Key details
- Current boat name
- Merk
- Boat class
- 7505
- Function
- Sports and Leisure
- Type
Dimensions and specifications
- Length (m / ft)
- 5.99 / 19ft 8in
- Beam (m / ft)
- 1.04 / 3ft 5in
- Leeward
- None
- Propulsion
- Engine
Design and build
- Designer
- Andrews J
- Date of build
- 1912
- Place of build
- Maidenhead
Current status
- Present use
- Museum/NMMC
History
MERK is one of two prototype Slipper launches designed and built by the son of the Andrews boatbuilding and hire company, John, when he was nineteen years old as a small launch for hiring on the river for the day, the class soon became very popular and because of the shape of the stern became known as a slipper launch. Soon after the WWI, MERK was sold to Arthur Whitten-Brown, famous as the navigator to John Alcock in the first transatlantic flight. It was Brown who gave the launch its name after his much loved Mercedes car. She was eventually sold back to her builders and subsequently presented to NMM in 1983. October 2007