HMNZS Fairmile ML405/Q405 - Later Marlyn

I have not been able to find an original photo of HMNZS Fairmile ML405/Q405

Fairmile launch Marlyn, sunk at Shelly Bay, Wellington. Photograph taken April 1968 by Martin Berthold.

Fairmile launch Marlyn, under repair at Shelly Bay, Wellington.

Launch Marlyn under repair at Shelly Bay, Wellington

Q405 was the eighth NZ Fairmile built and the third completed by Associated Boatbuilders. After the war it was named “Marlyn” and put into service ferrying cargo between Wellington and Lytellton. It completed approx. 600 trips during 1947-56. It was laid up for a couple of years and then was trialled in a crayfishing venture in Fiji which proved unsuccessful. By 1962 it was in use at Stewart Island as a wharfside coolstore for the fishery. Later it was used for fishing off the Otago coast and finally converted to a trawler and operated at Chatham Islands, from where it had returned to Wellington by 1968. After the Wahine storm it was salvaged by floating crane and hauled out on a slipway at Shelly Bay with the intention of repair. There are four colour photos that can be viewed on the NatLib archives site which show the recovery and damage. It must have been later assessed as beyond repair because in 1969 is was towed to Whakatahuri in the Marlborough Sounds where it was stripped and burnt.

Launch Marlyn being lifted by floating crane Hikitia, Wellington