Category: Boats & Launches

Admiralty fleet order 1443/36 laid down the purpose for which these boats were intended

1. 1. As the principal power boat in ‘Penelope’ and ‘Aurora’
   2. As barges where a larger boat cannot be carried
   3. To supplement the 45ft motor picket boats in certain capital ships

Note that the (upper) hull is clinker-built.

The 30ft Fast Motor Boat of HMS Diadem.

The 30ft Fast Motor Boat of HMS Diadem; HMS Duke of York in the background.

Vice Admiral’s barge from HMS Effingham, 17/04/1934.

Warspite’s Admirals barge, somewhere in the 1920s.

A motor launch of HMS Rodney.

Two motor launches aboard HMS Repulse.

LORD HALIFAX LEAVES FOR USA IN HMS KING GEORGE V TO TAKE UP HIS POST AS AMBASSADOR. JANUARY 1941. © IWM (A 2675)

(PROBABLY 45ft British Power Boat)

COMMANDER IN CHIEF HOME FLEET RELINQUISHES HIS POST. DECEMBER 1940, ON BOARD THE FLAGSHIP, HMS NELSON. ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET SIR CHARLES FORBES, RELINQUISHING HIS POST AS C IN C HOME FLEET TO TAKE UP COMMAND AS C IN C PLYMOUTH. ADMIRAL JOHN CRONYN TOVEY TOOK OVER FROM ADMIRAL FORBES. © IWM (A 2164)

HRH THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH IN MALTA. 26 NOVEMBER TO 2 DECEMBER 1952, MALTA. HRH THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH VISITED THE FRIGATE HMS MAGPIE DURING HIS VISIT TO MALTA. HE COMMANDED MAGPIE IN THE MEDITERRANEAN FROM SEPTEMBER 1950 TO OCTOBER 1951. © IWM (A 32419)

A 45ft (estimated) Fast Motor Picket Boat built by Thornycroft, scanned from Churchills Navy (Lavery, B., 2006).

(Note: largely resembles the 45 ft Fast Motor Boat & barge, but is twin screw. Early sketch? Need to find images to confirm existence.)