There is a new exhibit on the walls of the Te Whare Taonga o Whaingaroa / Raglan & District Museum. It’s a propeller that looks like it came off a World War One aircraft.
Closer inspection and some research reveal it’s the hand-made wooden propeller from the launch, Gaby Glide, owned by Dr Stuart Moore.
Created around 1913-1915 by the local postmaster, G.S. Fuller (Stacey), the propeller is 1.6m from tip to tip and carved from kauri. It was gifted to the museum as part of the Wright family collection
There are no photographs of the Gaby Glide on the Raglan Harbour, but based on further research confirmed by a propeller engineer, it is likely that the prop was mounted on the stern of the boat and its operation was similar to the airboats of the Florida Everglades. It was new technology at the time and perhaps the first of its type in New Zealand. The first flight of the Wilbur and Orville Wright in the USA was in 1902 and Alexander Graham Bell was experimenting with an air/swamp boat, The Ugly Duckling in 1905.
Fuller and Moore were the ideal partners to take on this project.
Stacey Fuller was a skilled engineer who had been a keen cyclist in his hometown, Greytown. When he resigned from the Raglan Post Office in 1920, it was to open the first Garage on a site near the Harbour View Hotel.
Stuart Moore was a keen yachtsman. Born into a privileged family in England, he was a member of the Royal Burnham Yacht Club and a skilled sailor. Together they would have made a great team, using their boating and engineering skills on the Gaby Glide.
The First World War intervened to limit the Fuller – Moore partnership as Dr Moore left Raglan in 1916 to join the Army Medical Corps, serving in France.
