<^ - J^-*— '7* ^f-Z^^ THE MOTOR LAUNCH PATROL ^11 Acknowkdgments arc due to My //. L. Keiack, Editor of " The Yachting MonthlyT Messrs A. ^ C. Black, Ltd., the " Editor of The Graphic" and the Art Committee of the Imperial IVar Museum for their courteous permission to reprodiue certain pictures in their possession ; and to Mr H. L, Rciach for a similar permission to reprint part of " " The Hundred Minutes" J'hc Double Offensive" and " " On Patrol,'" which appeared in The Yachting Monthly." •f ^J^ '^^. .;•* Leaving Dover Harbour with altenrlant M.i,.b., to H.M.S. her VINDICTIVE commit glorious yiVo i/c- se at Oslend, May g, 1913. THE MOTOR LAUNCH PATROL BY GORDON S. MAXWELL LIEUT. R.N.V.R. WITH 20 MONOCHROME DRAWINGS BY DONALD MAXWELL LIEUT. R.N.V.R. ADMIRALTY OFFICIAL ARTIST FOREWORD BY VICE-ADMIRAL SIR ROGER KEYES K.C.B., C.M.G., C.V.O., D.S.O. LONDON AND TORONTO J. M. DENT AND SONS, LIMITED NEW YORK : E. P. BUTTON AND CO. All rights reserved. First published 1920. TKINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN HV NEILL AND CO., LTD., EUINUURCH TO ALL MY FELLOW OFFICERS AND MEN WHO SERVED ON H.M. MOTOR LAUNCH PATROL AND TO THE EVER-LIVING MEMORY OF THOSE WHO DIED THAT WE MIGHT CARRY ON FOREWORD By vice-admiral SIR ROGER KEYES The operations on the Belgian coast between March and November 191 8 gave the officers and men of the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the motor launches opportunities of winning distinction and honour. That these opportunities were seized is fully- borne out in the pages of the London Gazette, which record the daring self-sacrifice and devotion to duty displayed by these gallant seamen, and made a tale of glorious enterprise which will live in the history of our Service. At the Zeebrugge-Ostend raid the duty of making smoke-screens and laying smoke-floats was imposed on a large fleet of motor launches. Without the services of these little vessels for this duty, and for inshore work generally, an attack of this nature could hardly have been considered. The rescue of the crews of the blockships by the motor launches, which had been standing by under heavy fire of every calibre, was carried out viii The Motor Launch Patrol the in the gallant manner which distinguished work of the crews of the motor launches gener- of these ally throughout the action. The zest officers and men compels one's admiration, and their conduct in this operation confirms the opinion I expressed of them in my despatches on previous occasions. In The Motor Launch Patrol the author has dealt not only with the operations on the Belgian Coast, but with these boats generally in an enter- taining way, which, combined with the realistic make this book drawings that illustrate it, should Naval valuable historically not only to the Royal Volunteer Reserve, but also to a wider public the " New to whom the doings of this section of " Navy that came into being under war-time con- ditions should make a strong appeal. H\r\iiKyUx. CONTENTS PROLOGUE : THE BUILDING OF THE SHIPS BY HENRY R. SUTPHEN I I. SOUTHAMPTON : ON H.M.S. HERMIONE lO II. "pompey" . 19 III. THE TRADITION OF PORTSMOUTH 43 IV. ON PATROL .... 49 V. ETERNITY .... 80 VI. 'ell ...... 88 VII. THE HUNDRED MINUTES THE M.L.S AT ZEEBRUGGE 106 VIII, THE DOUBLE OFFENSIVE THE M.L.S AT OSTEND 129 IX. DUNKIRK ..... 150 X. THE GIMLET .... 185 XI. "DOVER guyed" 189 XII. THE M.L.S IN THE MEDITERRANEAN 207 XIII. TWO HOSPITALS 1. LE CHATEAU ANONYME AND THE LITTLE BLUE SISTER . 237 2. R.N, HOSPITAL AND THE MUTTON- FISTED MATLOE .... 245 ix The Motor Launch Patrol XIV. THE SILEN'T COAST 1. ON SHORE: THE BELGIAN COASTAST . 2. ON H.M.S. VINDICTIVE . 3. AT OSTEND . 4. ON THE MOLE 5. IN ZEEBRUGGE HARBOUR 6. THE LAND BATTERIES . XV. U-BOAT AVENUE " XVI. "THE SCROLL OF EMMEL XVII. THE FREEDOM OF THE SEIZE (C XVIII. SIC TRANSIT . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. H.M.S. Vindictive— Leaving Dover Har- bour, with attendant M.L.s, to commit her glorious felo de se at Ostend, May 9. 1918 Frontispiece 2. A Quebec Nocturne— M.L.s awaiting to . shipment England .To face page 3 3. Breaking Dawn— H.M.S. A^d'r;;«V/;i-, parent of the . ship M.L.s, at Southampton „ 14 4. A Century of Progress— M.L.s off H.M.S. Fisgard^ at Portsmouth .... „ 32 5. The Long Night „ 49 6. On Patrol— M.L.s a Suspect ; engaging a U-boat attacking a merchantman . „ 80 7. Zeebrugge, St George's Day, 191 8— H.M.S. K/wrt'/V//?/^ approaching the Mole through the M.L.s' smoke-screen . „ 113 8. Zeebrugge, April 1918— M.L.s rescuing the crews of the blockships in the mouth of the Bruges Canal „ 128 9. B.C. Patrol— Monitors bombarding the Bel- gian coast behind M.L.s" smoke-screen . „ 165 10. Mines—A German ashore M.L. mine ; ex- ploding a mine „ 172 II." Parlez-vous Anglais ?"—Semaphoring a French battleship in the Mediterranean „ 209 xii The Motor Launch Patrol 12. Off the Palestine Coast -M.L. 206 L.s oft'Sidon . To entering Tyre ; M face page 224 13. Boarding A Dutchman .... „ 241 " 14. Oft in Danger"— M.L. warning a sailing ship on the edge of a minefield . „ 256 15. "America has declared War"— jM.L.s on patrol off the Nevvarp Lightship getting the news by Morse from a pass- ing destroyer „ 273 16. Off the Tyne Country—The Pillar of Cloud Tlie Pillar of Fire by Day ; by Night „ 288 \^ THE MOTOR LAUNCH PATROL PROLOGUE THE BUILDING OF THE SHIPS By Henry R. Sutphen It was in February 191 5 that we had our initial negotiations with the British naval authorities. A well-known English shipbuilder and ordnance expert was in New York, presumably on secret business of the Admiralty, and I met him one afternoon at his hotel. Naturally, the menace of the German submarine warfare came into discussion we both that the was ; agreed danger a real one, and that steps should be taken to meet it. I suggested the use of a number of small speedy motor launches for use in attacking and destroying submarines. My idea was to have a mosquito fleet big enough thoroughly to patrol the waters of Great Britain, each of them carry- ing a quick-firing gun. I said that my pre- 2 The Motor Launch Patrol ference was for a type about 80 feet in length with a speed of some 19 knots. He asked how many units of this class we could build in a year, and I told him that I could guarantee fifty. He said he would think the matter over, and we parted. Well, I had to think things over myself, and pretty carefully, too. Our yard, in addition to its smaller work, had been turning out perhaps half a dozen boats a year of the general dimensions that would meet the requirements. Now, very possibly, I might be called upon to build, say, eight times that number, and many factors had to be taken into account. Needless to say, I had no idea at the time of the truly tremendous task that lay before me. As I looked at it there was just one answer to the problem, and that was complete standardisation. A few days later I had another interview, and was told that the British Government was ready to give us a contract for fifty vessels, the whole lot to be delivered in one year's time. Then arose the delicate question of how the job could be pushed through without embarrassing our own government, then maintaining its position of strict neutrality. Obviously, Canada offered a convenient field of operation, and we went up to Montreal to investigate. We met and talked A QUEBEC NOCTURNE. M.L.s awaiting shipment to England. The Building of the Ships 3 with several men in the shipbuilding line, but we could not seem to find any plant that would meet our requirements. Then we heard of a small repair yard at Quebec, and we went over to see it. It looked pretty rough and badly appointed, and the grey, sullen surface of the river, filled with drifting ice, presented a most forbidding spectacle. But the owners of the yard showed a willingness to co-operate in every assured us that the way ; moreover, they big spring tides would be of distinct advantage in the launching of the boats. And conditions in the labour market were satisfactory. The upshot of the business was that we took an option on the property, one more forward step. On April 9, 191 5, the contract for the fifty M.L.s— 75-footers—was signed, and we went to work so diligently that by the first of May the master, or pattern boat, was in the frame at the Elco shipbuilding yard at Bayonne, New Jersey. It seemed to us like a big undertaking, but the real business had not even started. The Lusitania sailed on her last voyage on May I, 191 5, and a week later her torpedoing by a German U-boat was reported. My English friend was sailing that same day from New York, and he intimated to me when he received the news that he intended to advise the Admiralty 4 The Motor Launch Patrol " " to increase the number of chasers if I thoucrht I could take a bigger order.