Surviving Fairmile boats provide a practical test of wooden-hull longevity. RML 497, a Fairmile B motor launch, remained extant after a 2009 refit and later acquisition by the National Museum of the Royal Navy. The example does not prove that every stored hull would survive without maintenance, but it challenges the assumption that wooden construction made such vessels inherently disposable. The preserved launch connects wartime mass production to museum evidence that can still be inspected. It also strengthens the preceding procurement argument by showing that the material choice itself did not impose an automatically brief service life.
Notable Point · 1:41:06-1:42:10
RML 497 and the longevity of wooden Fairmile hulls
The survival and museum acquisition of RML 497 provide tangible evidence that a properly maintained wooden Fairmile hull was not necessarily a short-lived wartime expedient.