YEAR BUILT:1942, although this may be the year she was flagged to the Bahamas, as sources say her keel was laid on Jan. 7, 1940 and others say she was built in 1942.
BUILDER: Earl and Gerald Johnson of Dunmore Town, Harbour Island, Eleuthera, Bahamas
EARLY CAREER: not known
BAHAMAS CAREER: owned initially by Edgar L. Rolle of Lowe Sound, Andros, then by Sir George W. K. Roberts of Nassau. As part of the fleet in the Richard Campbell Limited company she plied from Nassau and Andros with mail and freight.
CAPTAINS: not known
FATE: said to have been lost, sold or scrapped on October 5th, 1978.
OWNERS: Sir George William Kelley Roberts, Harbour Island, Bahamas, before him Edgar L. Rolle, Lowe Sound, Andros
NOTES: There are three mailboats in Bahamian History named after Sir George W. K. Roberts’ sons: The M/V Richard Campbell, the M/V Gary Roberts, and the M/V Noel Roberts.
Sir Roland Symonette’s son Craig recalls having to re-fit the GARY ROBERTS in Nassau thus:
“Yes I can well remember The Gary Roberts. When we dry-docked her she had a “hog” in her keel which required us to set the middle keel blocks almost 8 inches higher then at either end. Her shaft was 24 feet long and we had to break the muff coupling as well as the coupling at the clutch base as she changed hull shape so much. Upon launching we would have to wait approx 24 hours for her to take back her hull shape in order to realign her shafts.”
The following biography of Sir George W. K. Roberts was found at http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Roberts-10989: