UENUKU ?

I was recently contacted by Maureen Jenkinson who had seen the launch Uenuku featured in a WW March 2013 story. View on this link https://waitematawoodys.com/2013/04/18/uenuku/

Maureen believes the photo above of her grandfather’s boat, could be the same boat. Maureen believes it was built by my Grandfather, Archibald McMillan, at Kerepehi in the early 1900’s. The man in the photo is his friend Bill Stilton a farmer from the district. She believes Arch McMillan built mainly fishing vessels and so the Uenuku was something special. We don’t know who it was built for.

McMillian had to leave the area for Auckland about 1928 requiring medical treatment as a result of having been gassed in WW1, treatment that was only available in Auckland. Sadly he died in 1931 at the age of 40.

His maternal Great Grandfather, John Lees Faulkner was a boat builder, from Whitby Yorkshire, who built and operated coastal vessels between Tauranga and Whangarei.

Any woodys able to comment on the two vessels?

Harold Kidd Input – This image is of UENUKU built by Tom le Huquet of Devonport for T.A. Moresby of Paeroa in April 1912. The three oval windows in the clerestory are a dead giveaway. There’s a good Winkelmann image (below) of her aground at Katikati in Robin Elliott’s and my book “Vintage NZ Launches”.