After extensive research, very little is known specifically about the Little Harbor Launch. Research is ongoing to discover the vessel's identity and story. The Little Harbor Launch wreck provides historians and archaeologists the opportunity to study these once common vessels. The Little Harbor Launch represents a class of vessels that were once common on Wisconsin's waterways: the gasoline launch. These type of boats were used for fishing, hunters, light cargo, workers, and vacationers. On inland waterways they were the early tour boats of the Wisconsin Dells region and along the Door County Peninsula they were also used to transport fruit pickers to the various orchards.


These launches were the very first boat that was made widely available to the average American consumer. They could be built to a variety of sizes, for a variety of uses and could be fitted with multiple different engines. They could be powered by gasoline engines like the Little Harbor Launch, steam engines, diesel engines, naphtha engines and even electric engines. These vessels could be built to whatever specification the consumer desired. Steam engines became reliable, efficient and economical for use in small boats. As steam engines were used more and more, regulation increased. In 1878 the US Treasury Department recommended licensed for engineers and pilot of all steam launches in the United States. This restriction and the cost of licensing spurred innovation of alternative power sources for marine engines. This included Naphtha engines, Naphtha is a flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixture that was brought to boiling in an enclosed boiler like a steam engine. Launches like the Little Harbor Launch were constructed and used between 1890 and 1930.



The wreckage of the Little Harbor Launch was first discovered in 2021 by a Wisconsin Coastal Management Bathymetric Survey of Green Bay.