfortable 10 knots. The interior features blue squabs  set of with red piping. Launch day was marked in style with the ‘Duke of Wellington’ doing the honours 🙂

Interested to know more about her & the where-abouts of Port Ligar now, she has the makings of a perfect lake boat & I get the feeling that one day she will join the fleet on Lake Rotoiti.

Kiariki – 1964 Easter Cruise – Jack Brooke Collection #19

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Jack Brooke Cruise Collection #19 – Kiariki Easter Cruise  1964

Another Jack Brooke drawing, published on ww thanks to son Robert for making them available to ww followers. Jack produced a hand drawing on each cruise. Today’s post is the 19th featured – this one features the March 1964 Easter cruise to Gt Barrier & Kawau Islands. Given Jack did the drawing we can only assume that JS was the snorer.

The illustration of the 1907 A-Class Logan ‘Victory’ (A8) is recording that she was involved in a very big gas explosion on 30/03/1964 while moored at the Barrier. The culprit was thought to be a leaking gas cylinder connection. All 6 crew on board survived but 2 had to be transferred to Auckland Hospital by amphibian plane.

Victory is a very lucky vessel – she is now owned by the artisan shipwright/builder Marco Scuderi & is being restored at his yard. Lots of photos & tales from the past at this link http://www.mcnshipwrights.com/victory.html

Crew on board: John Brooke, Elsie Brooke, Judith Brooke & John Salthouse

How Many Boats Did McGeady Build? Updated 27/10/2015 (& the launch Fantasy)

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How Many Boats Did McGeady Build? Updated 27/10/2015

A MESSAGE FROM KAREN MOREN

I would personally like to thank everyone who has contributed to postings and supplied information on Granddads (Mac McGeady) and Ben Hipkins Supreme Craft boats.

Without all of this information and photos it would not be possible to be up to 140 pages and more with further info still to come.

Kind regards
Karen Moren

LIST OF MCGEADY/SUPREME CRAFT BOATS

SUPREME CRAFT was founded in the late 1930’s possibly 1936 by                               my Grandfather Clarence V. McGeady but everyone knew him as ‘Mac’. Due to ill health, he retired approximately 1962 and the business was taken over by Ben Hipkins. The actual builders of Supreme Craft boats are distinguished by the suffix of ”McGeady” or “Hipkins” as the case may be. It should also be noted that some Hipkins boats were based on McGeady Designs and suffixed accordingly. Where McGeady designs were used, and the boat was built by Hipkins this would be suffixed with, “Design McGeady/Built Hipkins

This is a list only. (I know many people have contributed pics and info which is on my acknowledgements page)

ALBACORA – McGeady

ALCYONE – McGeady

ALPHEUS – Design McGeady/ Built Hipkins

ALTAIR – McGeady

AMARYLLIS renamed KOALA – McGeady

ANTARES – McGeady

AQUARIUS – McGeady

AQUILA – McGeady

ARCTURUS – McGeady

AROHANUI – McGeady

ASTRA – McGeady

AUSTRALIS – McGeady

AWATERE – McGeady

CHALLENGER – McGeady

EL ALAMEIN renamed RANUI- McGeady

FANTASY – McGeady (sistership to ANTARES

HUKARERE – McGeady

LADY ALLYSON renamed ERINOR – McGeady

LADY DIANNA – McGeady

LADY HELEN ? – McGeady

LADY SUNSHINE renamed VARLENE -McGeady

MANUIA – McGeady

MARANOA – McGeady

NIKA-SIA – Ben Hipkins

RANGIORA – Gary Wheeler/Ben Hipkins built under McGeady banner

ROTOITI renamed ISLAND PRINCESS – McGeady

SCEPTRE – Ben Hipkins

TEMPEST – McGeady

VALWYN – McGeady

VENTURE – sister ship/hull to SCEPTRE – Ben Hipkins

WAIMARU – Ben Hipkins

WESTERING – Ben Hipkins

WHITE CLOUD – Design McGeady/Built Hipkins

2 x M-CLASS 18 foot Patikis – McGeady

M – 22 MILADY 1945

M – 35 MARIANA 1946

 

Fantasy – below b/w photo ex Karen Moren + colour photos & details ex Ken Ricketts

Built in 1952 by Mac McGeady for Colin Lannam. Ken believes that she was built on the basis of Lannam’s first boat, Lady Dianna e.g. McGeady built the hull & cabin then Lannam finished the interior. Ken commented that Lannam had masterful cabinet making skills.

Neither Karen or Ken know much more about Fantasy – can anyone add more details on her?

Astra

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McCeady on Astra
Mac McCeady c. late 1950′ / early 1960’s

Recent hauled pout at Sandspit photos

ASTRA

b/w photos ex Karen Moren’s mother Lyn McGeady,ex Ben Hipkins. other photos ex Ken Ricketts, details told to Ken Ricketts by Ken Robinson & Ven Barclay. edited by Alan H

Thought I would continue the McGeady thread of late.

Todays post is Astra, built in 1957 at 1A Summer St Ponsonby for Percy Ward, who had previously owned the Wairuama (refer earlier ww post).

Percy Ward did not keep her very long & sold her approximately a year later to Aussie Lawless, who was a good friend of the late Les Robinson & family & when a couple of years later Lawless become ill, Robinson bought Astra off him in 1960. Astra remained in the Robinson family until October 1992 (32yrs) when the Robinson family sold her to Ven Barclay the present owner.

She is 30′ LOA with a 10’4″ beam which made her extremely beamy. She is also one of the very few McGeady sedan toppers with a high bow & sweep in the deck that does not have the ‘signature’ McGeady look i.e oblong portholes in the bow.

Astra, as built, was a smorgasbord of timber e.g. kauri for the hull, spotted gum for the ribs, totara for the frames, pacific mahogany cabin tops &  interior, matai decks & a pohutukawa knee in the stem.

She was originally powered by an Austin “Skipper 100” 6 cyl 100 h.p. petrol engine with a side exhaust 6 inches above the waterline in amidships, which is still there exactly as it has been since she was built, however it has been blinded off inside & the exhaust is now just above the waterline out the starboard side of the tuck. The Austin was replaced in 1974 by a 60 hp 4 cyl Ford diesel.

Her varnished coamings were retained until fairly recently by Ven B but it became too much for him to maintain them, so he reluctantly painted them.

Rangiora

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RANGIORA

photos & details Karen Moren & Harold Kidd

The above b/w photo of Rangiora was sent in by Mac McGeady’s grand daughter Karen Moren ex her mother Lyn McGeady, Mac was her father in law. Karen gathered the story below a couple of years ago from one of McGeady’s apprentices – Ben Hipkins.
“Mac’s condition deteriorated and he was very confused and at this time we received an order from Gordon Collie for a 48ft bridge deck Motor Launch. Mac still had the ability to design the hull. This boat was too big to build in Summer Street, so we built the backbone and frames in the factory and built the boat in a shed supplied by Mr. Collie on a poultry farm at Pakuranga.
Gary Wheeler and I built the hull from the deck level and Gordon and his cousin Ralph laid the decks and built the superstructure and furniture, a truly excellent job. The name of this boat was Rangiora”.
Harold told ww that Rangiora was built in 1964  & she was a breakthrough McGeady design with the substantial beam of 15′ on an overall length of 52′. Her original engines were twin Fords. Tony Vazey bought her in the 1980s and replaced the Fords with twin GM 4/51 supercharged diesels. He kept her at Westhaven, always absolutely immaculate as you can see from Harold colour photo below. In late 2001 Tony sold her to Nick Tansey of Wellington. These days she can readily be seen from the shore on her marina berth in Wellington, a very beautiful hull with totally aesthetically pleasing topsides.

 

02-04-2020 – Input from Brian Hewitt – My company Sea Services had the pleasure of owning Rangiora for 4 or 5 years, my business partner was Fred Keith and we bought Rangiora in Whangamata, she was owned by Stan who ran the local putt putt golf park beside the movie theatre, he was in the middle of a very messy divorce and had to sell her. She was very tired in the exterior but good and sound and we brought her to Auckland to the Shipbuilders slipway and rebuilt the decks, took all the brightwork back to clean timber and applied 8 coats of varnish, recaulked and repainted the hull using Transocean paints. We serviced the Ford engines including replacing the injectors, serviced all the pumps etc…replaced the funnel, beds and squabs, the toilet, radio, steering cables, carpet etc and she was quite a picture and gave us a lot of enjoyment. This included 2 seasons in the BOI with trips to Whangaroa, The Cavalli Islands, Poor Knights and Cape Brett, many trips to Barrier and Coromandel and 2 trips to Mayor Is. We had on-going overheating issues when under max revs as her heat exchangers were barely adequate when the engines were in their full glory, the engines were also slightly out of sync and we tried changing propellers, fine balancing the drive shafts and realigning the motors with new mounts but never really solved the issue. We were originally on ‘A’ marina then moved over to (I think T) when Westhaven expanded the southern side. Fred left Sea Services in the early 80’s and I was also getting divorced so we sold her to fund the business. Rangiora was a Lloyds Registered vessel (I think she was 36 tons). We sold her to Murray from Chanton Apparel who took the engines out and had them balanced, replaced the cable steering with dual hydraulic steering and I think it was Murray who also rebuilt the stern into a walk through transom. In reality Murray bought Rangiora for the marina as 18M marinas were very sought after and he had a new 54′ launch being built by Salthouse. I saw Rangiora some years later at Tutukaka and she looked fabulous, also saw her in Wellington 3 years ago still looking good. I live in France most of the year and have some photos there and will revert with them when I return to France. Brian Hewitt

30-04-2020 Update from Brian Hewitt – “I’m back in France now and found my photo album that had some photos of Rangiora, I think we sold her in 1984. I also had an earlier 34′ launch called “Joel” built by Ship Builders, the new owners renamed her, I had a quick search and couldn’t find anything relating to her, is this a name anyone may have come across ?

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Sceptre

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SCEPTRE
photo & details from Karen Moren

Karen is the grand daughter of Mac McGeady & is attempting to track down / record as many of the the McGeady / Supreme Craft boats as she can. All she knows about Sceptre is that she was 36′ & built for a Mr. Stuart Dalton in the Archers Road factory off Wairau Road, Takapuna. Possibly c.1965.

Does anyone have any more info on her ?

29-10-2016 Photo added – is the photo above & below the same boat ? I took the photo during the Launch Parade at the 2016 Mahurangi Regatta.

sceptre

Wirihana Who ‘Built’ Her?

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WIRIHANA

Todays post is in two parts – first an attempt to ID some of the Colin Wild crew that built Wirihana. Chris McMullen, the caretaker of Wirihana had been looking through a box old of Wilson and Gould family photos & uncovered todays photos. Chris’s guess on a date for the above photos is 1933. Even thou its over 80 years ago one of the ww followers may recognize a relation. So folks – dig out those old family albums & lets see if we can put some names to the faces.
Col Wild and Mr Martyn Wilson are on the right. The man with the black hair holding the dog may be young Jack Gould who was (Chris believes) Mr Wilson’s step son. That needs to be verified. The Gould Family still own Wirihana to this day.

The 2nd part is to try & confirm what became of the earlier Wirihana, as pictured in the photo below. The ‘smaller’ Wirihana was also owned by the Wilson family. There is a family photo album recording a cruise on her. The album is dedicated to ‘The Crew of the Wirihana 1930-1’.
Chris wonders if the original broke her mooring. Interestingly there are some photos (not in the subject album) showing the wreckage of a wooden vessel but regretfully no details. Could it be that the current Wirihana was a replacement?

Looking forward to some interesting feedback. If you know anyone that had family or a relation that worked at Colin Wild’s yard in the early 1930’s can forward this ww posting on to them & ask for their help with ID’ing the people.

And lasting I could not do a Wirihana post without a photo showing how magnificent she is today 🙂

Update from Nathan Herbert

The below press clippings from the NZ Herald (2nd August 1933) make interesting reading. Wirihana (1) was relaunched on 01/08/1933 after an extensive overhaul at Lanes yard, the work included a new keel – so the questions are

1. Was the work done following an oops ?

2. Was W1 renamed, as W2 (Colin Wild) was being launched around this time?

Harold – where are you?, put down that legal brief & join in 🙂

Harold Kidd Input

My reconstruction of this tangled web is as follows (and some of it is conjecture).
1. Lane Motor Boat Co built WIRIHANA (1) for Joe Wilson in 1929. There is an image of LADY GAY (1) on Lanes’ slip at Mechanics Bay and she’s indistinguishable from WIRIHANA (1). photo below added by AH


2. She flew a “Wirihana” flag because “Wirihana” is maori-ised “Wilson” (and is nicely euphonic).
3. Colin Wild built WIRIHANA (2) in October 1933.
4. The quote above concerning WIRIHANA’s overhaul in 1933 is from the NZ Herald (owned by Wilson) but there’s an almost identical quote in the Herald of 17th November 1933 but referring to the boat as “J. M. Wilson’s LADY GAY”.
5. Clearly, WIRIHANA (1) was renamed LADY GAY while getting her big overhaul at Lanes in 1933 and after WIRIHANA (2) was launched. Her cabintop was altered drastically to provide full headroom so that her earlier semi-bridgedeck style disappears.
5. Wilson kept LADY GAY/WIRIHANA until July 1935, shortly before LADY GAY (2) was launched.
6. He then sold her to H. Walker and I lose sight of her, obviously with an agreed name change.
7. Sooner or later we’ll find out what Walker called her and say “Of course!”.