J I Thornycroft Coastal Motor Boat
photo ex Peter Loughlin ex Historic NZ Photos

Today’s mystery motorboat could be a real challenge – what I can tell you is  (1) its obviously the inner Waitemata with the Devonport Naval Base in the background (2) the launch is fast, very fast (3) the Historic NZ listing says c.1930 but I’d say its earlier than that (4) the seagull above the boat almost definitely had a bowel movement when the boat went by 🙂

All Is Revealed Thanks To Harold Kidd

Harold says that the solution was to identify the cruiser first (REPULSE) and with a little help from Papers Past the rest fell into place. The news clip from the Auckland Star 13 May 1924 below explain all.

19-09-2015 Further reading below (ex Peter Loughlan). The first link is for CMB9 which is under restoration, the second link some specs for the entire series.

http://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/2430/dcb1

http://www.navypedia.org/ships/uk/brit_c_f_cmb40.htm